What’s great about kissing

Finally, something that feels good that’s not bad for you. In fact, say lip service experts, laying a big, wet one on the right partner can be downright good for your health.

Faith Hill has it right — a great kiss makes the world dissolve, makes us dizzy with desire.

“Kissing is passion and romance and what keeps people together,” says Michael Cane, author of The Art of Kissing, who “lectures” on kissing at colleges around the country.

“Women say they can tell if a relationship is going to work after the first kiss, after the first night of kissing,” he says. “They just get a feeling, an intuition.”

And while kissing may feel oh-so-good, it also has health benefits, too. It triggers a whole spectrum of physiological processes that boost your immunity and generally spruce up that body you work so hard to keep attractive.

That big wet one

Among the benefits of a good, wet one: That extra saliva washes bacteria off your teeth, which can help break down oral plaque, says Mathew Messina, DDS, a private practice dentist in Fairview Park, Ohio, and consumer advisor for the American Dental Association. “Still, I would not go around advocating kissing after meals instead of brushing,” he says.

A serious, tongue-tangling French kiss exercises all the underlying muscles of the face — which some say could keep you looking younger, and certainly looking happier.

Kissing might even help you lose weight, says Bryant Stamford, PhD, professor and director of the health promotion centre at the University of Louisville. “During a really, really passionate kiss, you might burn two calories a minute — double your metabolic rate,” he says. (This compares to 11.2 calories per minute you burn jogging on a treadmill.)

“But if your motivation for kissing is to burn calories, you’re in trouble,” Stamford points out.

When you give sugar, you actually burn sugar. Sex sparks a good calorie burn, Stamford says, especially “if you’re passionately involved, thrashing around. If things were really hot and heavy, you might be looking at a caloric expenditure similar to a brisk walk.”

But don’t confuse great sex with a cardiovascular work-out, he says.

“People tend to have the misconception that anything that raises your heart rate has the same effect as jogging, so it must be good for fitness. Not true,” he says. “Anything can get your heart racing … that’s just adrenaline.”

Kissing as meditation

Tension relief — that’s what good lovin’ brings, says Stamford. “Sex and love are probably the Rodney Dangerfield of stress management. Because of all the negative energy we take in during the day, it’s a very positive benefit.”

All in all, kissing and everything it engenders keeps us going strong, living long, says Stamford. “The process of being active — and that can include kissing, sex, and any other whole-body activities — that’s what keeps you healthy.”

Sex, sensuality, and sensual touch have profound effects on well-being, says Joy Davidson, PhD, psychologist and clinical sexologist in Seattle.

“Kissing is an exciting excursion into the sensual,” Davidson says. “If we happen to be connecting with someone we care about, it produces a sense of well-being and a kind of full-bodied pleasure.”

Kissing is also “a sensual meditation,” she says. “It stops the buzz in your mind, it quells anxiety, and it heightens the experience of being present in the moment. It actually produces a lot of the physiological changes that meditation produces.”

And while kissing may be nature’s way of “opening the door to the sexual experience,” she says, “it also has all that lusciousness that we need to pull us out of the mundane and the ordinary and take us into moments of the extraordinary.”

“By the time you’re kissing someone, you’re right up next to them, you are in their personal space,” she says. “That in itself means you have trusted them. You’re also learning quite a bit about them — you touch them, smell them, taste them, see the expressions on their face, learn something about their health status, learn a great deal about their intentions.”

Romance, love — or lust?

A kiss can be wildly sexual, wildly romantic, or it can be deeply gratifying because it’s an affirmation of attachment. Kissing somebody for the first time, rather than the 200th or 2,000th time, creates a situation of incredible novelty.

That rush you feel is probably from two natural stimulants — dopamine and norepinephrine, Fisher says. “They tend to be activated when you get into a novel situation.”

There are three different stages one typically goes through:

* lust — the craving for sexual gratification.

*romantic love — the feeling of giddiness, euphoria, sleeplessness, and loss of appetite when you meet a new love.

* attachment — that sense of security you find with a long-term partner.

Each of these is associated with different chemical systems in the brain. Sex drive and lust are triggered by testosterone, in both men and women. Dopamine and norepinephrine kick in when romance begins. If you’re in the midst of a “mad love affair, it’s quite possible you simply feel levels of dopamine, that zing of romantic infatuation,” sexologist, Fisher tells WebMD. “If all you’re doing is having a sexual fling with someone you like very well — but are not in love with and don’t feel attached to — then all you may feel is sex drive, the effects of testosterone.”

Unless you’re kissing the wrong person, kissing quite likely is good for us, says Fisher.

Kissing also stimulates the brain, and when the experience is a positive one, “you notice it,” she says. “That translates into the euphoria, or the sex drive, or the sense of calm and peace.

“Kissing helps your state of mind,” she adds. “Infatuation can be perfectly divine. If you’re madly in love with somebody, it’s perfectly wonderful to kiss them. It creates incredible intimacy. It boosts self-esteem. It’s wonderful to be kissed by somebody.”