6
H E A L T H & W E L L N E SS
|
J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 5
HUGS and
HEALTH
What's in a hug?
Good friends or
good chemistry
Jill Daly,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PITTSBURGH (AP) — You' ll
get no argument from most
people — especially on a cold
winter' s night— that hugs
make you feel warm inside.
But can that good feeling
protect your health?
Over the past decade or so,
researchers have sought to
explain the positive effects
credited to the nonverbal
gesture of human connection.
It comes alongside research
that says chronic stress is
linked to shorter lifespans,
higher rates of heart disease
and diabetes, depression and
less effective immune systems.
The science takes two
points of view: Hugs as a
method of social support,
buffering the body from stress,
and hugs as a physiological
experience that lowers blood
pressure and levels of the
stress hormone, cortisol.
Noted psychologist Sheldon
Cohen of Carnegie Mellon
University has led new
research that reports people
who experience high levels of
social support and frequent
hugs were protected from a
higher risk of getting sick when
under stress. Published last
month in Psychological
Science, the 404 subjects in
the study — healthy people
who were exposed to flu and
cold viruses — were monitored
for 14 days for times of stress
with other people, number of
hugs and amount of viral
antibodies in their blood (a sign
of virus infection), and any mild
or severe symptoms of illness.
Since the mid-' 80s, research
by Cohen and others reported
on the ways a social network
can help a person cope with
life' s stressful events, includ-
ing interpersonal conflicts. By
1999, research found that
people who had stress from
conflict with other people and
were exposed to the common
cold virus had a higher risk of
being infected. The first part of
the latest CMU study was
begun in 2000.
“Our interest has been
historically in social support,”
said Cohen. “Our lab and
others have developed a lot of
evidence that in people who
have strong social support
networks, their network will
buffer them from the effects
of stress.”
“Less known is how that
happens; how social support is
conferred to people.” Generally,
the CMU psychologist
explained, the amount of social
support for a person has been
measured by asking people
what support they have, not in
what people do to show this
support. In the recent CMU
study, hugs were considered
markers of close interpersonal
relationships.
“In times of stress and
conflict, that’s when support
from people in your life is
important,” Cohen said. “It may
make less difference in other
times in your life.”
“Overall, other studies
about nonsexual touch (have
found) it can buffer acute
physiological markers of
stress,” he said. “We wondered
if it would work in the
real world.”
The journal article says
participants with low levels of
social support and more
frequent interpersonal tension
and conflict were found to have
a greater likelihood of being
infected after exposure to a
virus. Both social support and
hugs seemed to offset the
negative effect of tension and
conflict in being susceptible to
getting sick.
“If you have high levels of
conflict, you' re more likely to
get infected,” Cohen said, “but
you’re protected from that if
you have either high levels of
social support or high levels
of hugs.”
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