How love can keep you healthy!

Kissing your partner releases calming brain chemicals called neurotransmitters that help to sooth the mind leaving you stress-free!

Women in loving marriages have a lower risk of heart disease than those in high stress relationships the University of Pittsburgh found. The National Longitudinal Mortality Study, which has been tracking more than a million subjects since 1979, shows that married people also live longer and have lower cancer rates.

Dog owners have lower blood pressure and suffer from fewer serious medical conditions research published in the British Journal of Health Psychology suggests.

Doctors at the University of North Carolina say that hugging can dramatically lower blood pressure. They also found that hugging boosts blood levels of oxytocins, a relaxing hormone.

Kissing can help to combat tooth decay by stimulating saliva flow. “After eating, your mouth is full of sugar solution and acidic saliva, which cause plaque build up. Kissing is nature’s own cleaning process”, Dr Peter Gorden, from the British Dental Association said.

Researchers from the Standford University say that the intense feelings of passion can act as a powerful painkiller. Students involved in the study who were exposed to a burning sensation were soothed dramatically when pictures of their girlfriends or boyfriends were flashed in front of them. “When people are in this passionate, all-consuming phase of love, there are significant alterations in their mood that are impacting their experience of pain,” Professor Sean Mackey said.

A study by the University of Iowa found that ovarian cancer patients with a strong sense of connection to others and satisfying relationships had more vigorous “natural killer” cell activity at the site of the tumour than those without these social ties.

A 2002 study found that men who had sex two or more times a week cut their risk of having a fatal heart attack by half.

Locking lips can stop the ageing process according to Fitness consultant Claire Potter. “Kissing helps to tone your cheek and jaw muscles, so they’re less likely to sag,” she said.

The American cancer society says that each time a woman gives birth her risk of developing ovarian cancer lessens. Her risk of developing breast cancer also decreases by 7 percent.