A kiss for ten seconds passes 80 million bacteria – La Vanguardia

When a dating are given a Kiss passionate, each transferred eighty million bacteria to mouth the other, according to a study by the Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in the Netherlands.

Researchers have found that the type of bacteria living in the mouth is often more similar between boyfriends among people with no connection between them. And that the longer a couple, more like kissing is the composition of the microbiota of the saliva.

This affinity is due in part to the two people in a couple tend to have a similar lifestyle, with a similar diet and often about these oral habits. But also to modify the bacterial population of the mouth of the other with each kiss.

“The mouth to mouth contact has been observed in a variety of animals,” the researchers said in the journal Microbiome , which have presented their results. “But kissing with tongues full contact and exchange of saliva appear to be a unique courtship behavior of mankind and is common in over 90% of cultures.”

A study on the Zoo Amsterdam (Netherlands), the researchers approached couples who were kissing and asked help for a science project. They proposed that one of the two take a probiotic yoghurt and then return to kissing. Since yogurt contains abundant bacteria from the genera Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, which are a minority in the mouth, this would calculate how many bacteria are exchanged in a kiss.

Twenty couples agreed to such a strange request (nineteen heterosexual one for men and one for women). The results reveal that kiss ten seconds means an exchange of bacteria 160 million (80 million in each direction). This figure is relatively low compared to the total number of bacteria in the saliva of a person and that, according to the researchers, amounting to 1,200 million.

The study was completed a survey in which couples were asked about the frequency with which “intimate kisses” were given. The responses revealed that, from nine kisses a day, the composition of the microbiota of the saliva is virtually identical in a partner.

A final curious observation is that in three out of four partners, man said that they kissed more often than women. Men reported an average of ten kisses a day and women five. Researchers attribute the discrepancy to the masculine trend observed in previous studies, to exaggerate their amorous activity. A complementary explanation could be that some people describe as “intimate kissing” interactions that, for some women, are not worthy of the title.