Touch is essential for life. This fact is evidenced by studies conducted in the early 1900s on mortality rates in orphanages. At the time, if a baby arrived in an orphanage during their first year of life, their chance of surviving was nearly zero. The studies found that the babies were receiving all the proper nutrition and medical attention, but that the institutions were understaffed, allowing the babies to be held and touched only enough to feed and change their diapers. The babies had sensory deprivation, and most of them died from it. Even the babies that survived past the first year of life had developmental issues both physical and mental. When the institutions began to add enough staffing to hold and touch the babies regularly, the mortality rates decreased dramatically, and so did the developmental issues. Physical touch was the deciding factor on the survival of those babies.

But we do not need to read studies like these to know that touch makes a difference. Just think of a time when a friend was hurting or sad, what did you do? You put your hand on their shoulder, or you gave them a hug, or you held their hand in yours and said, “I’m so sorry you are hurting.” You touched them. And they felt better. This is not a coincidence.

Our bodies, down to each an every cell, are designed to receive and respond to outside stimuli. Without it, we do not survive, or if we do, our survived state is diminished.

It is a complex combination of neural communications and hormones that are stimulated by touch, but it is clear – that combination leads to a state of being that encourages health and wellbeing. That’s why massage and other touch therapies work, and why people in every condition, healthy or not, want to be touched.

I cannot help but think that our lonely society, communicating more with technology than touch, has developed so many chronic illnesses because of sensory deprivation. It’s a sad thought…

Hug someone today, please, their life may depend on it!