為什么牽手有助于減輕疼痛

減輕疼痛的方法可能就在你的手掌上。

New research suggests that physical touch, such as holding hands, could be helpful in reducing pain, most notably when it’s two people in a relationship, according to researchers from the University of Haifa in Israel, who presented their findings last week at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago.

以色列海法大學(university of haifa)的研究人員上周在芝加哥舉行的神經(jīng)科學學會(society for neuroscience)會議上公布了他們的研究結(jié)果，他們認為，身體接觸，如牽手，可能有助于減輕疼痛，尤其是當兩個人處于戀愛關(guān)系中時。

“We all know that hand-holding is important for social support, but here we show the brain mechanism for this effect,” Simone Shamay-Tsoory, a psychology professor at the University of Haifa told Medium. “We show for the first time that brain waves are synchronized during hand-holding, and this support is effective at pain reduction.”

海法大學的心理學教授西蒙沙邁佐里(simone shamay tsoory)對medium說：“我們都知道，握手對社交很重要，但這里我們展示了這種作用的大腦機制。”“我們首次證明，在握手的過程中，腦電波是同步的，這種支持在減輕疼痛方面是有效的。”

Shamay-Tsoory and her team have been conducting studies on the matter for years. First, in a study published in 2016 in the American Pain Society’s Journal of Pain, researchers compared the effect touch — from both loved ones and strangers — and empathy had on pain levels. They discovered that when loved ones held hands, pain levels were reduced. But when the empathy came from a stranger, it had no effect.

薩邁特蘇里和她的團隊多年來一直在進行這方面的研究。首先，在2016年發(fā)表在美國疼痛學會疼痛雜志上的一項研究中，研究人員比較了來自親人和陌生人的觸摸和移情對疼痛程度的影響。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)當親人牽手時，疼痛程度會降低。但當同理心來自一個陌生人時，它沒有效果。

Still, don’t expect to be hugging your pain away any time soon. Juulia Suvilehto, a researcher at the Linköping University in Sweden, who was not involved in the research, told Medium that she’s skeptical that a little hand hugging will do you any good — it’s probably correlational rather than causational.

不過，不要指望很快就能擁抱你的痛苦。Juulia Suvilehto是瑞典林雪平大學的一名研究人員，她沒有參與這項研究。她告訴媒體，她懷疑一個小小的擁抱是否對你有任何好處——這可能是相關(guān)的，而不是因果關(guān)系。

Plus, she notes, touch has been shown to lower the body’s response to stress, which theoretically could diminish pain as well.

另外，她還指出，觸摸可以降低身體對壓力的反應(yīng)，理論上也可以減輕疼痛。

One thing’s for sure, though, “hold your hand through it” has a new, scientific meaning.

不過，有一件事是肯定的，那就是“牽著你的手一起到老”有一個新的科學意義。