Massage and relaxation go together, but why?  What is it about an hour long massage session, even one focused on pain relief, which creates such a sense of well-being, calm and energy?  Why do we as human beings crave the touch of another?

We humans, it turns out, are made for touching. We are covered with skin, not a hard shell. In fact, each of us has roughly 18 square feet of skin embedded with five million nerve endings, each ready to be triggered by touch.

In the first few days of an embryo’s life, the cells that eventually become a fully formed baby divide into three layers.  One of those layers, the ectoderm, becomes the entire skin and nervous system.  The brain and skin come from the same layer, and they develop together, not only before birth, but well into the first year of life.

Whether in giving or receiving, touch is as essential to human survival as food.  Infants deprived of touch, even when they are getting adequate nutrition, will fail to thrive.  Elders isolated by loss of partners and friends become depressed not only because of the absence of social interaction, but also because of the simple loss of being touched.

Ongoing research by the Touch Research Institute continues to probe that massage is an important therapy for many conditions.  After a massage, levels of the stress hormone cortisol drop in saliva tests, examinations show an improvement in alertness and relaxation, depression scores decrease, and mental focus improves.

The exponential growth of the massage therapy industry is a testament to the value of safe, therapeutic touch.  Of course massage therapy can play an essential role in the healing of specific chronic or acute conditions, but it also serves as a powerful aide in improving the quality of life for adults.

Remember to savour touch the next time you’re laying on a massage table.  Your therapist is not only working out tight muscles, they are contacting your entire nervous system, communicating with you, calming you through pathways that were put in place before you were born.

Parts of article retrieved from:

Uhl, C (The Importance and Power of Physical Touch)  http://personal.psu.edu/cfu1/CUhlpersonalwebsite/essays/chrisuhl-the_power_of_touch.pdf

Ulrich, C (Spring/ Summer 2006 Body Sense Magazine) http://www.massagetherapy.com/articles/index.php/article_id/1123/The-Power-of-Touch