Experts say hugs warm heart, cool stress levels

By Marilyn Elias
USA Today

Supermodel Tyra Banks, left, and Demaria Motley share a healthful hug. Advertiser library photo

A brief hug and 10 minutes of handholding with a romantic partner greatly reduce the harmful physical effects of stress, according to a study reported over the weekend at the American Psychosomatic Society meeting in Phoenix.

Loving contact before a tough day at work "could carry over and protect you throughout the day," says psychologist Karen Grewen of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

In the study, 100 adults with spouses or long-term partners were told to hold hands while viewing a pleasant 10-minute video, then asked to hug for 20 seconds. Another group of 85 rested quietly without their partners.

Then all participants spoke for a few minutes about a recent event that made them angry or stressed. Typically, asking people to revisit these scenes drives up heart rate and blood pressure. After the talk, 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.

This is the latest of many studies suggesting humans are "hard-wired" to thrive as social animals, says Tiffany Field of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami Medical School.