Ramblemuse Touch Points

I recently subscribed to a couple of Time.com RSS feeds on science and health. On the health side, In Perils of the Lonely Brain, Jeffrey Kluger writes about research on how feelings of isolation negatively effect executive function. In What We’ll be Dying From, Michael Lemonick notes a World Health Organization report on the top expected causes of death. Third in the list is depression. Both alleviating isolation and helping with depression are areas in which massage, as a form of human connection and sensory input, is effective. The impacts of massage on trait anxiety and depression are discussed in A Meta-Analysis of Massage Therapy Research.