and this was in today's news paper and made me think of TC
Hugs good for health, research suggests
WASHINGTON - A simple snuggle can help lower blood pressure and reduce stress, a new study suggests.
The researchers' theory is that a heartwarming pause and cuddle suppress stress hormones and release oxytocin, a human hormone that's associated with maternal love.
Thirty-eight couples participated in the study, which measured blood pressure, stress levels and oxytocin before and after they discussed a happy moment together, watched five minutes of a romantic film and shared a 20-second hug.
The result, according to an article in the latest issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, was lower levels of the stress hormones cortisol and norepinephrine and higher levels of oxytocin in both men and women. Those shifts all contribute to cardiac health.
Women were found to be more responsive to warm partner contact. Dr. Karen Grewen, a psychiatrist at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and lead researcher, said oxytocin and the female reproductive hormone estrogen were closely related, which may be why women were more responsive to the hormone than men were. Grewen and her fellow researchers theorized that beneficial hormonal shifts stimulated by mellow romance are a health benefit that a loving marriage confers. Conversely, the shifts may help explain why divorce is linked to increased mortality.
Then TC would seem to be in great shape. Especially if "virtual" ones count, and I sort of suspect they do, if not quite as much as the real deal. But TC's FReeper ladies easily make that up in volume.