A person shares up to 100,000 kisses in a 70-year lifetime. These tendernesses are well invested: After all, kissing is not only fun, it’s also healthy. And if a kiss is intense enough, it even burns calories. But kissing also has an influence on blood pressure, the immune system and the production of stress hormones. Find out why kissing is so healthy and in which cases kissing can also be a risk.
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What kissing does in the body
A forceful kiss turns the body upside down and triggers violent chemical reactions: Pulse and body temperature skyrocket, metabolism and blood circulation are boosted, happiness hormones make you forget pain, and the immune system runs at full speed:
- Blood pressure rises to 150 mm Hg. Regular kissing can even lower blood pressure by dilating the vessels, however.
- 34 history muscles are moved.
- The heartbeat increases to 110 beats per minute in men and 108 in women.
- Kissing releases the cuddle hormone oxytocin, which strengthens the bond between two people.
By the way, the fact that when kissing the noses do not collide, has a simple reason: most people instinctively approach their partner with their head tilted to the right.
5 facts about kissing – iStock.com/Kharichkina
Positive effect of kissing
The topic of kissing has already encouraged many scientists to do research. Here are numerous positive facts that have come to light as a result in recent years:
- Kissing makes you slim: a normal kiss burns 6.5 calories per minute, a passionate kiss even up to 20 calories.
- Kissing helps to reduce stress. This is because increased happiness hormones such as serotonin and endorphins are formed.
- Kissing stimulates the formation of saliva. This has advantages for the teeth, because saliva contains calcium and the trace element phosphorus. Absorbed by the enamel, these substances make it hard and strong against tooth decay.
- Kissing can relieve pain. Responsible for this is probably the increased formation of the hormone oxytocin.
- Who kisses a lot, strengthens his immune system, because the formation of neuropeptides is stimulated. These activate the natural killer cells.
- The kiss acts like a kind of swallow inoculation that kissers give each other. Because saliva contains up to 22,000 different types of bacteria. If these are exchanged during a kiss, impulses are sent out for the formation of defenses and antibodies.
- Kissing can relieve tension and is said to help counterlästigen hiccups, because when kissing increased CO2 enters the blood.
Can kisses be dangerous?
What serves to harden the one, can have negative consequences for the other: Thus, kissing can transmit meningococci or cytomegaloviruses. The Epstein-Barr virus can also be transmitted in this way. This can trigger Pfeiffersches glandular fever. The disease is therefore popularly known as “kissing disease”.
The bacterium Helicobacter pylori can also be found in saliva. It causes, according to scientists, many stomach ulcers, but also gastritis and even stomach cancer favor. That the amount transferred during kissing is sufficient to cause a serious disease is now strongly doubted in medicine, however. The bacterium probably remains in the oral cavity only temporarily.
However, allergy sufferers should be careful: if the kissing partner has eaten allergy-causing food, even in very small quantities, an intense kiss shortly afterwards can lead to allergic reactions. This often happens with nut allergies.
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