Kissing someone for the first time may be tricky and fraught with nervousness.
It may also not be enjoyable, but scientists say despite everything, there’s a lot involved than you may realise.
The following are some of the things that happen to your body each time you kiss someone for the first time:
• Sense of smell activated: Scientists say the lips have nerve endings that become stimulated upon kissing, leading to the activation of additional senses such as smell.
• You de-stress: Instead of taking to drinks in order to de-stress, a study cited on NBC found that a mere 15-minute kissing session can dramatically decrease your level of the stress hormone, cortisol. You can also experience a rise in oxytocin, the brain’s feel-good chemical.
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• It helps fight cholesterol: Kissing can have a positive impact on your blood lipid levels, according to researchers at the Western Journal of Communication. They say that romantic kissing can decrease serum cholesterol and increase overall relationship satisfaction for couples.
• Kissing helps you ascertain how smart your partner is: Sloppy kisses enable you to assess if the person you’re kissing is a potential mate, according to research conducted by Oxford University. The scientists say the chemical makeup of saliva helps your body decide if the person you’re kissing would produce strong offspring.
• You experience an adrenaline rush: When you kiss someone for the first time, your body will release a burst of adrenaline (the fight-or-flight chemical) which increases your heart rate, boosts your energy levels and gets the blood flowing.
• Plenty happy chemicals produced: It’s not just adrenaline and oxytocin which your body produces. Other chemicals come flooding in too, making you feel happy afterwards. A Harvard professor of psychology, Justin Lehmiller, say when you kiss, your brain is flooded with dopamine — the very same chemical that is released when you do those things that you enjoy doing a lot.
