The Power Of Love For Pain Relief!
Ah, yes ‘The Power of Love’, it’s not just a hit song by Air Supply anymore and during the time of Valentines day’ talk abounds. The psychological effects of a loving relationship are fairly well known and are definitely not to be understated, but did you know that in a very real, non-cliché sense, love really does have true healing power?
Crystal Raypole, wrote for Healthline that there are very, very real positive impacts on overall health from love that develops into a committed relationship.
“Love’s effects on your body Whether you feel love in your fingers, your toes, or all around, it’ll show up in your body, too.”
Aside from the fairly obvious benefits to your sexual health that a partner can bring (increased testosterone, and other Androgens, plus the … release… of oxytocin and dopamine that obviously accompany love there are some very interesting, very scientific benefits that Raypole points out. Check it out:
Improved physical health
Love, particularly love that develops into a committed relationship, can have a positive impact on overall health.
A few of these benefits include:
- decreased risk of heart disease
- lower blood pressure
- improved immune health
- faster recovery from illness
Longer life span
A loving relationship could help you have a longer life.
Research from 2011 reviewed 95 articles that compared the death rate for single people to the death rate for people who were married or lived with partners.
The review authors found evidence to suggest that single people had a much higher risk for early death: 24 percent, according to some of the studies they looked at.
A 2012 study of 225 adults who had coronary artery bypass grafting also found evidence suggesting love can lead to a longer life. People who were married when they had the surgery were 2.5 times more likely to be still living 15 years later.
High marital satisfaction increased this rate further: People who reported being highly satisfied in their marriage were 3.2 times more likely to be still living than those who were less satisfied.
Actual Pain Relief
In a PLOS One study from 2010 that Raypole referred to it was revealed that there are very, very real pain relieving properties to love. Jarred Younger, ArthurAron, SaraParke, Neil Chatterjee and Sean Mackey explain in their abstract and it get’s pretty crazy! They induced thermal pain on 15 willing participants while scanning their brains with an fMRI and found that just looking at a picture of their romantic partner caused MEASURABLE PAIN RELIEF!
“We hypothesized that pain relief evoked by viewing pictures of a romantic partner would be associated with neural activations in reward-processing centers. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined fifteen individuals in the first nine months of a new, romantic relationship. Participants completed three tasks under periods of moderate and high thermal pain: 1) viewing pictures of their romantic partner, 2) viewing pictures of an equally attractive and familiar acquaintance, and 3) a word-association distraction task previously demonstrated to reduce pain. The partner and distraction tasks both significantly reduced self-reported pain, although only the partner task was associated with activation of reward systems. Greater analgesia while viewing pictures of a romantic partner was associated with increased activity in several reward-processing regions, including the caudate head, nucleus accumbens, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex – regions not associated with distraction-induced analgesia. The results suggest that the activation of neural reward systems via non-pharmacologic means can reduce the experience of pain.”
This study seems to be supported by another from Helen Fisher, Arthur Aron, Lucy L Brown, “To determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and studied 17 people who were intensely “in love” (Aron et al. [2005] J Neurophysiol 94:327-337). Activation specific to the beloved occurred in the right ventral tegmental area and right caudate nucleus, dopamine-rich areas associated with mammalian reward and motivation. These and other results suggest that dopaminergic reward pathways contribute to the “general arousal” component of romantic love; romantic love is primarily a motivation system, rather than an emotion; this drive is distinct from the sex drive; romantic love changes across time; and romantic love shares biobehavioral similarities with mammalian attraction.”
Love might not be a drug, but it is extremely powerful and in a real, scientific, medical sense it can provide massive relief from physical discomfort and improve your health. While we don’t keep it in stock we can help with any Pharmaceutical needs!
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