Chemistry of love: a scientific view. How is chemistry of love?

A beautiful feeling that drives people, forcing them to commit insane acts. Because of him, much happened in the history of mankind, up to the fact that wars were waged between the countries. It would seem that a completely unearthly feeling, which causes people to flutter like butterflies, extols them to heaven, giving a feeling of happiness and unusual joy. But there was a look at love from the point of view of chemistry.

Helen Fisher proved that all the emotional processes taking place in the human body have a scientific explanation

To this end, Helen Fisher, an American scientist working in the field of anthropology, used the technique of brain scanning. Based on the results of the experiments, she was able to find out which areas of the brain are responsible for the feeling of love. The chemistry of love, it turns out, is that the brain produces a certain substance that makes a person feel emotional recovery, well-being and an increase in the level of excitement. This substance is called dopamine.

The scientific version provides an explanation for the process of love, which consists of three stages.

The first stage can be called falling in love or, otherwise, ordinary lust

At this time we are driven by sex hormones - estrogen and testosterone, they affect our desires associated with the object of lust: the desire to see more often, for example. We lose appetite, sleep, at the sight of the beloved we begin to get nervous, palms sweat, breathing becomes faster. From the point of view of science, the chemistry of love at this stage is as follows: hormones that are produced at the sight of the object of lust provoke the brain to produce substances of noradrenaline, serotonin and dopamine. The first two make you worry, the latter brings an incredible sense of happiness.

Chocolate as a means of replenishing serotonin

It is interesting that serotonin can be found in small doses in foods such as strawberries and chocolate - they say that they contain happiness hormones. Surely, almost everyone has a friend or friend who can not live a day without chocolate. They can be called "love addicts". Such people often need just feelings from the first meetings, which are the strongest, brightest and most memorable, which bring a great level of development of pleasure and pleasure in the form of dopamine.

The second stage is attachment

Thus, active and expressive love is replaced by something more calm and peaceful. The chemistry of love at this stage is in other hormones - in oxytocin and vasopressin.

The first hormone is very specific; His presence is "noticed" in the process of labor during childbirth, and he actively excels at orgasm. This hormone is responsible for fixing the mutual connection between lovers, and the number of orgasms between them further strengthens this connection.

Vasopressin is a hormone that regulates monogamy. Experiments were conducted that proved that artificially depressed amount of a hormone in a man's body leads to the fact that he quickly loses interest in a partner. That is, the fact that a strong sex runs after each skirt can be explained scientifically - perhaps they do not have enough vasopressin hormone.

This is the chemistry of love, a scientific look at it in the first two stages.

There is also another stage, which consists in choosing a partner

At the subconscious level, we strive to find such a partner with which productive and quality reproduction of the offspring is possible. For this, the partner must be strong and healthy, with a strong immune system. Thanks to this stage, spirits with pheromones have gained popularity, since all these health data are transmitted through smell. In mammals, this aroma helps to find the strongest male; In humans, this process occurs in a similar way, but this is not so seen in the human environment, because apart from the smell of the individual, a man or woman is guided by a number of factors in the choice of his pair. That's only in the name of love in stores became available "snag". Perfumes with pheromones substitute their own, not so powerful smell for the smell, more acceptable and interesting for the object of adoration, promising that this will help "pocket" this person for a long time.

How long does this love-chemistry last?

Professor Fischer explained not only why love is chemistry, she also figured out how much such an average love lasts on average. The substance dopamine is produced in the body from 18 months to 3 years. Hence the expression "love lasts no longer than three years". Is it worth it to be afraid? On the contrary, it is worth worrying if feelings of love live longer than this period. The process of how the chemistry of love happens is reasonably calculated by nature. If the hormone dopamine is produced longer than necessary to establish a strong connection between two people, under the influence of a hormone a person can start to go crazy. Enamored people do not pay attention to what is happening around, if they are under the influence of the chemistry of love for quite a long time. You can not fully work, or focus on home affairs. Bright passionate feelings should be replaced by a feeling of deep affection and confidence in the relationship with a partner. In order to again feel all the brightness of the sensations that occur during the development of dopamine, it is not necessary to run to a new girl or boyfriend. It's enough to arrange rare, but wonderful romantic moments with your partner. For example, suddenly call your favorite restaurant. Or arrange some romantic evening. The novelty of sensations (perhaps not so new, but already slightly forgotten) provokes the production of dopamine and the consolidation of your relationship.

Negative effect

It does not matter which sciences are the basis of this feeling - physics or chemistry. Love can be felt as something strong, powerful, giving a positive charge of emotion. But with the same probability, love can affect a person negatively. Especially if the person to whom all the energy of a person is directed does not reciprocate. In fact, the development of dopamine leads to the fact that you want to be with a person next door, but it does not have a similar process. The constant stimulation of the sensations caused by a hormone, is mixed with the understanding that the desired partner does not feel similar feelings to you.

Fisher herself came to the conclusion that love is a kind of drug addiction. Only this drug - quite legal chemistry of the body - "love", and produced by the same organism. All that is necessary for the development of this drug is to find a suitable partner, which by its actions can cause a response of the hormonal system.

This is the formula of love. Chemistry provides an explanation that is not yet fully accepted in society. It's hard to believe that such a high feeling is just a reaction of chemical elements in the body. But the ability to feel love does not end there.

Scientists have come to a disappointing conclusion regarding children who are deprived of contact with their parents in the first year of life

Studies have been conducted that showed that the first months of life are especially important in order for a person in the future to have the ability to communicate, love, be friends and show ability to other social connections. This is due to neuropeptides - hormones, which act as signaling substances so that when contact with a loved one in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid, the concentration of chemical elements that make the body to experience joy and pleasure from communication increase. If initially this system was not adjusted, even understanding by the mind how good a person is and how many wonderful things it did for you will not be perceived at the level of a physiological reaction. About these hormones it was already spoken earlier, it is oxytocin and vasopressin. The experiment was conducted with the participation of eighteen children, who, unfortunately, were at the earliest age in the orphanage, although later they found themselves in safe families, as well as children who had been with their parents since birth.

What were the results

According to the results it turned out that vasopressin is present in a much smaller dose in children from shelters. The following experiment was carried out for oxytocin. Measurements of this substance before the experiment showed that its level is approximately the same for both groups. In the process, the children had to play a computer game sitting first on their mother's lap (native or ante-room), afterwards with an unfamiliar woman. Children who were kneeling at their own mother's level of oxytocin increased; When the game with an unfamiliar woman did not take place. And for former orphans, oxytocin remained in the same amount in both the first and second cases. Such results gave scientists the opportunity to talk about the fact that, apparently, the ability to rejoice that you are communicating with a person close to you is nevertheless formed precisely in the first months of life. And sadly, children deprived of contact with their parents in the first months of their existence after birth may have mental and social problems. The chemistry of love lies not only in the fact that the body must develop a certain system of reformation, but also that the adjustment of this system should occur as early as possible, at the earliest stages of life. No one can teach how to love a person the way a mother can do.