Holding Hands May Help Ease Pain
The proverb “love heals all wounds” may have some new scientific support.
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and Israel’s University of Haifa say they have found evidence that when a person holds hands with a partner in pain, the couple’s breathing, heart rate, and brainwaves will synchronize and will help ease the partner's pain.
The study also suggests that the more empathy a partner has for their significant other who is in pain, the more their brainwaves will sync, allowing more of the pain to ease.
The study’s lead author, Pavel Goldstein of the University of Colorado, Boulder says he got the idea to look into this concept after he discovered holding his wife’s hand as she delivered a baby eased her pain.
As we have developed many new ways to communicate in the modern world, physical interactions between people are becoming less common, Goldstein explains. This study, authors suggest, illustrates "the power and importance of human touch."
A growing body of research has explored the phenomenon of "interpersonal synchronization," in which people unconsciously begin to mirror the people they are with – their facial expressions and hand positions, for example. However, this is the first study that looks at brainwave synchronization in the context of pain.
