WHY is touch so important to us? And, in particular, what is known as therapeutic touch.

Touch in humans appears to be important to our emotional development and probably grew out of the need to groom each other in early times.

There are two types of touch that are important and these are picked up by different skin surfaces.

You might notice that the skin on the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet don’t have any hair on them. This is because the skin in these parts of the body is full of special receptors that enable us to distinguish things through touch, pressure, heat and help to protect us from danger.

The rest of the skin on our bodies is covered in fine hair and it is this skin that responds well to touch especially when it is delivered at a particular speed – as has been proved in recent research studies.

So how can therapeutic touch help us? One way is to have a massage.

Massage has been shown to:

• Relax mind and body

• Improve mood

• Relieve tension and pain in muscles

• Improve sleep.

So what happens when we are touched (such as during a massage)?

Research has shown that when we are touched our brain triggers the release of the feel-good hormones such as serotonin and oxytocin and reduces the levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

The release of oxytocin and serotonin help to improve our immune system by triggering the release of immunoglobulins. These help to boost our immune system and thereby improve our sense of wellbeing.

So why not book yourself a treatment and get to feel some of the benefits of it for yourself? Or, if you want, you can give yourself a kind of massage by applying a suitable body cream or oil to your body.

Lesley Pallett

Zenara Therapeutics