skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Utah Parents Can Hug for Health

play audio
Play

Monday, July 16, 2012   

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - July 16 is Global Hug Your Kids Day, an observance started in 2008 by Michelle Nichols on the 10th anniversary of the death of her 8-year-old son. Mark died just 11 days after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Nichols doesn't want anyone faced with a similar loss to regret not hugging their child enough. With the promotional savvy earned as a former columnist for Businessweek, she points out this year - the movement's fifth - that hugs can be just what the doctor ordered, in terms of "affordable health care."

"Yes, we have big health care issues and we need to use other kinds of medicine as well, but hugs can be a part of a health routine that can help our economy and help families individually, as well."

Nichols says research suggests hugging can reduce a person's blood pressure, heart rate and tension level, as well as the body's level of cortisol, a stress hormone. It can also affect conditions from loneliness and depression to obesity and insomnia.

Claire Lerner, director of parenting resources at Zero To Three, a national group advocating for infants, toddlers and families, sees hugs as a natural part of the relationship between parent and child. She says it does have an effect on health.

"There is research that does show warm, supportive, nurturing physical touch affects a child's growing brain, which is obviously very significant, because the brain controls so much of a person's functioning."

Nichols believes hugging should even be part of the current health care debate.

"There's so much talk these days about the costs of health care and the delivery of health care, and yet, we wanted to look at a whole different, other aspect of health care, which is hugs. There are many health aspects, ways that it can improve the good things and decrease the bad things."

She says there's no medical billing code for a hug, so Global Hug Your Kids Day is a grassroots movement - one she predicts will be "an overnight sensation...in about 10 years."

More information is available at www.hugyourkidstoday.com.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Many factors affect a customer's bill amount, including energy usage, weather, and the number of days in a billing period, according to Arizona Public Service. (Jason Yoder/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021