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The Power Of Love Hugs And Cuddles Have Long-term Effects by willexyaho(m): 8:24pm On Sep 13, 2015 |
How often do you hug? Do you like to sit close and hold each
other’s hands? Recent research shows it’s good for your health.
Between loving partners, between parents and children, or even
between close friends, physical affection can help the brain, the
heart and other body systems you might never have imagined.
For centuries, artists have examined love through poetry, painting,
music and countless other arts. In the past few years, scientists
supported by NIH have begun to understand the chemistry and
biology of love.
At the center of how our bodies respond to love and affection is a
hormone called oxytocin. Most of our oxytocin is made in the area
of the brain called the hypothalamus. Some is released into our
bloodstream, but much of its effect is thought to reside in the
brain.
Oxytocin makes us feel good when we’re close to family and other
loved ones, including pets. It does this by acting through what
scientists call the dopamine reward system. Dopamine is a brain
chemical that plays a crucial part in how we perceive pleasure.
Many drugs of abuse act through this system. Problems with the
system can lead to serious depression and other mental illness.
Oxytocin does more than make us feel good. It lowers the levels
of stress hormones in the body, reducing blood pressure,
improving mood, increasing tolerance for pain and perhaps even
speeding how fast wounds heal. It also seems to play an
important role in our relationships. It’s been linked, for example,
to how much we trust others.
Dr. Kathleen C. Light of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill studies oxytocin in married couples and those permanently
living together. She and her colleagues invite couples into the
laboratory and ask them to spend at least 10 minutes holding
hands and talking together about a happy memory, usually about
how they met and fell in love.
“What we’re trying to do in a lab situation,” Light explains, “is
recreate some of the experiences in real life where they felt close.”
The couples then get their blood drawn and fill out a questionnaire
about the quality of their relationship. When the researchers
compared their responses to the levels of oxytocin in their blood,
they found that people who have a more positive relationship with
their partner have higher levels of oxytocin.
Light and her colleagues are now trying to understand how
conflict and other factors in relationships affect a couple’s
oxytocin levels. The results of those studies aren’t yet in.
One thing researchers can say with certainty is that physical
contact affects oxytocin levels. Light says that the people who get
lots of hugs and other warm contact at home tend to have the
highest levels of oxytocin in the laboratory. She believes that
frequent warm contact may somehow prime the oxytocin system
and make it quicker to turn on whenever there’s warm contact,
even in a laboratory.
The same holds true for mothers and infants: they both produce
higher levels of oxytocin when they have lots of warm contact with
each other. “Those women who hold their babies more at home
have higher responses when they hold their baby in the lab,” Light
says.
Much of what we know about oxytocin has come from research in
animals. Mother rats, for instance, can stimulate oxytocin in their
pups by licking and grooming them. This loving care has long-
term effects.
When researchers separate pups from their mothers for 10-15
minutes a day and then reunite them, many mothers are so glad to
see their pups that they lick and groom them intensively. If the
separation lasts for several hours, however, it can have the
opposite effect; the mother won’t lick and groom her pups. Some
mothers just never lick and groom their pups when they come
back.
Pups that are groomed a lot when they’re reunited with their
mothers become more comfortable exploring new environments.
The ignored ones develop more anxiety disorders, produce higher
levels of stress hormones and have higher blood pressure.
Research from other animals, including monkeys, confirms that the
quality of care a mother gives her offspring can have long-term
effects on their personality characteristics and mental health as
well as physical problems like heart disease.
Animal research is also shedding light on oxytocin’s role in other
social bonds. Mice that lack oxytocin can’t recognize other mice,
even after repeated encounters. When they’re given oxytocin,
however, they can recognize other mice again.
Dr. C. Sue Carter, co-director of the Brain Body Center at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, has been studying oxytocin in
prairie voles, which form strong bonds with their mates. When the
researchers block oxytocin, the voles don’t form such bonds.
Oxytocin is especially important for females to form bonds with
their mates. In males, a related hormone called vasopressin also
plays a role.
Oxytocin and vasopressin aren’t miracle compounds, however.
Giving these hormones to other animals—even other types of voles
that don’t normally form social bonds—doesn’t suddenly cause
them to form loving bonds. Animals must have the proper genes to
respond to these hormones in the first place.
“Most of us are genetically programmed to form social bonds,”
Carter explains, relating the results back to people. But the ability
to form close bonds, she says, is shaped by early experiences. In
the end, a complex interaction of genes and experience makes
some people form social bonds more easily than others.
We may not yet fully understand how love and affection develop
between people—or how love affects our health—but research is
giving us some guidance. Give those you love all the affection you
can. It can’t hurt, and it may bring a bounty of health benefits. http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2007/February/docs/01features_01.htm 1 Like
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Re: The Power Of Love Hugs And Cuddles Have Long-term Effects by AlienStar: 8:27pm On Sep 13, 2015 |
Ok |
Re: The Power Of Love Hugs And Cuddles Have Long-term Effects by willexyaho(m): 8:27pm On Sep 13, 2015 |
sweet!
|
Re: The Power Of Love Hugs And Cuddles Have Long-term Effects by Cutehector(m): 8:28pm On Sep 13, 2015 |
Cuddling yea, its cool.... |
Re: The Power Of Love Hugs And Cuddles Have Long-term Effects by lekjons(m): 8:29pm On Sep 13, 2015 |
notin person no go hear!
everything helps ur brain(kissing, lickin' a**, receiving a bj)
watching boobs/asses gives u extra life(abi na longlife)..
u be mario/sonic? 1 Like |
Re: The Power Of Love Hugs And Cuddles Have Long-term Effects by dharay99: 8:38pm On Sep 13, 2015 |
wanted to read ds, buh its daaaaymn too lonq. |
Re: The Power Of Love Hugs And Cuddles Have Long-term Effects by FruityLass: 8:41pm On Sep 13, 2015 |
Too long.... But I love cuddling so much in hyperborean weather |
Re: The Power Of Love Hugs And Cuddles Have Long-term Effects by willexyaho(m): 8:44pm On Sep 13, 2015 |
read on is very interesting. |
Re: The Power Of Love Hugs And Cuddles Have Long-term Effects by Basildvalour(m): 8:45pm On Sep 13, 2015 |
Long Cuddling? If cuddling begins to make people richer then, I'll cuddle all day long |
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