Your lips swell, and you get that pleasant tingling sensation in your private parts. The blood rushing to your skin's surface makes you feel fevered, your face flushed. You may begin to sweat. This ritual is what anthropologists call pre-copulatory activity, what sex manuals call foreplay and what Marvin Gaye calls getting it on. And getting it on is good for your health.
Doctors believe that physical touch itself boosts levels of the hormone oxytocin.
Among other things, oxytocin boosts feelings of affection and promotes caretaking behavior, and synthetic oxytocin has been used to treat depression. All rights reserved.