chemicals that make you fall in love!!

I read about this in column of a men’s magazine and now I want to share it with you. Are you familiar with the signs of falling in love? Flushed cheeks, sweaty palms, butterflies in your stomach, and your heartbeat racing at 60 BPM. But did you know that inside our bodies there are indeed chemical signs that we’ve been struck by Cupid’s arrow? Research says that falling in love has three stages, each involving a different set of chemicals.

Stage 1

ATTRACTION

When you fall in love you can’t think of anything else besides your object of affection. You even lose appetite and sleep less, preferring to spend hours at a time daydreaming and talking about her over and over again. In this stage, a group of neurotransmitters, called monoamines, play an important role:

·               Dopamine. This is the pleasure chemical in the brain, it function as a neurotransmitter that activates receptors. Dopamine is a neurohormone released by the hypothalamus. It’s also activated by cocaine and nicotine.

·               Norepinephrine. It is a stress hormone also known as adrenaline, it starts with sweating and gets our heart beating fast.

·               Serotonin. This is one of loves most important chemicals and one that may actually send as insane. It is believe that it play an important role in the regulation of the body temperature, mood, sleep, vomiting, sexuality, and appetite. Low level of this chemical will associate with several disorders, notably clinical depression, anxiety disorders. Now blame your serotonin for making you crazy in love with someone!

Stage 2

LUST

Lust this is driven by sex hormones testosterone and estrogen. Testosterone is secreted in the testes of males and the ovaries of the females, though small amounts are secreted in by the adrenaline glands. Although the majority of the time testosterone is associated with men it is not actually confined only to men. It is also been shown that it play a major role in the sex drive of women.

Stage 3

ATTACHMENT

People can’t stay in the attraction stage forever, otherwise they’d never get the work done! This is the next step after the attraction stage, if the relationship is going to last. Attachment is the longer-lasting assurance and is the bond that keeps couples together. There are two hormones release by the nervous system that play an important role in this stage.

·               Oxytocin. It is a mammalian hormone that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. This is released by the hypothalamus gland during childbirth and also helps the breast express milk. This gives a strong bond between mother and child. It is also released by both sexes during orgasm and it is thought that it promotes bonding when adults are intimate. The theory goes that the more sex a couple has, the deeper their bond becomes.

·               Vasopressin. Also known as argipressin or antidiuretic hormone (ADH), it is a human hormone that is mainly released when the body is low on water. It is another important chemical in a long-term commitment stage. It’s an important controller of the kidney but its role in a long-term relationships has been noted in experiments as somehow linked with a couple’s bond towards monogamy.