In juggling a few possible topics for this week’s column, I ran a few by some of the people who work in our office. Amy, our front office manager, said, “Why don’t you write about why you and Dr. Tracy hug everybody after their adjustments.” It is a policy of ours that we hug every patient following an office visit, and joke that the adjustment won’t hold as well if the hug is skipped. We have also been known to go to the parking lot to get a hug from an attempted escapee. One of the keys to excellent results in our office is the very human interaction between us and our clientele. We integrate our clinical expertise with our very sincere commitment to keep interpersonal communication as an active part of our patients’ healing processes. Remember what it felt like when you had a very bad cold and your mom made chicken soup for you, rubbed your chest with Vick’s Vaporub, and tucked you in on the sofa with a warm blanket? If you weren’t so fortunate to have this feeling, it is never too late to find it. This is the feeling that we foster with our hugs.
Sometimes people think we’re crazy when we tell them about our hug policy. Often they don’t want to comply at first but become the very ones that will wait for their hugs before leaving the office toward the end of their care plans. What is it about a hug that transforms people? Even Letterman recognizes that hugs are important. He who is the most sarcastic of all hugs guests on his show.
Many of us remember the studies done with baby monkeys to prove the fact that babies will die if they aren’t touched and handled enough. In a world where sexual harassment and child abuse have everyone shying away from touching others, people are too often deprived of non-sexual, nurturing touch. It is indeed all right to enjoy a hug or pat on the back or touch on the arm or hand from another human. In fact, not receiving these touches can place one in jeopardy.
Not only do we gain emotional benefit from receiving nurturing touch from others, but we also benefit physically. According to The Touch Institute researchers, there are several immunological effects of touch and of touch deprivation. Touch deprivation causes stress-induced activation of the pituitary-adrenal system. This causes increased production of stress hormones like cortisol, which destroys or impairs immune system cells. Following human touch, this system of cellular destruction can be reversed. Natural killer cells are immune system cells that are important in killing virus-infected cells as well as cancer cells. The production of these natural killer cells is increased following skin stimulation, which hugging definitely offers as a by-product.
Both Dr. Tracy and I were active in the research program in school, and one of the school’s projects was to determine the effects of chiropractic care on those who are HIV-positive. One of the things we found was that these people were rarely touched by anyone without latex gloves so they didn’t receive the healing benefits of touch from others. We hugged these people as well as our regular patients and they received enormous benefit from being touched by us in more ways than just via our chiropractic adjustments. Their self-esteem improved, and their outlook on life in general got much better as a result of being treated like human beings rather than outcasts.
The more we hug and are hugged the better off we are. Sometimes our hugs are the only ones people get in the course of a day. We never know just how far-reaching our efforts are, and we encourage everyone to spread the power of human touch to others. Make it an effort to get at least a dozen good hugs in the course of every day. You will be surprised at how much better you will feel as a result of this simple step. Your days will become brighter, your immune system will work better, you will feel less depressed, and you will find that a little more humanity will emerge from the least likely of places. Just try it for a week. Let me know what happens. Treat your body and your spirit well.