Why it pays to work on your kissing technique

The intimacy of kissing creates a bond that can build a relationship, says Tanya Sweeney.

KISSING has a dramatic effect on our physiology. While increasing heart rate and blood pressure, it lights up the pleasure centres in the brain like a Christmas tree. And a one-minute kiss burns 26 calories. What’s not to like?

Years before my first kiss, I wondered constantly about it. Practising on the back of my hand wasn’t eliciting the same high. But the moment soon rolled around (aged 14, train to the Gaeltacht, Vanilla-Ice lookalike). It wasn’t so much go with the flow as go with the… rinse.