How does touch affect our mental and physical health? | DW Documentary

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Touch shapes us as humans. Indeed, touch is fundamental to what makes us social beings. Touch influences how we perceive stress and pain, who we trust and who we fear. How does this work? And what happens to us in the absence of touch?Gentle touch is vital for us humans. It creates the first contact with the world for newborns, giving us a sense of security and belonging. Touch influences our immune system, and on our feelings for our fellow human beings. Especially strong feelings, such as love or compassion, can be better conveyed through touch than through words, facial expressions or gestures.Given how important touch is, it’s no surprise that humans have a highly specialized system devoted exclusively to perceiving gentle touch stimuli. Why does the touch of a stranger feel so different to that of someone we are emotionally close to? What is happening in our brain – and what role does the brain play in all this?In an era of social distancing, touch research is becoming increasingly relevant. How does it affect us, and our relationships, when we are required to keep our distance? Researchers explore what role touch plays in our physical and emotional well-being, and what the consequences are when touch is missing.#documentary #dwdocumentary #touch ______DW Documentary gives you knowledge beyond the headlines. Watch top documentaries from German broadcasters and international production companies. Meet intriguing people, travel to distant lands, get a look behind the complexities of daily life and build a deeper understanding of current affairs and global events. Subscribe and explore the world around you with DW Documentary.Subscribe to: ⮞ DW Documentary (English): https://www.youtube.com/dwdocumentary ⮞ DW Documental (Spanish): https://www.youtube.com/dwdocumental ⮞ DW Documentary وثائقية دي دبليو (Arabic): https://www.youtube.com/dwdocarabia ⮞ DW Doku (German): https://www.youtube.com/dwdoku ⮞ DW Documentary हिन्दी (Hindi): https://www.youtube.com/dwdochindiFor more visit: http://www.dw.com/en/tv/docfilm/s-3610 Follow DW Documentary on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwdocumentary/ Follow DW Documental on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwdocumentalWe kindly ask viewers to read and stick to the DW netiquette policy on our channel: https://p.dw.com/p/MF1G

16 thoughts on “How does touch affect our mental and physical health? | DW Documentary

  1. I’m always intrigued and somewhat amused by how western cultures always seem to catch up on obvious beneficial life styles or traits decades or sometimes centuries behind other cultures. And even when they do they quickly confound very simple realities with science or commodify them. Like the people in New York who started selling hugs just a couple of years before covid hit. Selling hugs.🙄🙄

  2. This explains so much about westerners. As an African I have often been astonished by how miserable and aloof, even ftom one another, you seem to be. Finding out that some of you for so long thought touch unnecessary for babies, explains so much.

  3. This is true healing….touch, it’s important to take time to care for ourselves. Touch by literally touching our own skin with love to self soothe.

  4. I hate the scientists tortured monkeys to discover the obvious.Not everything in life needs to be proved by science for those born with common sense.

  5. Yet we start the lives of 1000s of babies a day with physical harm to the most sensitive part of their body (“circumcision”) when we should be cuddling them with skin-to-skin contact.

  6. LOL, “We humans are herd animals”. Sorry, she should speak for herself on that on, I’m not an animal, humans are completely different species of creation. Unpopular belief, but true.

  7. Touch is the energy of love that runs through our body and not only touches the body but can touch the soul with the transmission ❤️🙏

  8. This makes me kind of wonder why i dislike physical touch so much. My parents were somewhat affectionate and my siblings and I are so close that we can literally hang out in piles in order to watch tv from a favorable view everyone else is fine with it, except for me though, i say nothing, i simply tolerate it. I HATE being touched in almost all circumstances. I only ever tolerate it for the sake of others. If i see a friend struggling for instance, and i know a hug might help them, i push through and offer that to them, or allow them to hug me if they gesture for it, despite me not actually caring for the feeling, but i do care to help people i care about. I tolerate hugs from parents cause i know they enjoy the interaction. I try not to come off as cold but i just can’t help it sometimes. I don’t even like hand shakes, shoulder pats, HATE massages. I also have some other particular tactile issues too tho.. Maybe it all stems from the same place. I found out much later in life that one of my brothers was pretty much the same way, he just never expressed his feelings either. I dunno if this is simply a symptom of some other issue or what. I just know that I tend to grit my teeth towards any kind of physical touch while everyone else just seems fine by it and even feel joy from it. The only time I have ever liked touch is when I am in a lot of pain or extremely ill my bf would rub my back and strangely it helped alleviate some of the suffering a bit, maybe cause it was detracting i dunno.

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