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Love is just another addiction, Ontario university researcher says KITCHENER, Ont. (CP) - Love . . . it's an addiction, just like alcohol, cocaine or gambling, a researcher says. Chemically speaking, that ecstatic, floating-on-clouds feeling is exactly what addicts feel with a hit of alcohol or another addictive drug, said George Bubenik, a University of Guelph zoologist. Romantic love and drug addictions both make the body release hormones which trigger the production of dopamine, a brain chemical that floods the body with pleasure and is responsible for all addictions, Bubenik said. That might not seem romantic, but it sure helps explain the highs and lows of relationships. The intensity of falling in love is like the high from a drug. Especially during sex, so much dopamine can be produced that it can permanently rewire the brain. "If the sex is really good," said Bubenik, "you'll stay together for life. People with a good sex life will stay together even if the relationship is going sour." This is part of the reason some people stay in destructive or abusive relationships, he said. They should leave, but can't -because they're addicted to the feelings they have during sex with their partner. Meanwhile, if a relationship breaks up, there are traumatic feelings of anxiety, cravings that can't be satisfied, sadness, anger - feelings matched by anyone who's tried to quit smoking or drinking. Studies on animals show the hormone oxytocin, which is released during sex and triggers the production of dopamine, plays a large part in whether you mate for life. The prairie vole bonds for life when it copulates. "But if you block the oxytocin, they don't bond," Bubenik said. Unlike alcohol, heroin and tobacco, "no one ever proved that having too much sex will kill you," he said. http://www.vancouversun.com/cgi-bin/newsite.pl?adcode=n- mm&modulename=national%20news&template=national&nkey=vs&filet ype=fullstory&file=/cpfs/national/010209/n020980.html **************