Hugging & or holding hands with someone you care about has been proven to reduce stress almost instantly

Reaching out and touching someone, and holding him tight—is a way of saying you care. Its effects are immediate: for both, the hugger and the person being hugged, feel good.

Touch is an important component of attachment as it creates bonds between two individuals and showing that you love and care

Hugging is being used even as an aid in treating some physical illnesses, following research that it leads to certain positive physiological changes. For example, touch stimulates nerve endings, thereby helping in relieving pain . It is thus not uncommon for a chronic pain patient to be prescribed "Therapeutic touch" which involves placing the hands on or just above the troubled area in the patient's body for half-an-hour. This pushes up the hemoglobin levels in the blood, increasing the delivery of blood to tissues,

Hugging and holding hands with a significant other can relax you and make you feel better. What a lot of people don’t know is that it can actually physically protect the health of your heart and your ability to combat stress.

Researchers at the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have been studying the effects of hugging on people’s level of stress. To test this, they had couples watch a “pleasant” movie for 10 minutes either holding hands or not holding hands. The couples holding hands also hugged their significant other after the movie.

The researchers then had them tell about a situation that stressed them out recently, measuring their heart rate and blood pressure. The results were interesting. People who didn’t hold hands or hug had higher blood pressure while describing the situation, and their heart rate increased.

People who did hug and hold hands had much lower blood pressure, about half as high a jump in systolic reading. They also had a lower increase of heart rate. Hugging helps reduce stress!