It’s good for touch

A few days ago I published one of my most blatantly “anti-massage” posts in a long time. Of course, it wasn’t actually anti-massage, it was anti-pseudoscientific-boosterism. Nevertheless, I feel a need to balance that blast of curmudgeonry, and I found just the thing. Rey Allen (in a private Facebook discussion group):

Touch is our oldest form of language. It’s a social activity. It builds companionships and reinforces bonds, signals cooperation, elicits reciprocity, results in conflict resolution and reconciliation (with ourselves too), reduces sympathetic tone and modulates pain. It predates primates.

To not capitalize on it is like Americans complaining that bilinguals are stupid for not primarily speaking English.

When the alleged benefits of massage are challenged, the knee-jerk response from so many massage therapists is a rather petulant, “So what do you think massage is good for then?”

Touch! It’s good for touch.