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.
Link.
This is fascinating on many levels.
1. It's consistent with what C.S. Lewis observed. He said that people can't stay "in love" for a long time. The state of being "in love" is too distracting. A person could never get anything done or mature. Rather, the state of being "in love" needs to give way to a more sustaining and solid state: that of simply "love."
2. In an age when educational requirements force young people to delay marriage until their mid-twenties, could this be a reason so many don't get married? They lost the momentum and didn't allow it to give way to something greater.
3. Do people get "addicted" (overused word, especially in this context) to that "love molecule," and crave it later in life, with the result that they feel that they no longer love their spouse?
Interesting stuff.
