"What happens in the brain when you love someone is that there's more activity in the 'reward' system," explains Dr. Helen Fisher, a physical anthropologist who studies the neurohormonal phenomena of love and is a research professor at Rutgers University. "Your brain floods with dopamine, which gives you focus, energy and optimism and those things can all be good to counter stress."As Fisher explains, romantic love can provide something of a loop: as you fall in love, your dopamine levels surge, which in turn contributes to testosterone production. More testosterone is linked to increased sex drive. And sexual release has a particularly healthful effect, Fisher says, delivering oxygen to the brain and other organs.
