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Falling in love?
Passion
lasts just one year: study
YOUR
heartbeat accelerates, you have butterflies in
the stomach, you feel euphoric and a bit silly.
It’s all part of falling passionately in love —
and scientists now tell us the feeling won’t
last more than a year. The powerful emotions
that bowl over new lovers are triggered by a
molecule known as nerve growth factor (NGF),
according to Pavia University researchers.
The Italian scientists found far higher levels
of NGF in the blood of 58 people who had
recently fallen madly in love than in that of a
group of singles and people in long-term
relationships. But after a year with the same
lover, the quantity of the ‘love molecule’ in
their blood had fallen to the same level as that
of the other groups.
The Italian researchers, publishing their study
in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, said it
was not clear how falling in love triggers
higher levels of NGF, but the molecule clearly
has an important role in the “social chemistry”
between people at the start of a relationship.
(The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item)
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