The Healing Power: A Review on the Various Aspects of the Love-Pain Relationship

Abstract

Love is mesmerising yet complicated. Brain imaging studies of love found that many different areas of the brain are involved in processing this intriguing emotion. Just looking or thinking about a loved one causes the release of a variety of neurotransmitters across the brain. The universal nature of love is manifested in various forms, including the warm feeling felt towards family, child, spouse, pets or friends. What is more special about love is that it may have the ability to heal! A study was undertaken to investigate scientifically factors underlying the reputed healing power of love through neuroimaging. The results of the study, which were published recently proposed a brain connectivity model of areas that are involved in reducing pain threshold when a loved-one is nearby, termed “Love Heals”. This article discusses the healing power of love with supporting evidences from previous studies. We focus on thre