Being in love or falling out of love can wreck your health. The stresses involved with relationships can have an effect on your overall health. It also seems to hit men harder than women.
"Our bodies are constantly going through a rollercoaster of emotions and love has some very obvious physical effects," said Professor Martin Cowie of Imperial College.
"Our pupils dilate, our palms become sweaty and the heart rate increases. We have large amounts of adrenaline running through our system and that does cause problems for the body." Professor Cowie said stress related illnesses at work arose from near-identical physical phenomena.
He added: "We have seen a big rise in people complaining of flu-like symptoms over a long period of time. That is simply due to stress."
We've heard about toxic friends. Those people who bring us down whenever they are around. That is one type of stress.
What about the role that love as a constant change of emotions can affect your heart. In any relationship there are stresses that can alter the way your body handles it's environment.
On the far side of the coin, being alone is another health risk.
While the stresses can push our body so can the loneliness of being without a partner.
Loneliness and isolation affect our health in several ways:
* They increase the likelihood that we may engage in behaviors like smoking and overeating that adversely affect our health and decrease the likelihood that we will make lifestyle choices that are life-enhancing rather than self-destructive
* They increase the likelihood of disease and premature death from all causes by 200-500% or more, independent of behaviors, through different mechanisms, many of which are not fully understood
* They keep us from fully experiencing the joy of everyday life
So the clear cut answer of staying healthy is ...........well there isn't one. If you're in love you are in danger of getting sick and if you're alone you're in the same boat.
Somehow the only thing I get from this is you're screwed one way or the other. If you want to be sick and at least have a snuggle bunny along for the ride opt for love. If you would feel guilty for infecting someone else go the alone route.
Either way.........you're going to get sick.
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