The Importance of Touch

The sense of touch can be one of the most heartfelt actions between people and animals. 

The ways in which we touch are varied and from the past year of 2020 many so-called usual touch activities have been removed. Shaking hands, hugs, kissing on the cheek for certain cultures, rubbing noses, touching foreheads. These have been replaced in many parts of the world with air hugs, high five from a distance, fist pumps, and elbow touching as a greeting. 

One area of touch that seems to have affected the majority of the population is not being able to hug, either family members, friends, or strangers for comfort or support. There are no words for hugs, they can be spontaneous and for many, it is the first line of communication. A hug can say hello or goodbye and no words need to be exchanged. So if touch is so incredible, what is it? Much of the world of touch happens without a single thought, it’s a feeling. 

We have seven layers of skin and each layer has a different function.

Let's simplify a little with the three main layers that most people know of, epidermis (top layer) makes new cells, gives skin its colour, and protects the body as part of the immune system. Next is the dermis (second layer) where sweat glands are, nerve endings which help to feel things, roots for each hair follicle, where the oil is made for keeping your skin soft. Last is subcutaneous fat (bottom layer) where the dermis attaches to muscles and bones, where blood vessels and nerve endings start then enlarge and go out to the rest of the body. This is where body temperature is controlled and the storing of fat. 

One of the most interesting areas of the sense of touch is that the skin must come in contact with something to trigger a sensation.  The sense of touch is so important to all humans for tactile feedback when we undertake a task. For example, threading a needle with cotton, tying a hook on a fishing line, or picking up a fork to eat.  

We have the ability to be aware of our surroundings through touch.

If you are typing on a keyboard you can feel the keys when you type. The chair or stool that you are sitting on, you know through the touch of your backside. If you are standing at the computer, it is through the touch of the soles of your feet that you know where you are. 

You will no doubt touch your face some 16 or more times in an hour. Do you tap your fingertips on the table, or do you tap your fingertips together? Do you rub your hands together, do you cross your legs and are you aware of the touch sensation between the back of one leg and the top surface of the other? 

How does touch affect food choices?

Touch of the food in the mouth cavity makes you swallow it or not. Flavor of food makes food pleasing. Sound of food cooking psychologically leads to hunger. Frying food, sound of the cooker makes you more hungry.

Every one of us receives tactile information about the world around us every second of the day. Right now, if you're sitting, your butt is being squished into your chair. Your fingertips are probably touching a mouse, or swiping the glass of your phone. All this information is so omnipresent, in fact, that the only way to make sense of it is to tune most of it out — you probably weren't paying attention to these sensations until you read those words.

You can’t turn off touch.

"You can't turn off touch. It never goes away," says David Linden, a neurobiologist at Johns Hopkins and author of the new book Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind.

 "The part of your brain that processes touch information has a map of your body surface. But this map is very highly distorted," Linden says.

"It over-represents areas that have lots of fine touch receptors (like the face, the lips, the tongue, and the fingers) and under-represents areas that don't have many receptors (like the small of your back, your chest, and your thighs)."

These receptors, he says, come in four varieties. "There's one receptor for sensing vibration, one for tiny amounts of slippage, one for stretching of the skin, and one that senses the finest kinds of textures. The last one, called a Merkel ending, is only in the parts of your body you use to feel something really finely — like your fingertips and lips."

Throughout the last few years with the pandemic on our minds constantly, touch became the enemy for many. We cannot live without touch and now is the time to find how it can be part of our lives once again. Many people are happy to hug again, hold hands and be close to people. It is an integral part of being a human being. For those who are still on the cautious side perhaps finding a way that works for you. Ask yourself how you want to bring touch back into your life? One of the many parts of being healthy is touch.

Health and Happiness

Karla Walter