What being in love can do

What being in love with us can do

02/14/2015

Today is the day of the lovers: Valentine's Day. Being in love is much more than romance. The physical effects can be enormous and it is not uncommon for heart palpitations, fast pulse and wet hands. The more intense the impact when love breaks.

Being in love is more than romance
Lovers usually have „butterflies in the stomach“. Overjoyed, doubtful, excited: Feelings change in no time. But why is it that in love lovers body and mind play crazy, the heart beats wildly, the pulse races, the hands are wet and you have hardly anything in mind but the partner and sheer „blind“ is in love? Being in love is definitely more than romance. In a message from the news agency dpa, a complex phenomenon is considered scientifically.

„Stress situation for the body“
The hormones play a special role. The emeritus professor of biopsychology at the Free University of Berlin, Peter Walschburger, speaks of „hormonal special conditions“. It's not just about sex hormones like estrogen or testosterone. As the cardiologist Dirk Sibbing from the German Heart Center in Munich explains to the agency, the increased secreted adrenaline stress hormone leads to typical heart racing. „Being in love is a biochemical stress situation for the body“, Ulrike Bauer from the Competence Network Congenital Heart Defects in Berlin.

After the first months of stormy love it gets quieter
In addition, the messenger substances known as happiness hormones dopamine and serotonin, which provide for well-being, are added. Walschburger explains that people who have food have a reduced serotonin level, which causes an emotional ups and downs: „With the beloved treasure in mind, the world is one pink. And once he has disappeared from sight, one falls into deep depression.“ When the couple, after the first months of stormy love in quieter areas, comes to the information, the binding hormone oxytocin, which promotes loyalty and makes the love lasting.

Love is similar to addiction
According to Walschburger, lovers are usually fixated on the woman or the man of their heart. This person is then often unrealistically elevated and he is given the entire attention. This situation could lead to other people or things being neglected. According to the report, scientists point out that in the body and in the brain of lovers, similar processes take place as in addicts. „We are in a similar state both in addiction and in love“, so Walschburger. „We become extremely dependent on a particular lucky object.“

Kissing strengthens the immune system and reduces stress
Being in love also involves kissing. According to scientists, it looks like one „energy syringe“. It not only helps to reduce stress, but it can also strengthen the immune system. The circulation and metabolism also gain momentum. In addition, eager kissers on the subject of wrinkles should have an advantage, since kissing many facial muscles are active. It is said that intensive kissing would even burn a few extra calories.

Lovesickness with physical effects
However, if the love breaks, sufferers suffer from lovesickness, which in addition to emotional distress, can also trigger physical symptoms. Thus, inner restlessness and musing may be responsible for sleep disorders, fatigue, exhaustion and difficulty concentrating. Also, effects on the stomach are often felt and sufferers suffer from nausea and abdominal pain. Basically, a separation can cause a lot of stress, doctors speak of „broken heart syndrome“ (Broken Heart Syndrome). The Berlin cardiologist Adrian C. Borges explains that this is a dysfunction of the heart muscle, a consequence of great emotional stress. Again, there is a biochemical process behind it: the excessive release of the stress hormone adrenaline. (Ad)