Re: Massachusetts - we're back !!!!!
Molecule gives passionate lovers just one year
ROME (Reuters) - Your heartbeat accelerates, you have
butterflies in the stomach, you feel euphoric and a
bit silly. It's all part of falling passionately in
love -- and scientists now tell us the feeling won't
last more than a year.
The powerful emotions that bowl over new lovers are
triggered by a molecule known as nerve growth factor
(NGF), according to Pavia University researchers.
The Italian scientists found far higher levels of NGF
in the blood of 58 people who had recently fallen
madly in love than in that of a group of singles and
people in long-term relationships.
But after a year with the same lover, the quantity of
the 'love molecule' in their blood had fallen to the
same level as that of the other groups.
The Italian researchers, publishing their study in the
journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, said it was not
clear how falling in love triggers higher levels of
NGF, but the molecule clearly has an important role in
the "social chemistry" between people at the start of
a relationship.