In a recent issue we ran a story on the book titled “The Rabbit Effect.”
The article covered an accidental discovery of how regular affection given to some lab rabbits, influenced their longer lives over other rabbits in the same labs who had no such regular attention.
Well, the evidence is mounting in favour of the idea.
All of us can probably agree that sometimes there’s nothing like a hug when you’re feeling blue.
A retirement home in New York decided to take this idea to a systematic level and implement a program called “Embraceable You.” It was a push for more contact between the older residents and staff members so as to improve the residents’ well-being.
As it turned out, the residents who received three or more hugs per day felt less depressed, had more energy, could concentrate easier and slept better.
Hugs might even lower heart rates and blood pressure.
The University of North Carolina conducted a study with 59 women and found some interesting results. After a short series of questions and general chatting about their partner, some women ended each session with a 20-second hug. The women who received a hug from their partners had lower blood pressure and heart rates during stressful sections of testing. The researchers think that oxytocin (that we mentioned earlier) might be the cause for their better heart health.
So the next time you’re going in for a handshake, try a hug and see how you feel afterward!
More information at the link below:
https://www.sclhealth.org/blog/2019/07/the-power-of-hugs-and-how-they-affect-our-daily-health/
