Kissing Healthy Benefits

1: Your pearly whites stay cleaner
Kissing can break down oral plaque and prevent cavities by stimulating the creation of saliva, which helps wash bacteria away from the tooth’s surface.Saliva washes out the mouth and helps remove the cavity-causing food particles that accumulate after meals.” The minerals in saliva also help rebuild tooth enamel, thereby preventing decay.

2. Keep a younger-looking face as you age
Sex therapist and author Dr. Ava Cadell notes that “kissing can give you a facelift. We use over 30 facial muscles while kissing, which helps to keep muscles smooth and tight and prevents your cheeks from sagging.” Laurel House, author of QuickieChick’s Cheat Sheet to Life, Love, Food, Fitness, Fashion and Finance — on a Less-Than-Fabulous Budget, also likens kissing to a toning session for your face: “Like working out the muscles in your abs, working out your facial muscles can help tone and tighten them, minimizing the visible signs of aging.”

3. A revved-up metabolism
“As the heart beats faster, it releases adrenaline and other neurotransmitters in the blood. The boost in adrenaline increases your metabolism and helps burn extra calories,” says Dr. Varnado.
During a really passionate kiss, you can burn anywhere from two to five calories per minute, which is double your normal resting rate. Dr. Cadell put this to the test on the TV show, The Doctors. By hooking a kissing couple up to a heart monitor and calorie counters, Dr. Cadell found that over the course of an hour, they burned a combined total of 575 calories — or 287.5 calories each.

4. Your immune system gets a healthy boost
“Swapping spit means swapping germs, and that is nature’s natural form of vaccination,” explains Dr. Varnado. “Being exposed to others’ germs causes your body makes antibodies against those germs, which can in turn lead to immunity and prevent illness.” This all holds true as long as you’re not kissing anyone with any diseases or cold sores present in his or her mouth.

5. Improved mood and decreased stress levels overall
Kissing releases nature’s antidepressant, oxytocin. Dr. Joshua Gizersky, founder and medical director of Vitality Logix Internal Medicine, says that “a passionate kiss will spike oxytocin, leading to better sex and orgasm.” It lowers our cortisol and cholesterol levels, too. “A study of cohabiting and married couples showed that an increased frequency of kissing decreases stress and cholesterol levels.

6. A natural source of pain relief
Kissing releases natural chemicals in the body called endorphins, which can be more powerful than morphine to relieve pain.

By Rachel Khona
From: http://yahoo.match.com