According to the common phrase, a person for normal life requires at least eight hugs per day. We checked whether hugs can really bring a noticeable benefit to health.

“We need four hugs a day to survive. We need eight hugs a day to maintain life. We need 12 hugs per day for growth " - the media regularly Quote This phrase of the American psychotherapist Virginia Satir. ABOUT Benefits They write hugs regularly: supposedly they are necessary for happiness And health.

Virginia Satir is one of the first family therapists, her called Mother of systemic family therapy. She Offered The method by which emotional ties are restored between family members. Scientific Articles, and her name Name Institute of Family Therapy in Canada.

However, not only psychologists, but also doctors are talking about the beneficial influence of hugs on a person. Hugs reduce stress - this connection has been identified more than once research. During one of them, 404 people every day for two weeks talked about their conflicts, about the number of hugs per day, about the positive and negative emotions that they experienced. Summarizing the results, scientists See The connection between hugs and a good mood. Hugged participants noticed that they were feeling less negativity about the conflicts and troubles that happened during the day.

But a decrease in stress has not only a subjective, but also measured objective expression: for example, a decrease in the content of cortisol in the blood, stress hormone. IN experiment 2013 volunteers spoke everyone with their partner on the phone. But at the disposal of one group there was only a telephone, and the other also had a soft object in the form of a man that they hugged during a conversation. In the second group, after 15 minutes of conversation, cortisols in the blood and saliva decreased more noticeable than those who spoke with a loved one only on the phone.

Hugs have a beneficial effect on the heart. Scientists subjected 183 Volunteers stressed by public performance, but before that, the subjects for ten minutes held their beloved people, and then hugged with them. During stress, their pressure rose less, and the heartbeat accelerated weaker than that of the control group, whose participants did not experience affectionate touches.

On the effect of hugs, deep sensory pressure therapy is built. It is used when working with children with autism or attention deficit syndrome to reduce their anxiety. Experiments carried out And on adults: the pressure soothed them and reduced the excitement of the sympathetic nervous system. A weighted blanket is working on the same “embrace principle” - researchers Noticedthat it helps people with mental disorders from insomnia.

There is even data that hugs can reduce the risk of diseases. The subjects first two weeks reported on daily support, which is received from loved ones, including in the form of touch and hugs. Then they injected the nasal spray with viruses causing a cold, wasolated and watched the symptoms. Scientists Noticed The protective effect of hugs. Less people who received a lot of support, including tactile, were infected with a virus. And the infected symptoms were weaker than those who received little support from loved ones.

“The observed protective effect of hugs can be associated with the physical contact itself or that the hugs are a behavioral indicator of support and proximity. In any case, those who receive more hugs are somewhat protected from infections and symptoms associated with the disease, ” - Made Conclusion authors.

Moreover, support is useful not only for the one to whom it is provided, but also for the other side. At least this is said by the data experiment. It participated in it 20 pairs. The girl’s brain was scanned while her loved one was beaten by electric shock. Those participants who, during the procedure, held their man by the hand, observed less activity in an almond -shaped body that regulates anger and fear, and more in the areas of the brain responsible for remuneration and maternal behavior.

Touch influence for the development of the child. The “skin to the skin” contact has an analgesic effect on healthy newborn and contributes to weight gain, reducing the time of stay in the hospital and increasing the nervous reaction in premature babies. Touching the family is a guarantee that in the future children will be able to express their emotions more frequent.

Scientists Use The term Touch Deprivation is a lack of touch. Noticed The linear dependence between the lack of touch and a sense of loneliness, anxiety, an increase in stress, the likelihood of depression and secondary immunodefect disorders.

During the pandemic, when in many countries they began to introduce measures to rigid isolation, scientists have an additional opportunity to study the effects of lack of touch in real life. It turned out that the less people in the isolation had tactile contact with other people, the more often they complained on anxiety.

So science has not yet established the optimal number of hugs per day, but the scientists noticed the connection of tactile contact with a decrease in stress, a decrease in blood pressure and strengthening the immunity.