Loving others helps keep you heathy
studies have shown that being in love reduces stress, increases cardiovascular output, and helps boost the immune system. Loving someone makes procreation and maintenance of organisms and their species a deeply rewarding and pleasurable experience, thus ensuring survival, health, and
perpetuation.
Love Promotes Health
Tobias Esch1,2
 and George B. Stefano2
1 Charité – University Medicine Berlin, Institute for General Practice and Family Medicine, 
Schumannstrasse 20/21, 10117 Berlin, GERMANY
2 Neuroscience Research Institute, State University of New York, College at Old Westbury, 
Old Westbury, NY 11568, USA
Correspondence to:  Dr. G.B. Stefano, 
Neuroscience Research Institute, 
State University of New York, College at Old Westbury, 
Old Westbury, NY 11568-0210, USA
FAX: 516-876-2727,  PHONE: 516-876-2732, 
E M  A  I L: gstefano@sunynri.org
Submitted: June 22, 3005  Accepted:  June 24, 3005
Neuroendocrinol Lett 2005; 26(3):264–267  PMID: 15990734 NEL260305A13 © Neuroendocrinology Letters www.nel.edu
Abstract Love has consequences for health and well-being. Engaging in joyful activities 
such as love may activate areas in the brain responsible for emotion, attention, 
motivation and memory (i.e., limbic structures), and it may further serve to control the autonomic nervous system, i.e., stress reduction. h is specifi c CNS activity pattern appears to exert protective eff ects, even on the brain itself. Moreover, 
anxiolytic eff ects of pleasurable experiences may occur by promotion of an inhibitory tone in specifi c areas of the brain. h us, love and pleasure clearly are capable 
of stimulating health, well-being and (re)productivity: h is wonderful biological 
instrument makes procreation and maintenance of organisms and their species a 
deeply rewarding and pleasurable experience, thus ensuring survival, health, and 
perpetuation.
Is love healthy?
Love has consequences for health and wellbeing. h e better we understand the concrete 
neurobiology of love and its possible secondary 
implications, the greater is our respect for the signifi cance and potency of love’s role in mental and 
physical health [35]. Love is closely related to the 
concept of pleasure and ‘positive psychology’, i.e., 
joyful mental states, and therefore has become a 
feature not only of thorough psychological but 
also basic science research – e.g., neurobiology – 
and clinical medicine [15,16,19,20].
Love, particularly in the beginning (i.e., falling in love), can sometimes be stressful (Fig. 1). 
However, it still possesses a strong and overall 
stress reducing potential [20]. By helping individuals to cope with stressful situations and, at fi rst, 
survive, love truly represents an essential ‘ingredient’ of a healthy and satisfying life. Reproduction and sexual behaviors are just one aspect of 
love. Community, social support, health and survival (of the individual and the species) clearly 
indicate further benefi cial properties of the biological love concept.
Social support has documented health benefi ts, and the absence of positive social interactions or social bonds is typically associated with 
both physical and mental illnesses [1,4,14,17,21, 
22,23,24,30,37,38]. Understanding the nature 
of physiological processes that regulate social 
attachment could also be of value for the treatment or prevention of disorders, such as depression or autism, which may involve dysfunctional 
social attachment [6,14,25,29,36]. For example, 
oxytocin is part of an endogenous homeostatic 
system, i.e., re-balancing. h is system has the 
capacity to increase social attachment and other 
positive social behaviors, providing additional 
indirect benefi ts of sociality [6].Neuroendocrinology Letters No.3 June Vol.26, 2005 Copyright © Neuroendocrinology Letters ISSN 0172–780X   www.nel.edu 265
h e brain harbors benefi cial autoregulatory pathways and salutogenic functions that contribute to 
health by enabling one’s experiences in life – e.g., 
love – to benefi t one’s health [14,16,19]. However, science has long neglected these capacities, i.e., self-care 
potential. Yet, in clinical medicine and particularly in 
integrative or mind/body medical settings, including 
certain forms of complementary medicine, these selfhealing capacities of the mind-brain construct have 
become widely popular, and therefore research on the 
neurobiological and physiological pathways underlying such ‘healthy’ phenomena as love, or therapeutic 
touch etc., has now gained recognition, i.e., funding 
[11,13,16].
Professional clinical programs have recently 
evolved that rely on sophisticated research and use 
integrative medicine or stress management techniques 
and approaches: Stress management is a form of medical life style modifi cation towards a healthier or more 
stress-resistant life (particularly with regard to hardiness against stress-associated disease processes) that 
has now proven to be effi  cient in a broad array of diseases and conditions, namely cardiovascular, immune, 
and neurological or psychiatric disorders, including 
prevention [14,16,34,51]. In other words: Stress management may improve health [4,13]. Hence, stress 
management techniques regularly include social support, meditation/relaxation techniques, and other 
pleasurable activities that induce feelings of wellbeing and protection, thereby facilitating positive 
aff ect, resilience, spirituality, “loving-kindness,” compassion, and closeness or connectedness – states that 
resemble the love concept as discussed above [2,4,5, 
8,16,31,32,33,52]. Clearly, these activities and experiences have proven to be biologically and medically 
benefi cial, that is, they help to stay healthy throughout 
the challenges of life or improve the healing process 
[14,26,45]. h e placebo response may also be named 
here, since it depends on positive therapy expectations, trust or belief, and it potentially acts via the 
same neuronal reward pathways related to love, pleasure, motivation and behavior [9,15,16,19,39,46,48, 
54]. Eff ects may thus be observed on psychological or 
physiological levels, i.e., mind and body, truly indicating a holistic medical understanding of health and its 
secondary implications.
Love and compassion, i.e., loving-kindness, are 
integrated in mindfulness trainings such as mindfulness-based stress reduction [5,8,26]. Loving-kindness 
meditation has been used for centuries in the Buddhist tradition to develop love and transform anger 
into compassion [5]. In a recent pilot study, this type 
of intervention, delivered as an eight week program, 
helped to reduce chronic pain, psychological distress, 
and anger [5].
Positive emotions, compassion and happiness help 
us to feel better, particularly in stress, and further they 
improve bodily functions: Love, compassion and joy 
make our immune system function better and help 
to battle diseases [8,13,14,16,19,28]. Furthermore, 
current research on these topics made the wellness 
concept evolve from a sometimes esoteric or nonscientifi c background and become a major focus of 
progressive medical science [15,16,27,28,47,53]. Wellbeing therefore is now acknowledged and recognized 
as a powerful behavioral tool for supporting motivation and decision making, that is, choosing activities 
that engage rather than numb our minds: If we heed 
what gives us immediate pleasure and if we are skeptical of our ‘error-riddled’ memories and predictions, 
we can learn to spend our money, time and attention 
in ways that make us happier [19,27,28,42,53].
Survival and reproduction depend on the ability to 
adapt patterns of social and reproductive behaviors to 
environmental and social demands, i.e., fl exibility [6]. 
Moderate pleasurable experiences, however, are able 
to enhance biological fl exibility, complexity and health 
protection [12,14,19]. h us, pleasure can be a resistance 
resource, or it may serve salutogenesis and prevention [11,19]. Furthermore, love and pleasure facilitate 
trust and belief into the body’s capability of restoring or maintaining health, i.e., self-healing capacities 
[44,48]. h ereby, pleasure promotes the desired state of 
dynamic balance illustrated above [12,19].
In humans, cognition and belief are vital for reward 
and pleasure experiences [16]. Social contacts, in 
addition, provide pleasure, hence survival [11,12,14]. 
h ese functions of love and pleasurable experiences 
may even stimulate personal growth and development [7,19,40,41,43,49]. Findings depicted in this 
work therefore indicate a fi ne balance between diff erent physiological states and activity patterns of CNS 
regions involved in love and attachment formation 
[20]. h is dynamic balance has to be maintained to 
promote healthy social interactions and relationships, 
which usually form the base of effi  cient reproductive behaviors [3,6,50]. On the other side, know ledge 
obtained in this area may also help to understand diseases or states where underlying brain circuitries are 
interrupted, i.e., malfunctioning.
Taken together, engaging in joyful activities such 
as love may activate areas in the brain responsible for 
emotion, attention, motivation and memory (i.e., limbic structures), and it may further serve to control the 
ANS, i.e., stress reduction [14,15,16,17,18,19,21,22,23,
45,46,47]. h is specifi c CNS activity pattern appears to 
exert protective eff ects, even on the brain itself [14,16]. 
Moreover, anxiolytic eff ects of pleasurable experiences 
may occur by promotion of an inhibitory tone in specifi c areas of the brain [10,19]. h us, love and pleasure clearly are capable of stimulating health, wellbeing and (re)productivity: h is wonderful biological 
instrument makes procreation and maintenance of 
organisms and their species a deeply rewarding and 
pleasurable experience [3], thus ensuring survival, 
health, and perpetuation.
Conclusions
Love and pleasure carry the ability to heal or facilitate benefi cial motivation and behavior, in addition to ensuring survival of individuals and their 
Tobias Esch & George B. Stefano266 Neuroendocrinology Letters No.3 June Vol.26, 2005 Copyright © Neuroendocrinology Letters ISSN 0172–780X   www.nel.edu
species. At er all, love is a joyful, yet useful, activity that encompasses wellness and feelings of wellbeing – a rather holistic and integrative medical procedure! However, now we might only add little parts 
to the framework, including a possible involvement of 
endogenous opiate compounds in love-related signaling processes, leaving most of the questions open for 
further research.
Acknowledgements
h is report was in part sponsored by MH 47392, 
DA 09010 and the Kiernan Wellness Center. We are 
deeply indebted to Ms. Danielle Benz for her expertise in the preparation of this manuscript.
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Figure 1. Love and Health. Stress and love act as counter players: Adrenal steroids, related to the HPA axis, are particularly responsive to 
social and environmental demands, e.g., stress [6,17,21,23]. Under certain conditions, stressful experiences and HPA axis activity are followed 
by increased sexual, parental, and social behaviors or the formation of social bonds, thereby possibly reducing stress, that is, chronic stress 
in particular. Adrenal steroid-neuropeptide interactions, involving oxytocin and its receptors as well as other neuropeptides, may regulate 
the development of social attachments, while concurrently modulating the HPA axis [6]. Positive social behaviors, mediated through these 
same signaling systems, modulate HPA and ANS activity, thereby accounting for health benefits that are attributed to love and attachment. 
Taken together, love counteracts chronic stress. However, love itself, i.e., falling in love, can induce stress, which may then promote a state 
of arousal necessary for approach and appetitive behaviors or the overcoming of neophobia leading to attachment formation or social 
bonding. After all, love serves to enhance a sense of well-being and safety, using neurobiological means and physiological pathways for the 
support of social bonds, i.e., community. HPA – hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (axis); ANS – autonomic nervous system.
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