“Mind Over Medicine” - the role of cuddling in physical health

JohnR1972

Last night I watched the 18 minute video linked below. It is a TED Talk given by Lissa Rankin, MD. She is the author of a 2013 book entitled “Mind Over Medicine” in which she discusses her research into numerous, well documented cases of “spontaneous remission” from autoimmune diseases, diabetes, and even stage IV cancer.

I ordered her book after watching this video and I look forward to reading it as soon as I get it.

Her underlying message is the body is capable of healing (or destroying) itself under the right conditions via the mind / body connection. This is something I have personally experienced to a degree (it was nowhere near as dramatic as some of the cases she cites).

She talks about the factors involved in achieving and maintaining optimal physical health and those factors include mental health and caring relationships (along with diet, exercise, sleep, etc.). She never mentions cuddling directly but it is easy to see where cuddling meets some of the criteria she discusses and how it can play a role in maintaining optimal health.

This is NOT a blanket claim that cuddling alone is going to fix anything but for me, it has been, and continues to be, an important part of my journey.

I enjoyed this video immensely and thought some of you might enjoy it as well.

Thanks for sharing 💫

Bear

I believe positive physical touch is very healing and beneficial. Cuddling and massage. When I used to work six days a week years ago, I would get a massage every week. Then before I had both knees replaced, I would get a massage on my lower body to help me get through at the end of the week.

Regular human touch I believe it's just necessary in general. When I went to cuddle parties, reach to talk about half an hour cuddle tanks replenished. Similar to putting gas in a gas tank.

pmvines

It's a very dangerous claim to make that something like cuddling can cure medical diseases. Even mentioning it in the same breath as cancer and diabetes is extremely irresponsible. Thats no different than praying death away. Its cuddling , not snake oil people .

PeopleLikeUs

The alternative health police come out of the woodwork on these kind of posts.

JohnR1972

@pmvines
I repeat
“ This is NOT a blanket claim that cuddling alone is going to fix anything but for me, it has been, and continues to be, an important part of my journey.”

pmvines

@PeopleLikeUs cuddling is not medicine , alternative or not. Something can be amazing but also not fix your ailments. It can be both things simultaneously. It is however, not magic.

@JohnR1972 I hear you about it not being a blanket statement. I have good reason to stand by my statement, as I see people on here frequently try to sell and spin cuddling as being something it's not. Sometimes we go out of our ways to feel like we need to justify and legitimize something that we over promise and romanticize it into something its not. That's why people come here with actual mental and physical illnesses looking to be fixed and when those expectations arent met , it is crushing to them .

I realize you arent saying specifically that you believe in magic and the placebo effect of cuddling will cure you diabetes, or make decades of PTSD disappear, its.just that there are so many here who do say these things and that's scary to me, so when I see this kind of post it does illicit a certain reaction from me . If you felt attacked or misunderstood, then I apologize to you.

JohnR1972

@pmvines - thank you for your clarification. I did feel attacked in your initial post but I now understand where you are coming from and I genuinely appreciate your follow up post. Apology accepted 😊

pmvines

@JohnR1972 my bad . It's a heavily debated topic, that can def get heated at times. Nothing personal

PeopleLikeUs

@pmvines Thank you for clarifying what I actually stated.

pmvines

@PeopleLikeUs you're welcome and take care

PeopleLikeUs

@JohnR1972 I just Googled "can stress reduction cure disease" and your idea is in good medical company including Harvard, Stanford, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic... the list goes on over just that one factor. I can see where cuddling could play a role in curing diseases both mental and physical.

GreatHornedOwl

There are several stress related diseases (e.g. high blood pressure, ulcers, etc.) that can certainly benefit from anything that might reduce a persons stress level, including cuddling. That being said, I have diseases with real physical causes (from cancer to clogged arteries, to COVID-19) will benefit in the slightest.

I just did a search in PubMed, and didn't find anything that would suggest a link between stress reduction and cancer cures. For those who don't use it, PubMed is a searchable database of virtually all medically related, peer reviewed journals, world wide. It also allows you to read the abstracts, and either read or order (for a small fee) a copy of the full paper.

JohnR1972

@GreatHornedOwl - just to clarify, Dr. Rankin mentioned cancer in her TED Talk and she said she discusses it in her book about spontaneous remission. I am absolutely NOT saying that cuddling cures cancer.

GreatHornedOwl

@JohnR1972 - I know you didn't say that, and I didn't mean to suggest that you did. However, there are people who will read your post. and come away thinking that cuddling will cure cancer, or diabetes, or some other disease.

ScroogeMcducky

Nice

PeopleLikeUs

I finally watched the video. If you consider prevention a cure then yeah, cuddling reduces stress which could be considered a cure. It has been demonstrated that even in the case of hormonal or genetic cancer that those mechanisms must be triggered. Dr. Rankin is simply verbalizing those studies in layperson language. She's young and coming at medicine from an up-to-date perspective. She's got a refreshing approach.

lonelytauros

I do feel that physical touch and cuddling is essential in everyone’s lives. Some might say it’s a need. I just know how I feel personally and that is I’m very relaxed and very happy when cuddling and during the work week or extended periods of time without any sort of physical touch, I feel very bitter and depressed inside. Now whether or not that affects my health, I’m not sure I’m not a doctor, but I know that it can’t be good to feel that way for extended periods of time.

I also wanted to say there were a lot of good points made in this thread!

pty1999

Thanks for sharing. I completely agree that our physical and mental health correlate. We have neurons in our gut that create its own pathway to send and receive messages. Like a little brain in our gut. A good diet, exercise, healthy socialization and consensual physical touch are all essential to keep a healthy chemical balance.

pty1999

I believe mindful meditation and yoga are extremely beneficial as well to help regulate our sensory system. I believe it helps with our ability to process our emotions and improves sensory integration.

pty1999

@JohnR1972 I'm a Hoosier too. I grew up in Perry County, IN. I just moved to North Carolina a couple years ago.

pty1999

Cuddling isn't medicine. What cuddling does is activate neurotransmitters in the orbitofrontal cortex. That is the brain region associated with learning and decision-making as well as with emotional and social behaviors. It has also been known to regulate blood pressure and heart rates. A lot of studies have been done with infants and most hospitals have the mother hold their baby skin to skin right after birth for so many hours.

JohnR1972

Hi Pty1999,
Perry County… you were way down there 😊
Still good to talk to another Hoosier, even a former one, as there aren’t a lot of active CC members in Indiana.

I remember reading years ago about about some experiments conducted where baby chimps were put into a cage with wire frame “mothers” who were equipped to nurse the babies with warm milk but there was no physical contact with a real chimp. The infant chimps had their nutritional needs met but not their touch / emotional needs. The chimps did not thrive and they quickly developed severe behavioral issues. The article, as best I can recall, did not get into any of the brain science and instead just focused on the behavioral aspects of touch deprivation in young chimps.

I can absolutely see where skin to skin contact would be helpful for a child and mother in those early hours and days.

pty1999

@JohnR1972 yep, I was a river rat. I lived by the Ohio river right across from Hawesville KY.

That is a great example of a study done. Now we know when babies cry to be held it is a need not a want. It's biology, baby. The human body is pretty amazing.

pty1999

I have to say I have a lot of people who I have cuddled with have an increase in heart rate at the beginning of our cuddle session. It is not unusual for people to get a rush of adrenaline when embracing and cuddling, which is the reason behind the ever so popular topic on here of sexual arousal. The heart rate will eventually slow in regulation with the individual they are cuddling with.

PrettyLuv

This is actually a really pivotal topic. I think human contact is extremely important to healing. Now that I think about it, it should be a requirement in a hospital setting that every patient receive a hug or affection from a loved one of their choosing or someone assigned at least once a day while in the hospital or any care facility, like a medicine of its own.

There have been experiments on human babies dating back to the 13th century where newborns were deprived of touch outside of their basic needs and only touched with gloves when necessary to prevent human skin to skin contact. Some of these experiments were to see if the baby would grow up to behave differently but all these experiments were cut short because the babies were dying. One was in 1248 by King Frederick: https://www.digma.com/digma-images/video-scripts/fredericks_experiment.pdf

Another was done in 1944: https://faughnfamily.com/no-human-contact/

This is also true of those in hospitals and the elderly in nursing homes, particularly during covid when blanket isolation measures were imposed that separated family members from caring for their loved ones in the hospital setting. Not only did they lose direct contact with their health advocates or proxies, but they lost human-human contact from their loved ones while in a deeply fragile state, forced to get well in isolation. Like the babies in the 1944 experiment, those in isolation were only touched with gloves and only when absolutely necessary. Like the article, many of these patients and elderly passed away. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1244853

Just like lack of love for a long prolonged period of time may appear separate from the sudden onset of disease. Showering that person with instant love or even momentary casual touch may be an antidote and one of many vital components in ones ability to thrive and keep their spirits up to accept healing modalities, however they may come. Although short spurts of love and touch here & there may not be comparable to the length of time such love was missed, especially in broken environments where those expected to give love are themselves missing it, it’s still, like medicine, just as needed for one to maintain health and repair the damage of missing love and touch from the past. Sustained, persistent and regenerative love being the most fruitful of course in countering the prolonged lack therein.

Provided the above, it absolutely makes sense to me that one would and should use love and touch as part of their arsenal in their journey towards healing from any and all ailments. Treatment is necessary yes, but so is love and touch.

JohnR1972

@PrettyLuv - you explained that beautifully. I had not thought about broken environments and how those “expected to give love are themselves missing it.”

I know all people are different and some need touch more than others but I agree with your comments about it being a human necessity.

MrMarkAndrew

Anything that can help to reduce stress, whether cuddling, massage, Yoga, meditation, exercise, and so on, certainly has potential benefits to one’s physical and mental health.