What does
love have to do with your health?
It’s Valentine’s Day. Let’s talk
about love. Red hearts, roses and chocolates! We may think of the heart as
the source of love and romance, but researchers tell us otherwise. These
emotions, they say, come from ‘the thinker’ – our brain. It’s the source of
chemicals or hormones that control our body like an invisible electrical wiring
system. It’s called ‘emotional biochemistry’.
On researching emotional biochemistry, this is what I found on the net. It’s
written by Pilar Gerasimo journalist, social explorer, podcaster, and
self-proclaimed Healthy Deviant. Read her blog: https://pilargerasimo.com/
“Like it or not, emotions share some very
real biochemical links with your nervous, endocrine, immune and digestive
systems. Isn’t it time you learned something about how your body responds to
what you feel—and vice versa?
Thanks
to new imaging technologies, research scientists have now been able to
demonstrate how thoughts and emotions cause distinct neuron-firing patterns
within various parts of the brain. They can also observe how these patterns
coincide with chemical releases and reactions throughout the body.”
In other words, emotions affect our
health – and love is one that we can’t live without. This reminded me of my
student-nursing days when I was working at the Children’s Hospital.
One little
patient had nothing physically wrong with him, but was diagnosed as a ‘failure
to thrive’ and was behind in his developmental milestones, unresponsive to
stimulation and had ‘flat-head syndrome’ because he was never picked up, played
with or loved. Social workers had found this neglected baby in a brothel, and
his treatment plan was to play, stimulate and love him. It took months for this
baby boy to recover ‘lost time’, but it was very rewarding watching him respond
to love. He recovered sufficiently to be sent to a loving family for foster
care.
According to the Greek translation
of the word love, there are many types:
Philia is affectionate love –
the love you have for a friend
Ludus is uncommitted, playful
love – like flirting and your first-love
Pragma is long-lasting,
enduring love – a mature love that older married couples enjoy after many
stormy years together
Philautic love is loving
yourself in spite of personal setbacks
Agape is unconditional love
Eros, the Greek god of
fertility, is sexual love.
“Hooked” by Joe McIlhaney and Freda McKissic Bush is an interesting book
about love, sex and the brain. Here is a short extract:
“In a relationship of true love and long-term commitment, sex takes its
appropriate place – not at the centre of the relationship, but as one of the
natural outcomes of the healthy connectedness of two people. Sex will then be a
catalyst to the full, healthy, long-term committed relationship it
strengthens.”
Love is what makes us human. Love overrides mistakes and imperfections. It
forgives and forgets past hurts. Love is the link in a chain that keeps a
family together. The ‘greatest book ever written’ summarises love like this:
“Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant
or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. LOVE NEVER ENDS.” 1
Corinthians 13: 4 – 8.
This month’s recommended blogger is Clint Edwards – the author of the
humorous book on parenting This
Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things and No Idea What I’m Doing: A Daddy Blog.
He lives in Oregon. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Read what he has
to say about Valentines Day. I highly recommend you follow his advice!
