Touching wood is not just for bringing good luck — it can also have the same calming effect as stroking an animal

TOUCHING wood is not just for bringing good luck — it can also have a calming effect, experts say.

Stroking a table or kitchen surface can have the same effect on our nerves as petting an animal, they say.

Professor Baroness Kathy Willis, from the University of Oxford, said: “If you stroke wood it is a bit like stroking a dog.

“It can lower your blood pressure, compared to stroking marble or steel, even if they’re all at the same temperature.

“If you ever go to a home store and you look at people looking at the kitchens, they always stroke the bench

"We subconsciously do it to see how it feels.”

She said much of it is down to the smell that can still be given off even decades after a tree is cut down.

Untreated planks and panels were said to bring the biggest benefits.

Speaking to the Instant Genius podcast, Prof Willis said: “They’ve shown that wood panelling in offices, school rooms and homes give out this smell.

“That scent carries on for many years after the wood is up there.

"People who worked on a test in a concrete room versus a test in a pine room had really quite a significant difference in scores.

“They suggested it could be to do with the scent.”

Numerous studies have found forest bathing — hanging out in parks and woodlands — can help banish stress and anxiety, lower blood pressure and blood sugar levels, and boost the immune system.