The noble feeling of love comes from salivary glands

Italian biochemists have derived the formula of love. According to specialists from Italy, the most elevated and noble of all human feelings can be defined as a combination of several chemical symbols. It brings up the idea that humans will invent love or anti-love potion or pills in the near future.

Photo: The noble feeling of love comes from salivary glands

A senior specialist of the Center for Psychological Health of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Vorobyov, says that the psychology of passion could be analyzed easily, although the biochemical side of love still remained one of the most intriguing mysteries of modern medicine. Scientists do not know and cannot describe the processes happening in a human organism when a person falls in love. Italian neurophysiologists found out that it was only one neurotrophic protein that determined the range of emotions in the beginning of a euphoric love affair. That became the conclusion of a series of experiments which the scientists conducted for five years.

Italian doctors selected a large group of people in love to explore the mechanism of the powerful human feeling. The respondents were compared to two other groups consisting of lonely and happily married individuals. All the volunteers had their blood tested for the level of hormones and proteins. It turned out that there was only one detail that distinguished the “group of romance” from two other groups – the nerve growth factor protein. The protein was discovered in 1986 by US scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini. The sensational discovery earned her a Nobel Prize. This protein is produced by salivary glands and the central nervous system cells.

The level of the nerve growth factor protein with lovers is 52 percent higher as opposed to single people and those experiencing a stable love affair or marriage. The concentration of all other proteins was similar with all the three groups.

The volunteers who took part in the first stage of the scientific experiment were asked to come to the university in six months again. The further analysis of their blood samples showed that only one-third of those people were maintaining a love relationship. However, the analyses also showed that the level of the nerve growth factor protein dropped with all the respondents from the three test groups.

The experiment revealed that passion and ardent love feelings do not last long with anyone. They are usually replaced with deeper feelings that can be defined as love, devotion, affection, etc. It is an absolutely natural chemical process observed with all human beings. The scientists concluded that the process of hormonal changes caused with emotions was reversible. The nerve growth factor regulates emotional experiences in the beginning of a relationship and also evokes the feeling of alarm, improves cordial activities and increases the sensitivity of pain. If a person in love suffers a trauma, the level of the nerve growth factor protein rises in his or her body and eventually causes so-called love fever. A line from Elvis Presley’s song “he gives me fever” is not a metaphor at all. It is a medical diagnosis.

It is worthy of note that the production of the nerve growth protein subdues the hair growth with men and increases hairiness with women. That is why many nations traditionally believe that bald-headed men or moustached women are extremely loving people.

Italian physiologists believe that their observations mean that people will be able to control and guide their love feelings someday and even invent a medication for love.

British scientists found out five years ago that the state of love directly influences basic procedures in the brain. The neurons that are usually responsible for critique of other people are subdued at such moments. That is why the people in love do not usually notice the drawbacks and imperfection of those whom they love.

Scientists from the Novosibirsk-based Institute of Cytology and Genetics have been trying to derive the love formula for 50 years already. Unlike their colleagues from Italy, the specialists of the institute work with animals – dogs, foxes and wolves. It is an open secret that dogs love their owners and can be easily tamed, although wolves can always bite the hand that feeds them. Wolves and dogs are genetically similar animals, but they differ greatly for their hormones and proteins which determine their conduct under various circumstances. Needless to say that humans are not the only creatures that can love one another on this planet. There are many animal species that experience similar emotions and feelings.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov
Pravda.Ru

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