Daily Loaf

In this over-medicated age, drug companies continue expanding their empires into the farthest realms of human behavior, developing chemical cocktails for whatever ails us: if depressed take Prozac, if scatterbrained take Adderall, if sleepless take Ambien, if impotent take Viagra… Now researchers are searching for drugs that will help you stay in love.

Consider how people often attribute their inability to remain in a relationship to psychological reasons, saying such things as, “I’m not happy anymore,” or “the spark is gone.” In a sense, a lack of love is simply a chemical imbalance, which theoretically can be corrected. Someday soon drug companies may develop a prescription pill that helps you stay in love the same way Rogaine sustains hair.

Researchers are more concentrated on sustaining loving feelings as opposed to developing drugs for doping new acquaintances in order to spark new loves. Beyond the ethical dilemmas such a drug would raise, initial attraction involves many more variables than the loss of love. Although the research is still in its infancy, scientists have stumbled upon some interesting tidbits about the chemistry of love.

That nervous, excited feeling you get when you first fall in love occurs when, “natural amphetamines are triggered in the brain and do what any natural or synthetic amphetamine does…They give you that hyped-up feeling.”

So basically, you’re on speed.

If you’re lucky when your brain eventually comes down, endorphins kick in. “These are the natural opiates, like serotonin. They give us the feelings of relaxation and security that come with long-term love.”

Combine endorphins with oxytocin, otherwise known as the “bonding” or “cuddling” hormone, and, tah-dah, you’ve got a long-term relationship.

For more, check out the full article at Alternet.com

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