Phil Altman, R.Ph., Compounding Pharmacist, explains “What is Oxytocin”

Oxytocin is a hormone released after sex, when kissing, after twenty seconds of hugging, and is a hormonal cue of closeness and trust.

Oxytocin is the body’s natural wonder drug. It’s produced by the hypothalamus in the brain, and released into the bloodstream by the pituitary gland. Oxytocin was the first hormone to be discovered in the early 1900s, when veterinarians noticed that an extract of pituitary gland helped farm animals give birth. The name means “quick birth.” Scientists continue to discover more of its effects on our bodies and our emotions.

Oxytocin is the hormone that promotes “bonding” and “attachment” (the same hormone that gets released in huge amounts during childbirth and is partially responsible for mother-child bonding.)  Oxytocin is a love hormone because it helps people bond in relationships, set up appropriate psychological boundaries, and maintain intimate relationships.

What does it do to the body?

Oxytocin does play an important role in childbirth and lactation. It causes the muscle contractions that push the baby down the birth canal, and the pulses that push breast milk toward the nipples. For this reason many people think that only women produce oxytocin. In fact, men produce as much as women — and we all need it to stay physically healthy. Oxytocin helps us relax and cover from stress, lowering blood pressure. It makes us feel calmer and helps reduce sensitivity to pain, while improving the body’s ability to heal. Oxytocin also plays a critical role in our emotions. Released into the brain in social situations of all kinds, it’s responsible for trust, generosity, and all kinds of love and personal connection.

How does it affect men vs. women?

While men and women produce oxytocin in relatively equal amounts, when it comes to the emotional effects, there are strong differences. Testosterone seems to mute oxytocin’s bonding effects, while estrogen enhances them. This explains why it seems so much easier for women to bond with others — and why sex, which releases tons of oxytocin into the body and brain, seems more likely to make women fall in love.

Are any foods that help produce Oxytocin?

When your small intestine digests fat, it releases a chemical called CCK. CCK signals the brain to release oxytocin, which causes the smooth muscles of your gut to contract. This helps create the feeling of satiety after eating. Interestingly, the signal from the gut to the brain travels via the vagus nerve, which also carries sexual sensations to the brain. And, there’s evidence that the CCK signal also causes a release of oxytocin into the brain’s social centers.

Actions of Oxytocin within the brain:

Oxytocin secreted from the pituitary gland cannot re-enter the brain because of the blood-brain barrier. Instead, the behavioral effects of oxytocin are thought to reflect release from centrally projecting oxytocin neurons, different from those that project to the pituitary gland.  Oxytocin receptors are expressed by neurons in many  parts of the brain and spinal cord, including the amygdala, ventromedial hypothalamus, septum and brainstem.

News Article  from Science Daily:

“Love Potion #1 Human Hormone Increases Positive Communication Between Couples”

Science Daily (May 3, 2009) – Relationships are difficult and most of us probably think at some point that communicating positively with our partner when discussing stressful issues, like home finances, is an impossible task.  What if there was a safe way to take the “edge” off these discussions?  The biology of human social relations is just beginning to emerge as groundbreaking research on social cognition conducted in animals is now informing research in humans.  In its May 1st issue, Biological Psychiatry includes a paper by Swiss researchers that have investigated the effects of oxytocin, the “love hormone,” on human couple interactions.  They recruited adult couples who received oxytocin or placebo intranasally before engaging in a conflict discussion in the laboratory.  “Oxytocin increased positive communication behavior in relation to negative behavior and reduced salivary cortisol, i.e., their stress levels, compared to placebo.”  “We are just beginning to understand the powerful effects of hormones and chemicals released by the body  in the context of important social interaction,” commented John Krystal, M.D., the editor of Biological Psychiatry. “As this knowledge grows, the question of how to best use our developing capacities to pharmacologically alter social processes will become an important question to explore.”  Author Beate Ditzen, Ph.D., noted that this was the first study of its kind and important because it evaluated real-time natural couple behavior in the laboratory. “[Oxytocin] might help us to pronounce the effects of a standard treatment, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, by possibly making the benefits of social interaction more accessible to the individual.

Phil Altman, R.Ph.,

Compounding Pharmacist

References:

• http://www3.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090429091232.htm
• http://esciencenews.com/articles/2009/04/29/oxytocin.love.potion.1
• http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/how-love-hormones-work
• http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/02-08LoveHormone.asp
• http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/04/29/oxytocin-love-potion-1.htm1

If you would like to try the new Oxytocin Lozenge, contact:

The Healthy Choice

Compounding Pharmacy

6 South Greeley Avenue

Chappaqua, NY  10514

Tel: (914) 238-1700

Fax: (914) 238-1834

Related Articles:

As seen in Glamour Magazine, November 2009, page 126

What Happens When…

YOU KISS SOMEONE

by Mehmet Oz, M.D.,

(director of the Heart Institute

at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City)

Touching a person you love sets off powerful reactions in the body. One study by Swiss researchers found that young women who got brief shoulder rubs from their partners before a stressful event had lower heart rates and levels of stress hormones than women who didn’t get massages.  Touching also triggers the release of oxytocin, a hormone that boosts feelings of closeness and can reduce the perception of pain.  All of this happens whether you kiss, cuddle, hold hands or have sex.  I say do them all more often.  How’s that for a doctor’s order?

• ScienceBlog:  Gregarious Types May Have More Oxytocin Receptors
• Oxytocin Hormone:  The Cuddle Hormone is the Body’s Own Love Potion
• Endocrine Index: Oxytocin
• Breastfeeding Medicine: Effects of Intrapartum Oxytocin Administration and Epidural Analgesia on the Concentration of Plasma Oxytocin and Prolactin, in Response to Suckling During the Second Day Postpartum