THERE ARE 80 MILLION MICROBES SHARED IN A KISS- STUDY REVEALS

Ready for Valentine's day? Scientists say there are are 80 MILLION microbes in a kiss (but say most of them are harmless)

• 100-200 microbes species live in our mouths, most protect from infections
• Takes 9 kisses each day for couple's salivary microbiota to be similar
• Kissing may build up resistance from exposing yourself to more microbes

Kissing your partner far more than a show of affection - you're also sharing the 80 million bacteria that live in your mouth, scientists say.

Research shows that when couples kiss for at least 10 seconds their salivary microbiota becomes similar due to the transfer of microbes from one mouth to the other.

The findings come from a new study that investigated the 'effects of intimate kissing on the oral microbiota.'  

 

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Kissing your partner is a way to share your love with them, but you are also sharing 80 million bacteria that live in your mouth, researcher says. Research shows that when couples kiss for at least 10 seconds their salivary microbiota becomes similar due to the transfer of microbes from one mouth to the other

YOU'RE NOT JUST SHARING YOUR LOVE WHEN YOU KISS 

Researchers found couples share 80 million microbes during a 10 second intimate kiss.

When couples share an intimate kiss, their salivary microbiota become similar and it only takes nine kisses each day for this to occur. 

Kissing might also act as a form of immunization allowing you to build up resistance from exposing yourself to more microorganisms.

Other studies have found that every person has anywhere from 100 to 200 species of microbes living in their mouth, but most are harmless and actually protect us from infections. 

'Interestingly, the current explanations for the function of intimate kissing in humans include an important role for the microbiota present in the oral cavity, although to our knowledge, the exact effects of intimate kissing on the oral microbiota have never been studied,' said Remco Kort, from Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research.

'We wanted to find out the extent to which partners share their oral microbiota, and it turns out, the more a couple kiss, the more similar they are.' 

Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) recruited 21 couples to participate for a kissing study.