Chalk one up for humans. In the battle between man and machine, it appears that man has an advantage. When it comes to healing, there’s power in the human touch.

A study out of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago showed that when training stroke survivors to walk again, they did much better when trained by a physical therapist than they did being trained by a robot. That’s right–walking speed doubled in patients who were assisted by humans compared to those who were assisted by a robotic device. Additionally, the time that patients were able to stand on one leg–a measure of progress–improved significantly only in the group treated by the physical therapist.

This is no surprise to me as I see the miraculous improvements every day in patients I treat with chiropractic care–the ultimate hands-on therapy. I see it in patients who’ve been on short and long-term drug therapy, as well as many who have already gone through surgeries. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes those treatments are valuable and necessary, but overall, there really is no substitute for the human touch.

And it’s not just seen with hands-on therapy, either; simply interacting with patients has healing benefits, as well. It’s one reason that chiropractic patients report better overall satisfaction rates than with the standard five-minute doctor-patient interactions found in most busy doctors offices (check this one out too)–something that medical clinics should be paying attention to.

This phenomenon may be due to psychological factors or there may actually be energetic exchanges that occur between living organic beings. I touch upon these ideas in my book, The Six Keys To Optimal Health. If you haven’t gotten a copy yet, I highly recommend it. We are uncovering a lot with regard to human health and healing, and we are finding that many of our old and outmoded ways are just not cutting the mustard any more.

So chalk one up for the humans. At least for now it seems that, when it comes to healing, you just can’t beat the human touch.