How to fall in love

What happens to the body when you fall in love? We already know that there are significant hormonal changes when people fall in love (in particular, FSH, testosterone, and cortisol) , and that love is like obsessive compulsive disorder. Now, Italian scientists add a neurotrophin to the list of chemical changes in the body.

Neurotrophins are a family of molecules that encourage survival of nervous tissue. By studying the levels of neurotrophins in the blood of people in love, scientists found that only neurotrophin, called NGF, had higher concentrations in people who have recently fallen in love. Further, it was found that the levels of NGF in the blood returned to normal after a year or two after the start of the relationship.

This means that NGF changes are transient and associated with the early stages of relationships. Incidentally, these changes mirror the other hormonal changes already discovered: it seems that at the start of romantic relationships, we get significant chemical changes in our brains and bodies, but these fade away as the relationship progresses.

Technorati Tags: love, brain, body, hormones, science, relationships