Last weekend, I took my first trip visit home for the weekend to surprise my siblings and visit my family and friends that would be home for fall break. Upon first seeing all my loved ones I was greeted with a overwhelming slew of emotions and a record amount of bear hugs. Feeling great about being in the comfort of my own home, I began to think about how there is nothing like a hug from your parents, and how weird it was that I thought that. What is it about hugs that is so satisfying?

Dr. Tiffany Field, director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami in Florida, reports on the physical benefits of human contact in our lives. In the Bottom Lines Daily Health news, Dr. Fields research was clarified. Doctor Field explained to the news that the major benefit that comes from touch is the decrease in stress levels, controlled by a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is the hormone released when a person is under stress. Dr. Field states, “touching with moderate-pressure (a firm handshake) stimulates activity in the vagus nerve, one of the 12 cranial nerves in the brain, which in turn slows the heart and decreases the production of stress hormones including cortisol”. So, a likely reason I find hugs from my parents so comforting is because chemically, it lessens my stress level to a certain degree.

Looking into this research more I came across an experiment that tested the affect of hugs and human contact on couples. At the school of medicine in University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, a study was ran on adults with spouses or long-term partners. The scientists asked 100 adults to hold hands with there partner while watching a pleasant ten minute video, and then hug their partner for twenty seconds. Another group of 85 adults were asked to just sit and watch the pleasant video without their partner. After they watched the video the scientists asked the subjects to recount a time that made them angry or stressed. The recounting of these moments usually results in significant increase of blood pressure and heart rate. When both groups expressed their stressful story, the scientists found significant differences in blood pressure and heart rate between the two groups. They stated, “Blood pressure soared in the no-contact people. Their systolic (upper) reading jumped 24 points, more than double the rise for huggers, and their diastolic (lower) also rose significantly higher. Heart rate increased 10 beats a minute for those without contact compared with five beats a minute for huggers”(USA today).

This experiment is interesting because of the drastic difference between the two groups, but there are a few aspects that made me question the experiments accuracy. For example, when asking to recount a maddening story, it is possible that some people rather than others are more emotionally affected by the story. Meaning, some of the adults may not have reacted as strongly to something that angered them recently because they may have had time to come to terms with them. Also, some subjects could interpret “a recent time” as an occurrence that happened months ago, while others may recount something that might have happened hours before the experiment. The more recent the event, the more likely the subjects are to be physically affected by them. If the scientists were more specific about the time the subjects got frustrated the experiment could have had greater accuracy.

Although this flaw could have a great effect on the results of the experiment, I believe that the results that they gathered are so drastic and conclusive that it is hard to believe that the final hypothesis could be solely due to chance, but that cannot be guaranteed either. University of  North Carolina’s experiment and Tiffany Field’s research had similar hypothesis’ both expressing the significant benefits of hugging and human contact on ones mental health. Through the extensive experimentation acquired on this topic and the research I discussed previously I have come to the conclusion that, although my parents hugs are one of a kind, hugs in general should not be given sparingly as they provide significant benefits to ones mental health.

Work Cited:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/touching.makes.you.healthier.health/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/27/health-benefits-of-huggin_n_5008616.html

https://www6.miami.edu/touch-research/TRI%20Press/The%20Magic%20of%20Your%20Touch.pdf

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/cortisol

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-03-09-hug-usat_x.htm