Head over heels? Alas, it won't last
Scientists say passionate love fizzles after a year

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10252428/
ROME - Your heartbeat accelerates, you have butterflies in the stomach, you feel euphoric and a bit silly. It’s all part of falling passionately in love—and scientists now tell us the feeling won’t last more than a year.

The powerful emotions that bowl over new lovers are triggered by a molecule known as nerve growth factor (NGF), according to Pavia University researchers.

The Italian scientists found far higher levels of NGF in the blood of 58 people who had recently fallen madly in love than in that of a group of singles and people in long-term relationships.

But after a year with the same lover, the quantity of the ‘love molecule’ in their blood had fallen to the same level as that of the other groups.

The Italian researchers, publishing their study in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, said it was not clear how falling in love triggers higher levels of NGF, but the molecule clearly has an important role in the "social chemistry" between people at the start of a relationship.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

wonder when they are going to start putting NGF in chocolate or other things like a love drink... "you will fall in love when you drink (insert fav drink here)"

i think some people are addicted to "falling in love" it is like a drug.... granted the beginning is always wonderful... but i feel that the next level (after the newness is over) is so much better...