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.