How the Love Hormone “Oxytocin” Works

Scientists claim to have discovered the secret of sexual desire in a breakthrough that could change millions of lives around the world. They are developing a “wonder pill” to generate sex drive in both women and men who struggle with their libido. The pill would go one better than viagra because it creates desire. The Healthy Choice Compounding Pharmacy, located in Chappaqua, NY  already has a “wonder pill”  The Oxytocin Lozenge.  Read on to find out more about this natural love hormone: 

How The Love Hormone Oxytocin Works:                                                                                                                                Oxytocin is a love hormone because it helps people bond in relationships, set up appropriate psychological boundaries, and maintain intimate relationships.

What is Oxytocin?
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.

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.

The ‘wonder pill’ could generate sex drive in both men and women who struggle with their libido, going one better than Viagra. Scientists claim to have discovered the secret of sexual desire in a breakthrough that could change millions of lives around the world. They are developing a “wonder pill” to generate sex drive in both women and men who struggle with their libido. The pill would use a hormone that releases Type 2 gonadotropin, which drives the reproductive system in animals and humans. Tests on animals have proved successful and researchers at the Medical Research Council’s Human Reproductive Sciences Unit in Edinburgh are working on an equivalent for humans.

Basics regarding oxytocin: (for both men and women)
-oxytocin is the hormone that promotes “bonding” and “attachment” (the same hormone that gets released in huge amounts during child-birth and is partially responsible for mother-child bonding)
–of course such repeated frustration may breed reluctance to engage in the SAME behavior with the SAME partner (= low libido)
-this may contribute to the risk of female infidelity (infidelity = search for a partner with whom they can achieve a higher level of intimacy, subconsciously a search for more satisfying sexual bonding)
-possible evidence that supports this idea:
*women report fantasizing about sex with strangers (men who are not their partner) far more frequently than men; It has been reported as the #2 fantasy for females (#6 fantasy for men)
*men more often fantasize their current or past partners and sexual situation that have actually happened (generally reported as #1 or #2 fantasy for men)

Biological Psychiatryincludes a paper by “We are just beginning to understand the powerful effects of hormones and chemicals released by the body in the context of important social interactions,” 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.”(Science Daily)

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. (Science Daily)