Love Hormones Can Make You Healthier

Love is something everyone wants; regardless on if they want to admit it. Why does everyone want love? How can it help you become healthier? Valid questions with scientific evidence to back the answers. Though the research on these questions have been asked over and over again, and studied all over the world for years the answer is still not definite. Yet we now have some light to shine in those dark corners.

Almost all of the current studies are on married couples. So for those who aren’t married: Holt-Lunstad and his colleagues found a strong connection to family, friends, colleagues or neighbors helps improve your survival odds by 50 percent! So don’t be dismayed by the findings of these other scientists just because they researched married couples. The facts still apply to you too.

Arthur Aron a social psychologist at Stony Brook University in New York’s findings:

-Love triggers the brain’s dopamine-reward system. Dopamine affects pleasure and motivation. Some other triggers for the release of dopamine is winning a lot of money or taking cocaine (not suggested).

-A study done on 17 people in January 2011 on two types of couples (group 1: couples married for about 21 years, group 2: couples who were newly in love) showed neural activation in the dopamine system. They found this information by doing brain scans to view the chemical change in the activity. The only difference between the two groups was the newly in love couples also lit up brain activity associated with anxiety, obsession, and tension. -Quote from Aron: “When you’ve just fallen in love and the person goes out of your sight for five minutes, you think, ‘Are they dead? Did they find someone else?’

Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh Findings:

-A study assessed on 334 healthy people ages 18-54 on their emotional styles showed positive results for happy people and negative results for unhappy people. The happy people were pleased, relaxed, and more resilient to the common cold. The unhappy people were anxious, hostile, and depressed. These results apply to anyone really whether in a relationship or you just have a positive attitude and life experience.

-Another study showed that women who were happily married had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those unhappily married or in high-stress relationships.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Findings:

-Whether it’s holding hands or just sharing a hug researchers have found that it releases the hormone oxytocin. This hormone decreases the stress hormones, helps reduce blood pressure, improves your mood, and increases your pain tolerance. In women oxytocin hormones also play a major part in labor, breast feeding. In both men and women it plays a big part in orgasms. For women daily hugs can be as affective as blood pressure medication. (Though you should not discontinue the use of you blood pressure medications unless advised by your doctor.)

There are a ton of studies out there. All of the ones that I have read prove in some way that if you are in a happy relationship you are going to be healthier in general. Being happy boosts your immune system which is out first defense against the dirty world we live in. If you are feeling depressed, lonely, or feeling sick find your closest friend and hangout with them more. We can not function without human contact of some kind. Personal connections are the only thing keeping us happy, and healthy. So go out and have some fun!!!

Sources: Magic Valley Times News (Edition on 2/14/11)

www.prevention.com

www.seattletimes.nwsource.com

The Washington Post

www.stuff.co.nz


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