The Allure of Oxytocin

I know I've been completely MIA for about two months now, and I'm very sorry about that. I guess I've just been procrastinating a lot. But I'm back now, and I'm going to be posting a lot of stuff more regularly. As for today, we're going to be talking about something that's very interesting to me right now: Oxytocin, also known as the "love hormone".

This week on the radio, we're talking about "true love", whether the length of time of two people knowing each other contributes to how "true" the love is, and "sex". Whilst I was doing research on that yesterday, I came across oxytocin. I've heard about oxytocin before, but I only knew the basics of it. It wasn't until yesterday that it really caught my attention and I proceeded to do massive research on the "love hormone".

What is oxytocin?

Image via vividtimes.com

Oxytocin (Chemical Formula C43H66N12O12S2) is a hormone secreted from the posterior pituitary, but it's actually produced in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is located under the thalamus, which is known as the center of our brain. (A quick FYI, the word "hypo" means "under".)

What does oxytocin do?

Oxytocin is a protein-based hormone, famously known as the "cuddle" hormone or the "love" hormone. What oxytocin does is it increases the desire to gaze into each other's eyes, creates sexual arousal, and maintain erection for males. During orgasm, the brain is flooded with oxytocin. That's why some couples like to cuddle after sex.

Oxytocin is especially vital for women because during childbirth, it helps stimulate uterine contractions, which means it regulates the contraction pattern and sometimes even speeds up labor. This is why in some cases, oxytocin is administered as Pitocin for women during labor. After childbirth, oxytocin also plays an important role in the ejection of breast-milk. Basically, the suckling sends a trigger to hypothalamus which then releases oxytocin. In addition to that, it almost makes mothers feel more nurturing, and it creates love and bond with the newborn.

Image via brainpickings.org

This is very interesting because I was reading an article yesterday about why men love breasts. Apparently, it's all about evolution. One of the ways to trigger oxytocin is through sexual stimulation, including breasts stimulation. When a man stimulates a woman's breasts, oxytocin goes crazy all over her system and it helps create bond and love between the couple; hence, ensuring that the mating becomes stronger.

On top of all that, oxytocin also helps with the contraction of uterus for mensus, meaning it helps the uterus shed its lining during menstrual periods. It's the same hormone that causes genital contractions during an orgasm. During sexual intercourse, oxytocin causes a reverse peristalsis to help draw sperms in. Of course, this is very vital for reproduction. 

Generally, oxytocin has been observed that it enforces empathy, emotional bonding, more restful sleep, lower blood pressure, reduce stress, less pain, improve healing, weight loss, and generosity. According to an article by Psychology Today, oxytocin has been experimented as one of the treatments for autism.

The recognition of facial emotion may also be difficult for many with autism, and again oxytocin administration in people with and without autism can improve their ability to recognize facial expressions and emotions. Oxytocin has also been shown to result in increased cooperation and social interaction in people with autism when playing games with other players.

Other triggers for oxytocin

Besides from the various triggers above, oxytocin is triggered by social interactions such as hugging, shaking hands, gazing at someone, thinking about someone, hugging/playing with pets, and of course, the most important one, sexual intercourse. In females, oxytocin is also triggered when there's a low level of progesterone.

Those were the goods, what about the bads?

Of course, like everything else in life, oxytocin can't always be good. According to the Association for Psychological Science:

“Quite a number of studies have shown it’s actually not that simple,” says Andrew Kemp of the University of Sydney, who cowrote the paper with his colleague Adam Guastella. Recent studies have found that people who were given oxytocin, then played a game of chance with a fake opponent, had more envy and gloating. These are also both social emotions, but they’re negative. “It kind of rocked the research world a little bit,” Kemp says. That led some researchers to think that oxytocin promotes social emotions in general, both negative and positive.

Image via wallpaperscraft.com

There you go, guys, that is the basic that you need to know about oxytocin. Personally, it's my favorite hormone thus far, because I'm a sucker when it comes to love, sex and orgasm. Leave a comment down below to let me know what your thoughts are on the "love" hormone. I'll be back real soon with another hot post. Be sure to check in, guys! Don't forget to go hug, cuddle or just make love with your loved one to get some dose of that oxytocin.

Love, Catherine

XOXO