Handholding and hugging may protect the heart from the adverse effects of stress, according to some research conducted at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, School of Medicine.
Having to speak in public about a recent stressful event normally raises blood pressure and drives up heart rate. In this research, however, some participants were encouraged to hug and hold hands with their significant other, prior to being asked to make their public statement, while participants in the control group simply sat quietly alone before receiving their instructions for telling their tales of woe. The results showed that the period of public complaining caused the blood pressure to climb radically in the control group, more than twice that of those who got a hug first. The heart rate of the control group increased by twice as much as that of those who received hugs.
Another study showed that receiving touch lowers stress hormones, but that hugs from loved ones are much more effective than hugs from friends.
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