Healthy Living

This past Mother’s Day, I found myself thinking of my children and our first experiences together. The bond begins when we first see, hear and hold our children closely. Although touch seems natural, it is not a luxury but a necessity.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the death rate for infants abandoned to orphanages was nearly 100%. They developed a profound depression with lack of appetite and wasting away, called marasmus. Although the infants were bathed and fed, they were not touched and touch was found to be as essential to sustaining life as food.

The University of Miami Touch Research Institute has conducted more than 100 studies on the positive effects of touch in the form of massage on many medical and health conditions in different age groups. Premature infants who were massaged gained 47% more weight, became more socially responsive and left the hospital six days sooner than infants who were held and not massaged or touched.
However, as a culture we have become increasingly fearful that touch will be misinterpreted and have in some cases removed touch from our work, school and healthcare environments. Some anthropologists have described America as a low touch and high aggression culture, and they believe these are directly related.
One contemporary philosopher put it this way: Infants won’t put up with not being touched – they waste away; as adults we have come to accept it.

Dr. Lewis Thomas, former president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, wrote that “touching is a real professional secret, an essential skill and the most effective act of doctors.” Yet most doctors touch patients only during diagnosis. As a nurse I remember that touch was part of good care, now there seems little time for it as the technological demands on caregivers become more pressing.

Aside from illness there are many life situations that create isolation and separation from caring touch. Once in a grocery store line I saw a young child reach and hold the arm of an elderly woman. When the father told the child to let go, the woman said “no please, I haven’t been touched by anyone in 10 years.”
We all share a common need for human contact. Creating regular and nurturing touch in our lives is essential for physical and emotional well-being, and regular touch has been shown to lengthen life and reduce illness. Touch is not only good medicine for the body but also for the mind, heart and soul. It is an expression of our deep connection as human beings.

Backus Hospital’s Center for Healthcare Integration (CHI) provides bedside comfort care therapies including Massage, Healing Touch, Reiki and Reflexology to hospitalized patients and also to outpatients receiving radiation therapy.

The sessions have helped to significantly reduce pain and anxiety and promote healing. One patient commented “I never thought I would look forward to my radiation treatments; now I do”. These therapy sessions as well as Acupuncture are also available to the public at the Backus CHI center.

Amy Dunion, a registered nurse and licensed massage therapist, is Coordinator of The William W. Backus Hospital’s Center for Healthcare Integration. This column should not replace advice or instruction from your personal physician. E-mail Dunion and all of the Healthy Living columnists at healthyliving@wwbh.org