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Healing touch
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Tuesday, September 30, 2008 l Section B
Touch
may have
healing
properties
D
Sharon Jayson
USA Today
A new study from researchers in
Utah finds that a warm touch —
the non-sexual, supportive kind —
tempers stress and blood pressure, adding to a growing body of
research on how emotions affect
health.
The study of 34 young married couples ages 20 to 39 conducted by researchers at Brigham
Young University in Provo and
the University of Utah in Salt
Lake City found that massage
and other supportive and caring touch lower stress hormones
and blood pressure, particularly
among men, while also enhancing oxytocin, a hormone thought
to calm and counter stress. The
findings will be published in
the Oct. 14 issue of the journal
Psychosomatic Medicine.
Brigham Young psychology professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad says
the study aimed to learn whether
increasing the level of supportive
physical contact would improve
health-related physical outcomes.
Twenty couples, all married at
least six months, participated
in a four-week intervention that
promoted emotional and physical closeness. They were brought
into the lab for training and testing, but the bulk of their actions
were at home, including a 30minute massage (neck, shoulder
or forehead) three times a week.
Participants wore portable blood
pressure monitors for 24 hours
to supply a number of readings.
They also completed questionnaires about how often they
hugged, kissed, held hands or
were otherwise affectionate. The
14-couple control group underwent
testing but not the intervention.
“While a fair amount has been
done on massage’s effects on anxiety and depression and seems to
have a positive impact, we don’t
know that much about specific
biological factors,” says Gail Ironson, a physician and professor of
psychology and psychiatry at the
University of Miami in Coral
Gables.
Behavioral neurobiologist C. Sue
Carter of the University of Illinois
at Chicago says taking the study
out of the laboratory is novel because such settings may increase
stress.
“The nice thing about this study is
that it lets people live in their own
world and see effects of their own
social interactions without the complexities” of being in a lab, she says.
Generalizing results to older couples will require further research,
researchers say. Because medications affect these hormones, HoltLunstad says finding participants
not on medication resulted in a
young pool.
“If it can help couples who are
already young and healthy, it may
have a greater effect among older
couples or couples with health problems,” she says.
Pensacola native
Brooke Parkhurst
serves up first
recipe-packed novel
Want to go?
“Belle in the Big Apple” author Brooke
Parkhurst will come home to Pensacola
for a book reading and signing from 3
to
6 p.m. Wednesday at Artesana Imports,
242 W. Garden St.
“Belle” retails for $22 and is available
at www.brookeparkhurst.com, Barnes
& Noble and Books-A-Million book
stores and at online retailers such as
Amazon.com.
Books will be available for purchase
at the signing.
Celebrities
Local breast cancer survivor to appear on ‘Oprah’ today
The Boss set to play Super Bowl halftime
Another Super Bowl, another
rock ’n’ roll superstar at halftime.
Bruce Springsteen and the E
Street Band will perform at the
2009 Super Bowl halftime show
in Tampa, the NFL and NBC
announced Sunday night.
Continuing a run of major
talent that has lately included
the Rolling Stones, U2, Paul
McCartney, Prince and
Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers, the
biggest television
event in the nation will
showcase one of its
most beloved rock ’n’
roll artists. The Super
Bowl will be
played Feb. 1
at Raymond
James
Stadium.
Rebecca Ross l rross@pnj.com
on’t let the blonde hair and
sweet smile fool you. This is
one Southern belle with bite.
Pensacola native-turnedNew York author and TV culinary
personality Brooke Parkhurst
combines good eats with a small
town girl’s big-city adventures in
her recently released, recipe-packed
novel, “Belle in the Big Apple.”
The ever-busy Parkhurst, who will
be in Pensacola on Wednesday for a
book signing, took a few minutes to talk
about the book and being a true “Belle.”
Q: How would you describe your
book?
A: “Belle in the Big Apple” is the story of
a small town Southern girl moving to New
York City. It’s an inspirational — hopefully
inspirational — tale about following your
dreams. And, once you’ve followed them,
you have to have the guts to see them
through to the very end. Persistence is
the name of the game!
Q: How are you different than Belle?
A: I’m not quite as naive as Belle. Also,
in the book, Belle’s grandfather helps her
land her first job in New York. I have been
responsible for every job that I’ve landed
— in New York and elsewhere.
Q: How do you feel about the chicklit label that seems to get slapped on
books by young, female authors?
A: If you’re a female writer and you
and your protagonist are under 30, you
better be prepared for the chick-lit label
(because the media and the general
public love labels). I say, embrace it.
Anyway, the term is so often used, I
don’t find it demeaning; I just look at it as
another category at the library or at the
local Barnes & Noble.
Q: In what ways were you the
stereotypical “Southern girl in the big
city” when you moved to New York?
A: I definitely had dreams of the Great
White Way (and I’m not talking
about Broadway). I saw New York
as the ultimate city of opportunity
and reinvention. I thought everything
would fall into place — opportunities
just falling into my lap — because I had
a downtown lease, blonde hair and a
Southern accent. I never imagined all the
work, the lonely nights and the terrible
homesickness for a city that I had been
so eager to leave. I was definitely Dixie
Dorothy who saw Manhattan as Oz.
Q: What were the assumptions people
made about you because you were
Southern?
A: Because of the blonde hair, accent
(“funny way a’ talkin,” as Truman Capote
said) and “brightly colored” outfits, I
definitely stood out — and not necessarily
in a good way. People assumed that
I was less than intelligent. Of course,
I quickly realized that being UNDER
estimated is quite a blessing.
Q: What defines a “belle” for you?
A: Calm and grace under pressure
makes you a “belle.” I’ve always
considered my grandmother to be
the ultimate Southern lady. She has
incredible strength beneath the beauty
and charm.
The 2008 Super Bowl show
was watched by more than 148
million viewers in the U.S., the
NFL said in its release. It wasn’t
always that way: For years, the
game’s halftime show was made
up of local and college marching
bands and drill teams.
Chubby Checker in 1988
was the first popular musician
to perform at halftime, and
Michael Jackson upped the
ante in 1993. His sister
Janet provided the show’s
most infamous moment
with 2004’s “wardrobe
malfunction” — and the
show has stuck with
straight ahead rock
acts ever since.
Associated Press
When you tune into
The mom of two,
the Oprah Winfrey show
was diagnosed
on breast cancer today,
with breast cancer
be sure to stick around
in 2002, and has
to hear breast cancer
been a strong
survivor, Charnette
voice speaking out
Messe’s story. A Pace
to women with the
Messe
resident, she will join
powerful message
recently diagnosed
that no one is too
actress Christina
young or too old for breast
Applegate and Nancy
cancer.
Brinker, founder of the
She will appear on the show
Susan G. Komen for the via Skype, Internet software.
Cure, to talk about the
The show airs at 4 p.m. on
disease and its impact on Fox, 10, WALA. Through her
women. Messe, 38, appeared
platform, “Beautiful in Pink,”
on “Oprah” six years ago, and
each year, Messe conducts a
will be updating her story.
program to spread the word
Kate S. Peabody/kpeabody@pnj.com
Birthdays
Contact us
Actress Angie
Dickinson is 77.
Singer Johnny
Mathis is 73. Actor
Barry Williams is
54. Actress Fran
Drescher is 51.
Montgomery Country singer
Marty Stuart is 50.
Actor Eric Stoltz is 47. Country
singer Eddie Montgomery
(Montgomery Gentry) is 45. Singer
Trey Anastasio is 44. Actress
Jenna Elfman is 37. Actress
Lacey Chabert is 26. Actor
Kieran Culkin is 26. Rapper
T-Pain is 24.
Features Editor
Teresa Zwierzchowski.. 208-9821
E-mail...............teresaz@pnj.com
Reporter
Kate Peabody . ............435-8579
E-mail.......... kpeabody@pnj.com
Assistant Features Editor
Kimberly Blair...............435-8512
E-mail..................kblair@pnj.com
Reporter
Rebecca Ross .............435-8608
E-mail.................. rross@pnj.com
Weekender/Food & Wine Editor
Julio Diaz......................435-8699
E-mail...................jdiaz@pnj.com
Designer
Heather Shije................470-4423
E-mail............... hsshije@pnj.com
Associated Press
1BCYAN1BMAGENTA1BYELLOW1BBLACK
to area women about cancer
awareness.
In March, she received the
“Local Hero” honors at the
2008 BMW Ultimate Drive, a
national program that donates
funds to breast cancer
research, at a local BWM
dealership in Pensacola.
Married to Tom Messe,
a naval doctor, Charnette,
founded the Dare to Dream
Dance Co., greeting card
company Charnette Messe
Embracing Life, and is set to
hold another Beautiful Pink
event in November.
TIME - 00:00
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