A touching tale in our time of knead

Registered massage therapist and health coach Patricia Milburn shared a touching story with me this week.

Medical research, Milburn says, tells us that touch is the first sense to form in human life, at around 8 weeks of gestation.

Sensory receptors develop in the face, lips and nose, then in the rest of the body over the next several months. By 12 weeks, touch receptors develop on the palms and soles, and at 17 weeks on the abdomen.

By the third trimester, baby can sense heat, cold, pressure and pain.

Milburn cites Dr. Tiffany Field (PhD), professor in the departments of Pediatrics, Psychology and Psychiatry at the Miami School of Medicine, as an expert in the field of touch.

Dr. Field discovered after giving birth to her premature daughter that when she massaged her baby, the infant began to gain weight, sleep better, and her motor skills improved. The change was so profound that she began a research study on the positive effects of massage therapy on premature babies.

The outcome of the study showed that massaged premies gained on average 30-40% weight compared to babies that didn’t receive massage.

Johnson & Johnson (famous for its baby powder and many other products) gave Dr. Field a grant, with which she created the Touch Research Institute (TRI) at the Miami School of Medicine.

She has conducted hundreds of research papers on the many benefits of massage in autism, ADHD, anorexia and many more disorders.

In the mid 1990s, Romania had many orphans deprived of touch due to a lack of caregivers. Dr. Field travelled to Romania to see the children. Many of the babies, deprived of human contact even as they received water, food and shelter, failed to thrive.

Dr. Field found that the children who survived walked around like they had severe autism, with lower than average heights and weights and very low scores on cognitive testing.

Quoted in Massage Magazine by Karen Menehan, Dr. Field noted, “If people say massage works because it makes you feel good, excuse me! Massage works because it changes your whole physiology.”

In the sad case of the Romania orphan crisis, we can see that touch isn’t just nice; it’s necessary for a healthy life. During COVID-19, we have practised due diligence by social distancing and avoiding handshakes, hugs and kisses. People don’t even look at each other and want to keep maximum distance from others.

That may help us avoid contracting a virus, but at what cost? Touch is an integral part of our very being. In one of the Dr. Fields’ studies, she found that massage increases natural killer cells, which are the front line of the immune system. They will kill viral cells, bacterial and cancer cells.

Massage reduces cortisol levels. The stress hormone cortisol kills natural killer cells. So in reducing stress hormones, we can save natural killer cells. We need touch, especially during periods of stress and anxiety, and particularly among our elderly population, many of whom are alone and isolated.

The neglected orphans in Romania learned that when they cried, nobody came to soothe or comfort them, so they stopped crying and just gave up hope. Dr. Field noted, “they were expressionless and didn’t make any eye contact with anyone.”

Could this happen to us?

“The glass half-full tells me that there are ways that we can still connect while abiding by our distancing responsibilities,” says Milburn. “We can spend more time hugging and connecting with the people with whom we are isolating.

“People who have pets can find great comfort snuggling with a fur baby. We can reach out to friends and family through social media, phone calls and email. We can wave, smile and make eye contact with fellow humans around us.”

Now, as pandemic restrictions are lifted, we can even make appointments with professional massage experts. After all, no one should ever lose touch :)