The Health Benefits Of Love-Making

The feeling of being in love can not only have an effect on our brain, but it can also lead to changes in human physiology and behavior. According to scientists from around the world, each stage of love for another human may be driven by the release of different hormones. This cocktail of hormones released during each phase (Three phases include lust, attraction, and attachment) can influence the way that we think and behave and can have a positive effect on our well-being.

- Dr Arun Oommen

Lovers express their love and affection with greetings and gifts of flowers, chocolates, and jewellery among others. From songs and poems to novels and movies, romantic love is one of the most enduring subjects for artworks through the ages. Regular and proper love-making is a major factor contributing to the good health of the body as well as of the mind.

The complexity of love has much to do with how people experience it differently and how it can change over time. Falling in love causes our body to release a flood of feel-good chemicals that trigger specific physical reactions. Though we relate our heart to love, it actually centres in the brain that initiates and nurture love and controls other organs like the heart to fall in line to prepare the body for love-making. This internal elixir of love is responsible for making our cheeks flush, our palms sweat, and our hearts race. Levels of these substances, which include dopamine, adrenaline, and norepinephrine, increase when two people fall in love. Dopamine creates feelings of euphoria while adrenaline and norepinephrine are responsible for the pitter-patter or palpitations of the heart, restlessness, and overall preoccupation that go along with experiencing love. The phrase 'love is blind' is a valid notion because we tend to idealise our partner and see only things that we want to see in the early stages of the relationship. There are three phases of love, which include lust, attraction, and attachment. Lust is a hormone-driven phase where we experience desire. Blood flow to the pleasure centre of the brain happens during the attraction phase when we feel an overwhelming fixation with our partner. This behaviour fades during the attachment phase when the body develops a tolerance to pleasure stimulants. Endorphins and hormones vasopressin and oxytocin also flood the body at this point creating an overall sense of well-being and security that is conducive to a lasting relationship.