Have you ever wondered why your heart thumps and your hands sweat when your new girlfriend walks into a room? Why you find yourself feeling high every time you spend time with your boyfriend? That’s because it is cupid’s little, yet efficient, workers at work: the chemicals and hormones that flood the body when you fall in love or are infatuated. For those of us who did not pay attention to high school chemistry and biology, here are the basics of the chemistry of love.

The Chemistry of Love
When you are attracted to someone the phenylethylamine released in the body speeds up the connections in the nervous system making you excited or hyperactive. It also triggers the secretion of dopamine, which gives a feeling of elation and euphoria. It is the norepinepherine that is released in the system that give you an adrenalin high. Together, the three chemicals produce an amphetamine-like effect. The effect of all three of these chemicals can last between six months to about three years, after which the body becomes tolerant or immune to them. This may account for why many people jump from one relationship to the other, looking for that high that the chemistry of love brings. However, this doesn’t mean that relationships are doomed after the effects of phenylethylamine, dopamine, and norepinepherine wear off.

The Relationship High
If nature and chemistry can make you fall in love, it can also help keep the love burning. Endorphins are natural opiates that are set off by various aspects of love, such as warmth, friendship, affection, common interests, compassion, and trust. They increase the flow of dopamine in the body and keep people happy, loved, comforted, and relaxed. Researchers have found that when one is with friends or with a lover, the levels of endorphins in the body are high, thus acting as the glue that keeps relationships together. Thus, the longer that people stay together, the higher the levels of endorphins and the more likely the relationship will stay that way. Interestingly, endorphins have a steadier and stronger effect than the amphetamine-like effect at the beginning of love.

Sexual Chemistry
What is it that turns you on when you see your partner and makes you want to let the passion flow? A touch, a scent, a seductive gaze, even the husky voice of your sweetheart on the phone can start the flow of dopamine, which in turn triggers the secretion of oxytocin. A pituitary hormone, oxytocin turns you on and makes you want to mate, bond, and hold on to each other. It is stimulated most by touch; the more you touch, the more it is released in the body and thus the heightened arousal. Together, with testosterone and estrogen, it is also responsible for erections in men and uterine contractions in women; when the level of oxytocin reaches its climax, it results in orgasm. Some of the areas of the human body that stimulate the production of oxytocin include: the nipple area of both sexes, the lips, neck, and ear lobes. It is worth investigating the next time you get intimate with your lover. The flood of oxytocin during orgasm also tranquilizes the body, naturally making people want to cuddle up and sleep.

Why Women Become Attached After Sex
Women are more sensitive to and affected more strongly by oxytocin than men and this accounts for why women become attached after sex. Thus, a woman behaves differently than a man after they have had spectacular sex. The chemicals flowing in her body make her sentimental and she wants to cuddle. If you recently broke up with your boyfriend, who complained of your being too attached and emotional, blame it on the chemicals. Remember, it is your oxytocin-sensitive female body that allows you to experience full-bodied, multiple orgasms.