Getting in touch with some impressive health benefits

Phoebe Buffay, Friends’ spacey massage therapist, could turn a grown man to mush with her hands.

We all can harness — and benefit from — the power of touch. Whether skin is stroked tenderly, or a trigger point is pressed to release a knotted muscle, it arouses a network of neural chemicals and hormones that lower blood pressure, block pain, increase happiness and help fight the flu. Now research shows that touch even can turn sour to sweet: 10 minutes of caressing makes a person more generous and trusting. All those benefits come to the person being touched and to the person doing the touching.

How does this happen? Stroking the skin activates nerves that calm down the body’s stress response and stimulate the brain’s happy hormones. The more you’re stroked, the more your blood pressure is reduced, pain vanishes and pleasure takes its place. Touch also stimulates production of the hug hormone oxytocin. It reinforces parent-child bonds and spikes during intercourse and orgasm, bathing the body in feel-good sensations. To get in touch with touch:

Make a date. Research shows that couples who hold hands, massage each other and cuddle for 30

minutes at least four times a week flood their bodies with anti-stress hormones.

Express your love. A shared kiss and expressions of affection stimulate hormone transporting proteins that help boost mood.

Pet a pet. Don’t have a significant other? Snuggle with a pup. Time with a pet is great at calming and lowering elevated blood pressure.