Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Hugs, the best stress busters!




Scientists have found that the simplest way you can protect yourself against stress and infection is by hugging a friend. Led by Sheldon Cohen, the researchers at a university, tested whether hugs act as a form of social support, protecting stressed people from getting
sick. They found that greater social support and more frequent hugs protected people from the increased susceptibility to infection associated with being stressed and resulted in less severe illness symptoms.Cohen and his team chose to study hugging as an example of social support because hugs are typically a marker of having a more intimate and close relationship with another person. “We know that people experiencing ongoing conflicts with others are less able to fight off cold viruses. We also know that people who report having social support are partly protected from the effects of stress on psychological states, such as depression and anxiety,“ Cohen said.
Studies were conducted on 404 healthy adults. The results showed that perceived social support reduced the risk of infection associated with experiencing conflicts. Hugs were responsible for one-third of the protective effect of social support. “This suggests that being hugged by a trusted person may act as an effective means of conveying support and that increasing the frequency of hugs might be an effective means of reducing the deleterious effects of stress,“ Cohen said.


Source: TOI


1 comment:

  1. Well, then I'm very little stress. I get lots of hugs all the time. Very interesting study.

    Have a fabulous day. ☺

    ReplyDelete