We know that hugs make us feel easy inside. And this feeling, it turns out, could actually _ stress and protect r the immune   system, according to a new research from Carnegie Mellon University. It's a well-known fact that stress can weaken the immune system. In this study, the researchers sought to determine whether hugs----like social support more broadly ----could protect individuals from the increased sensitivity to illness brought on by the particular stress that come with interpersonal conflict. "We know that people experiencing ongoing conflicts with others are less able to fight off cold viruses. We also know that people who report having social support are partly protected from the effects of stress on psychological states, such as depression and anxiety, "the study's lead author, psychologist Dr. Sheldon Cohen , said in a statement. "We tested whether awareness of social support is equally effective in protecting us from sensitivity to infection caused by stress and also whether receiving hugs might partially account for those feeling of support and thus protect a person against infection." In the experiment , over 400 healthy adults filled out a questionnaire about their perceived   social support and also participated in a nightly phone interview for two weeks . They were asked the frequency they engaged in interpersonal conflicts and received bugs that day.[:++Z+X+X+K] Then, the researchers exposed the participants to a common cold virus, and monitored them to assess signs of infection. They found that both perceived social support and more frequent hugs reduced the risk of infection associated with experiencing interpersonal conflict. Regardless of whether or not they experienced social conflicts, infected participants with greater perceived social support and more frequent hugs had less severe illness symptoms. "This suggests that being hugged by a trusted person may act as an effective means of conveying support and that increasing the frequency of hugs might be an effective means of reducing the effects of stress," Cohen said. "The apparent protective effect of hugs may result from the physical contact itself or hugging being a behavioral indicator of support and closeness. Either way, those who receive more hugs are somewhat more protected from infection." If you need any more reason to go wrap your arms around someone special, consider this: hugs also lower blood pressure, reduce fearsome around death and dying, improve heart health and decrease feeling of loneliness. The passage aims to convey that   _  .
hugs can have protective effects social support can sure diseases interpersonal conflicts cause infections stress can weaken our immune system