written by Carmelia Ray
To understand the health benefits of love in a relationship it’s important to understand the meaning and definition of “Love”. Love has so many meanings and interpretations. Countless people in the world struggle with defining what “Love” really means to them.
Wikepedia’s definition of love is as follows:
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment.[1] Love is also a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection; and “the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another”.[2] Love may also be described as actions towards others or oneself based on compassion, or as actions towards others based on affection.[3]
and also:
Love may be understood as part of the survival instinct, a function to keep human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species7]
There are many reference guides that attempt to describe the word love. The word “Love” itself has a variety of meanings and interpretations making it very difficult to describe for many. The health benefits of love however are easy to identity and much more obvious. In this article I would like to focus on the positive health benefits of love in a “healthy” loving situation. There are also negative emotions and negative health effects when someone is dealing with an “unhealthy” relationship or an “obsessive” love but were not going to talk about those things today.
1. Love Produces Positive Emotions
Love is known to bring about many positive emotions. Laughter is one of those emotions. And laughter is known to be healing to the soul and good for your mental well-being. As they say, “laughter is the best medicine”. It’s a very powerful antidote to fight stress, conflict, and pain both mentally and physically. Love also has the power to heal and renew ones mental, emotional, and physical well being. Research shows that loving acts neutralize the kind of negative emotions that adversely affect immune, endocrine, and cardiovascular function.
2. Love Helps You Live Longer and Fights Disease
There have been studies that show even patients who are diagnosed with cancer have recovered from cancer treatment faster when they had strong family connections. Also, those in loving partnerships recovered quicker or completely eliminated the cancer with no scientific explanation other than the fact the patient had great love and support from close family and friends.
The feeling of “butterflies in your stomach” is an actual physical reaction caused when our body responds to the strong ”attraction” that is felt when one is “falling in love” or “in love” with someone else. Physically your heart rate increases which causes increased blood flow to ALL parts of your body including your sexual organs. This actually has a positive effect on the mind and body.
3. Love Keeps the Doctor Away
Many studies proove that people in a loving long term relationship have longer average life spans than those that are not in a partnership. Typically when you are in a relationship your partner cares about your health and will encourage you to watch your health and discourage BAD habits such as smoking, doing drugs, or working too much. No one who loves another person wants to see their partner SICK or not take care of themselves.
“Endorphins are the key. According to the National Institute of health love triggers the hormone oxytocin and that hormone makes us feel good. It also lowers the levels of stress chemicals in our system” Jodi Prohofsky, Ph.D., L.M.F.T September 16th, 2011. Physical contact, like cuddles, hugs and kisses trigger the production of oxytocin.
I hope this article helps you understand that love has a great impact on our emotional and physical well-being. Falling in love and being in love are very positive activities. For singles that are not in a relationship, you can still experience the health benefits of love through sharing love with those that are close to you such as family and friends. Make sure that you get your daily dose of hugs, affection, smiles, and physical sexual activity whenever you can!
