I’ve known about oxytocin for a long time. High school biology classes described it’s use as a hunger suppressant. Oxytocin is the link between you brain an stomach. Notice the delay after eating a lot and feeling full. It takes time for the hormone levels to change in the blood stream. It’s relation to pregnancy; triggering the uterine birth contractions and activating breast milk production. What they left out are it’s effects on emotions. Perhaps, Love Potion No. 9 is Oxytocin.
Hmmm.. So, what would happen with a Ecstasy/Oxytocin cocktail? The potion that will make him/her fall for someone “against” their will?
Oxytocin: A hormone for Love MorganWelt.de by Irina Bosse
But love consists of something else as well… emotions that have nothing to do with physical lust.
In interviews, loving couples demonstrated that love takes on a whole new dimension, once the “high” of the first exhilaration has subsided. Many named security, closeness and trust as the common denominators for their feelings in a longstanding partnership. Researchers now believe that even this deep bond is a hormonal predilection, instilled in us to safeguard long-term family planning.
Professor Helen Fisher, biological anthropologist at Rutgers University (NY) is convinced that a distinct chemical system is responsible for our varying love feelings: “We know that libido in men and women is primarily governed by testosterone, and also by estrogen in many animals. Close bonding, the third crucial emotion, has to do with oxytocin and vasopressine. These are substances in the brain that impart the feeling of deep affection.”
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Quite by accident, it was discovered that oxytocin also directly influences our sexual behavior. The hormone was administered as a nasal spray in the course of a study on memory. It was thought that it would improve powers of memory, and that is exactly what was being tested. The results were not quite what the researchers had expected. Instead of outstanding feats of memory, many test persons reported a slightly different side effect: an erection.
The hormone researchers found this phenomenon no less interesting. In a further experiment which purposely stimulated the unexpected side effect, they were able to decipher the connection. After giving blood, volunteers were asked to masturbate with sexual aids of their choice, all in the name of science.
The blood samples provided insight into individual oxytocin levels before, during and after the erection. The results were unequivocal: during an erection, oxytocin levels rose to three times their normal level within seconds. Prior to the next measurement series, the test persons were given a drug that blocked oxytocin production. The astounding result: they still got an erection, but this time without any sensation.
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Cuddle Hormone by Susan Barker
In China, which enjoys a far lower birth-related morbidity rate than the United States, cool showers, which would stimulate the nipples and cause the brain to release its own oxytocin, are advised when labor needs a boost. In the United States, too, midwives have long known the benefits of applying ice to the nipples of women whose labor is stalled, Witt said.
These natural means of releasing oxytocin have several advantages over intravenous injections of the hormone, Witt said.
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In addition, studies show that oxytocin in females, as well as the closely related vasopressin in males, is key to pair bonding.
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“What’s behind it?” she added. “It could be oxytocin.”
Since the release of oxytocin can be classically conditioned, after repeatedly having sex with the same partner, just seeing that partner could release more oxytocin, making you want to be with that person all the more, and you bond, she said.
But just as oxytocin is linked to the positive aspects of bonding, Witt thinks there’s every reason to suspect that pathological conditions – situations in which bonding breaks down or is established inappropriately -might well be linked to oxytocin, too.
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The Science of Love
And finally … how to fall in love
* Find a complete stranger.
* Reveal to each other intimate details about your lives for half an hour.
* Then, stare deeply into each other’s eyes without talking for four minutes.
York psychologist, Professor Arthur Arun, has been studying why people fall in love. He asked his subjects to carry out the above 3 steps and found that many of his couples felt deeply attracted after the 34 minute experiment. Two of his subjects later got married.
Actually, a study found that ecstasy seems to cause the release of oxytocin; that’s probably why people feel that sense of connection when they take the drug.