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Tue 1 Apr, 2003 01:45 pm
New studies on love and biochemistery have hit the pages of Discover Magazine. Turns out that labratory studies of mammalian behavior has long been based on male critters (no big surprise there to some of us). "Prior to 1995, females constituted 17% of participants. There were virtually no studies where you had enough female participation to do a comparative study." So, the "fight or flight" reaction that has long been held as a tenet of human behavior is true mostly for males, the new terminolgy for female reaction is, coined by Shelley Taylor, "tend or befriend". This helps lodge feelings like love into the brain instead of the heart - love and passion reside in the brain, like fight or flight.
So, if it's a brain thang, there must be chemicals involved. We know about pheremones (from the adds in our banner at the very least) and about testosterone. Now Oxytocin is taking a leading role in love and well-being. The chemical is release during sexual activity and has been attributed with many levels of well-being. For women, oxytocin works with estrogen to regulate the stress hormones (testosterone). Exposure to oxytocin (alone or in conjunction with other hormones) slows the breathing rate, lowers blood pressure and heart rate, aids in childbirth and breast feeding, aids in social attachment and making social interactions feel-good activities, it also effects our ability to focus thought. I will refrain from mentioning what it does for our sex-lives.
The full article can be found and read in Discover's May, 2003 magazine.
(I love Discover Magazine)
ya know, it kinda goes along with my "You make me sweat" thread. Hmmmm..... It must be spring.
better living through chemisty?
That's one way of looking at it.
I've often wondered about people who live a life of abstinence. Do priests (ha!) and nuns who forgo sex for decades have different health issues that those of us who do have sex (ha!)? I have long thought that love and sex produce beneficial chemistry, but I'm not a scientist and I had no way of proving anything. So, I'm glad to see this article. I love it when science proves me right.
As a priest/virgin, I shall say I haven't had any serious health problems.
I did know having orgasms releases some type of chemical(s) that helps you feel happy...or something like that. And I'm talking about an internal release, you pervs.
It does! There was the testosterone thing (but that stresses the body), there's pheremones which are feel-good chemicals. This is a chemical newer to the scene. Pretty cool stuff.
I can dig it! The human bod is a chemical factory - ever get a runners high?? I used to live for those.
I know all about it from (oh goody, I've finally figured out how to totally gross out Slappy) breastfeeding.
http://www.parentsplace.com/babies/bfeed/articles/0,,534808_112187,00.html
hahaha, yep, childbirth and breastfeeding were featured in the article. A chemical counterpart to the physical closeness and the benefits to social skills, interaction and well-being.
And yep, Husker, it's like the endorphines you get with the runners' high.....
Endorphines...that's what I was thinking.
There's my new pick-up line. Yo. You wanna go release some endorphines, n' sh!t?
Soz, you're going to have to try harder.
The unbelievable, unshockable Mr Doohoo.
Slappy, don't forget to throw absquatulate into the pick up line.
Yo. You. Honey baby. You're coming with me. I'm gonna absquatulate yo' ass, and we going to release some endorphines.
Hey! Where you going?
ha! there ya go, let me know how it works for you.
Well, it might be a while before I can pronounce "absquatulate."
abs (as in stomach muscles), squat as in squat, <ahaha>, chulate as in you're late.
I think I could have swung it.
Though now, I can say it with confidence.
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