Human Touch Lower Stress, Boost Mood and Improves Physical Health

Touch literally changes us at the biological level, research shows.

A new study confirms that touch lowers stress, boosts mood, and even improves physical health.

Researchers from Ruhr University Bochum reviewed data from 137 studies and nearly 13,000 participants, finding that touch-based interventions like hugging, massage, or skin-to-skin contact consistently improved both psychological well-being and physical outcomes.

For newborns, practices like kangaroo care helped regulate stress hormones and even improved vital functions like respiration and liver performance. For adults, regular touch lowered anxiety, eased depression, and helped relieve physical pain.

Remarkably, these benefits were even more pronounced in individuals facing health challenges compared to healthy participants. While robot-assisted touch therapy provided some physical relief, it didn’t match the emotional comfort offered by human touch—especially when coming from familiar people or trained professionals.

The findings underscore the value of incorporating safe, consensual touch into both personal relationships and therapeutic settings. Whether it’s a simple hug from a friend or a massage from a professional, science now confirms: touch can heal.

Source: Packheiser, J. et al. (2024). A systematic review and multivariate meta-analysis of the physical and mental health benefits of touch interventions. Nature Human Behaviour.

Meanwhile, here's a personal write-up on the Human Touch and Its Health Benefits and My Weekly Whole Body Massage

A new wave of scientific research has confirmed what many people instinctively know: human touch is essential medicine for the body, mind, and soul. A 2025 study from the Social Brain Lab at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and Ruhr University Bochum found that touch, whether a warm hug, a massage, or even gentle skin contact, reduces stress levels, alleviates pain, and improves mood and physical health through repeated interactions that release oxytocin and lower cortisol, the body’s stress hormone.​

The Human Need for Connection

For someone who values both introspection and connection, the findings feel deeply resonant. Touch is the first sense to develop in humans, and even as adults, it remains one of our most direct means of communicating safety and care. During stressful times or when chronic pain becomes heavy, a simple touch can act as a bridge reminding us that even when life is fragile, connection endures.​

In my daily life balancing blogging, games of bridge and Mahjong, and managing chronic kidney disease, touch may seem like a small comfort, but science now confirms it is a physiological healing force. Gentle physical contact can calm the sympathetic nervous system and trigger reward pathways in the brain. That burst of oxytocin and dopamine can ease fatigue, help regulate blood pressure, and even enhance sleep quality.​

Touch, Mood, and Resilience

The meta-analysis published in Nature Human Behaviour found that intentional touch interventions significantly reduced anxiety, depression, and pain, with repeated touch showing stronger effects on overall health outcomes. For older adults or those managing chronic illness, the benefits were even greater consistent with evidence that oxytocin release improves resilience, mood regulation, and trust, all of which are critical for emotional well-being.​

This insight is particularly important for seniors and those living independently. When social contact becomes less frequent, touch deprivation can heighten loneliness and depressive symptoms. Yet, even simple gestures handshakes, hugs from family, gentle touch from a caregiver can serve as lifelines of physiological and emotional stability.​

A Final Personal Reflection

For someone who writes daily reflections and finds beauty in both art and science, there’s poetry in knowing that the chemistry of comfort is quantifiable. A hug or a massage becomes not just a symbol of affection but a biological reset button. The same oxytocin surge that lowers blood pressure also softens the inner dialogue quieting anxiety and renewing perspective.

This blog becomes a digital form of touch: words reaching through the screen to connect, to soothe, to remind readers that they are not alone. Touch, both tangible and emotional, teaches that healing often begins not in a hospital bed or a pill bottle, but in the warmth of human contact offered freely, received openly, and cherished deeply.

Touch, to me, is life made visible through connection and it remains one of the most accessible forms of care we can offer or receive, at any age.

My Food For Thought For Today:

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