Why does a kiss feel so good?
With all of the body parts involved, our lips are at the heart of the kissing pleasure principle. Gray’s Anatomy (the essential anatomy text, not the nighttime soap opera) calls them “two fleshy folds,” but they’re more than that. They’re flexible, receptive, and oh-so-sensitive. The very thin layer of skin that forms the outside of the lips is continuous with the inside lining of the mouth, containing mucous membranes, tiny muscles, and the many nerves that can help to make a kiss feel sublime. Kissing also releases endorphins, the same hormone that triggers a “runner’s high” and acts as the body’s natural painkiller. Why do we kiss? When we pucker up, we are part of the estimated 90% of humankind that kisses in some way, shape, or form. Most of us are doing it, but why we’re all smooching is still not too clear. Some theorize that the origins of modern kissing are maternal. It’s thought that human mothers may have once fed their babies like birds do, by chewing food first and then pa
