When, in 1918, a Spanish pandemic swept through the world, wreaking havoc and taking a cruel harvest, Alaska was the area of the most significant mortality in the world. With one exception, in the area around Bristol Bay, the indigenous inhabitants of Egegak Bay, who belonged to the Iñupiak community, remained untouched by the disease and, despite recorded contact with the infected, did not show any symptoms.
To explain this phenomenon, the scientists, in retrospective studies, analyzed many criteria concerning, among other things, the lifestyle, diet, customs, and social contacts of the Egegak community.
To the great surprise and contrary to logic, it turned out that one clearly distinguishing criterion for Iñupiak people was their habit of cuddling warmly at every opportunity.
What were their habits? Imagine leaving the house, meeting a neighbour, and squeezing warmly to greet him, entering a shop, seeing someone from the neighbourhood, and extending your arms to snuggle up to him with a smile on your face, and so many times a day. This is what the Egak people did. By the way, it was in the Egak area that the custom of “Kunik” was first observed – the sweet showing of feelings by rubbing each other’s noses.
In 2014 Cohen S band, Janicki-Deverts D, Turner RB, Doyle WJ. Conducted research on the compound of frequent hugging and the human body’s response to viral infections of the upper airways. The results of the study are by Alaskan prehistoric applications.
It is 2020. For a long time now, we have been urged to wear masks and keep a social distance. The sight of another man with his face covered in a great unknown to the human body. As a result of the evolution of the history of our species, the sight of a face whose intentions we cannot read is treated by us as a potential threat. This activates stress hormones, triggers the reaction of the sympathetic nervous system, and activates the “roll or run away” mode in us. To make matters worse, limiting close contacts, including direct bodily ones, has a vast and inhibitory effect on the secretion of our love hormone, oxytocin.
– Love is a feeling. A feeling is a conscious perception of emotions.
– Emotions are physical experiences in our cells and tissues.
– Emotions are the body’s reaction to stimuli.
– Yes, what we call love is reflected in the level of neurobiological reactions.
– The product of these reactions is called oxytocin, which is released in the pituitary gland.
Paul J. Żak, referring to the term the love molecule, describes in his book how oxytocin plays an extraordinary role in our lives. We are talking about a mechanism called “heart resilience”, which is the ability to be flexible, positive: preparation, reaction, and adaptation to stressful situations, adversities, and traumatic events.
Heart resilience is a state of coherence – allowing access to what is fundamental to us at the moment.
It is precisely oxytocin that plays a vital role in the functioning of the Heart resilience mechanism, helping in the face of difficulties:
- Staying in the present time – instead of falling into despair
- Not blaming others
- Accepting neutral and observing negative emotions
- Seeking the support of loved ones in social contacts
- Feeling grateful and forgiving
Oxytocin also has many other functions.
- It stimulates the feeling of closeness and the need for positive social interactions.
- It supports anti-stress effects such as lowering blood pressure and cortisol levels.
- It raises the pain threshold and has an anti-anxiety effect.
- It also supports healing. Repeated exposure to oxytocin causes long-term effects, affecting the activity of other regulatory relay systems in our bodies.
But it does not stop there. It turns out that the increased amount of oxytocin in the human body directly affects the sense of well-being and reduces the need to reach for addictive substances, helps to abandon even an extreme addiction. This is shown by studies involving methamphetamine users, Nicholas A. Everest, Neuropsychopharmacology (2020).
Oxytocin is most effectively released through touch, heat, rubbing, and pressure. Further – activating the heart hormone – supports every day “tribal” activities such as dancing, singing, or playing instruments in a group. These are the same essential sensory stimuli that help close social interaction. Thanks to them, our organism goes into a relaxed mode of functioning – managed by the parasympathetic side of our nervous system.
Sitting in front of a screen drastically impoverishes true social interactions. Besides, there are principles of social distance, which is precisely what oxytocin hates. They are stressful; they evoke a sense of isolation and loneliness. This is a straightforward route to emotional and physical health problems.
So let us remember, at a time when many of us have limited close contact with others, everything that moves the skin at moderate pressure – hugging, holding hands, massage – stimulates the pressure receptors under the skin.
These receptors then send electrical signals to the vagus nerve, the super-fast highway of the nervous system, with its various branches reaching almost every organ of our body.
It is this neurological pathway that provides a direct connection to the brain stem where the pituitary gland producing oxytocin is located. With a central axis in the form of the vagus nerve, this system regulates breathing functions, blood pressure and heart rate, the activity of molecules responsible for inhibiting inflammation, and the secretion of stress hormones.
Take care of the level of love molecules in your body. The easiest way to release oxytocin is to cuddle for at least 20 seconds.
Go hug someone!!!