Pucker Up for Good Health

PHOENIX, Ariz-Feeling blue? Perhaps you should kiss away your sadness.

Paul Pearsall, MD, author of the national best-seller <$>Superimmunity says kissing, when in a loving relationship, boosts chemicals in a person's body that protect against disease.

Clinical studies demonstrate that touching, which includes kissing, lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones, and enhances the immune system. Physical touch boosts levels of the hormone oxytocin. Among other things, this hormone is responsible for boosting feelings of affection and promoting care taking behavior. Synthetic oxytocin is used to treat depression.

A person's lips are loaded with nerve endings, and as your mouth meets your partner's, impulses fire through the neural network. The neural signals go zipping along your spine into your pancreas, adrenal glands, and pelvic nerve. Your heart rate increases, blood rushes to your face and you may begin to sweat.

It is an aerobic workout. Passionate kissing burns 6.4 calories a minute in comparison to 11.2 calories per minute jogging on a treadmill. French kissing activates all 34 facial muscles, slowing the aging process by toning a person's jaw and cheek muscles and reducing sagging.

Kissing is also good for your teeth because your mouth waters when you kiss and saliva helps destroy plaque.

So pucker up!

Information from www.arizonarepublic.com