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By
Dr. Joseph Mercola
with Rachael Droege
Does love protect us? Does it provide emotional and physical
well-being, and can a lack of love, heartbreak or heartache
be a detriment to our health? Certainly. Even Mother Theresa
said, shortly before her death, "loneliness and isolation
in the West" was the most significant "disease"
she had encountered during her lifetime. It is yet another
wonder of the human body that intimacy can protect and heal
us from disease. Unfortunately, the reverse also holds: a
lack of intimacy can bring on any number of health problems.
When I say intimacy I am not only referring to the physical
form but also to the emotional form that can occur between
families, friends, spouses and even strangers. Studies have
shown that when people feel loved or give love they:
- Live longer
- Feel happier
- Have better health
- Make more money
- Tend to have better cardiovascular health
- Are less prone to depression
Further, heartbreak is a very real thing. According to a
study published in the January 2004 issue of the Journal
of Epidemiology and Community Health, ending a relationship
had a negative effect on both men and women’s mental
health, and was particularly hard on women. And, this type
of stress--the kind that occurs from emotional events--may
be even worse for the physical body than stress from non-emotional
events, even though they evoke the same types of responses.
For instance, women heart patients facing severe stress from
marriage difficulties were found to have three times the risk
of heart attack as women without such stress, according to
a study in the Journal
of the American Medical Association. However, stress that
the women felt from work-related issues did not have the same
effect.
Interestingly, another study, published in the journal Psychosomatic
Medicine, found that helping others, or so-called altruistic
love, is associated with higher levels of mental health, above
and beyond the benefits of receiving help. This means that
lending an ear to your spouse or family may have even better
benefits for you than for the receiving person.
But research studies aside, I think most people would agree
that giving and feeling love is sure to lead to a happier
existence. Of course, that’s great to hear for those
who are surrounded by love. For those who may be struggling
with a relationship or are facing any type of love difficulty
this Valentine’s day, I’d like to leave you with
some wise words from the famous English poet Alfred Tennyson,
"It is better to have loved and lost than never to have
loved at all."
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