With multiple functions in our body and behavior, oxytocin or oxytocin is a neurohormone that offers a series of benefits for our body and emotions.
Promotes maternal and paternal attitudes towards sexual intercourse, socio-emotional relationships, childbirth and relationships of trust and friendship. By these and other virtues, many call it “the molecule of love. “
- Oxytocin.
- Secreted by the pituitary gland (better known as the pituitary gland).
- Is considered the love hormone and the great star of maternal and paternal behavior.
Physically promotes motherhood, both during childbirth and during lactation. It is released in large amounts to stretch the vagina during childbirth, but also reacts to nipple stimulation when the baby breasts.
It also acts on sexual patterns, as it is associated with loving contact and orgasm. Once in the bloodstream, it produces a number of after-sex effects.
In both men and women, sexual climax causes an important flow of this hormone, thus facilitating the circulation of sperm and contraction of muscles in reproductive channels of both sexes.
In addition, it has been shown that after sex, when testosterone and endorphins of ejaculated sperm meet the cervical wall, women receive a lot of testosterone, endorphin and oxytocin.
On the other hand, men, after orgasm, experience an increase in endorphins and a marked increase in oxytocin levels, which generates relaxing and protective sensations.
He has won the title of Molecule of Love because he is involved in social relations, in recognition and appreciation, in the formation of relationships of trust and generosity, affection, tenderness and touch as a demonstration of affection.
In other words, a simple hug, caress, or kiss can be oxytocin triggers.
For some, oxytocin is the hormone of monogamy. Research from the University of Bonn administered this hormone or placebo using a nasal spray to a group of heterosexual men.
The aim was to study how they would react to an attractive woman, to do so they had to indicate the extent to which they considered the woman appropriate and which they found uncomfortable.
Scientists found that in the volunteer group, married or committed men who had received the hormone wanted to be further away from the woman than those who had received placebo.
However, this was not the case for single men. According to its authors, the study provides the first evidence that oxytocin can play a key role in human fidelity.
Oxytocin is the great mother, governs loving behavior towards offspring and is considered the hormone of attachment; exercises the instinct that protects and collaborates in the development and growth of the fetus.
For example, when the mother breastfeeds her children, oxytocin acts on the mammary glands, causing milk to secrete in a collection chamber, from which it can be removed by sucking the nipple.
On the other hand, babies recognize the maternal voice that activates the production of oxytocin, which in turn mainly influences the attachment between mother and child and the behavior of the baby; the mother’s voice comforts and reassures the child, who feels protected by his mother. .
Some research shows that oxytocin levels are high in lovers, especially in mature relationship lovers.
Its function is associated with contact and orgasm. This provokes in girls feminine and maternal attitudes that provide a great sensitivity in romantic contacts, this is one of the reasons why romantic fantasies are common among teenage girls.
On the other hand, the male teenager, who produces litres of testosterone circulating in the blood, is more concerned with quickly sexualizing the bond, but that doesn’t mean men don’t fantasize romantically or fall in love.
In this sense, paternity can decrease testosterone levels in men, as the loving and protective behaviors provided by the hormone oxytocin appear; however, few men decrease their sexual libido in the face of their wife’s pregnancy.
There is also interesting evidence demonstrating the effects of oxytocin on self-confidence, generosity and reducing social fear.
In a set of risk investments, the volunteers interviewed who received nasally administered oxytocin showed twice the confidence level of the other group.
Maintaining the genesis of Homo sapiens, the sociable tendency of primitive females caused them to come together to defend themselves against the aggression of certain males.
In some species of monkeys there is also this phenomenon: if a monkey of prominent stature threatens a female, the others run in their defense and with their cries keep the aggressor away.
This may be one of the reasons why women come together so often to speak so intimately, complicitly and lovingly, it is an activity that gives them a lot of pleasure and is stimulated by dopamine.
Dopamine has many functions in the brain, including important functions in behavior and cognition, motivation and reward, sleep, learning, mood, attention, among others.
It is often associated with the brain’s pleasure system, providing feelings of reinforcement to motivate a person to perform certain activities proactively.
Additionally, dopamine participates in naturally rewarding experiences like food, sex, certain medications, and the neutral stimuli that may be associated with them.
The combination of oxytocin and dopamine provides the pleasure of intimacy in the women’s universe, especially when estrogen is high.
According to some animal studies, oxytocin inhibits the development of tolerance to various addictive drugs (cocaine, opiates, alcohol) and reduces withdrawal symptoms, as well as balances emotions and eliminates anxiety, panic, agoraphobia, phobia, stress, etc.
The disappearance or decrease of social phobia behaviors has been observed due to increased levels of oxytocin, and may also help treat certain psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia or autism.
Depending on the emotional and social, another hormone, vasopressin, complements the actions of oxytocin in the couple. It acts in the defense of the territory, delimits the limits of what is considered the right place, the private and the intimate.
Neuroendocrine studies have shown that, to a large extent, the bond of mature couples that lasts throughout the reproductive stages depends on the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin (increased brain during sex and the birth of children).
Vasopressin is the hormone that helps maintain the relationship of partner, activates aggressive behaviors to defend the partner and family territory, which also prevents women from having sex with other men and thus ensuring paternity.
Love can be considered an addictive drug and has important side effects.
As a study by the Albert Einstein School of Medicine points out, when love ends, as well as when a person is addicted, the consequences of addiction are so strong that they can lead to serious depressive and obsessive behaviors.
In this sense, love can cause emotional dependence because, in love, various chemical compounds and hormones are released, such as dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin.
That’s why when we’re in love it causes excitement, we’re full of energy, motivated, and we recover easily with a few hours of sleep.
Some authors claim that when this chemical cascade contracts, many people interpret it as a loss of love, what is really happening is that neural receptors have already become accustomed to this excess chemical flow and that the lover must increase the dose to continue to feel the same way.
The brain needs a recovery process to return to normal hormone levels and it takes time to regain its stability.
In this sense, oxytocin helps to create permanent links between lovers after the first wave of emotion, which works by changing the connections of billions of neural circuits.
However, we must not forget that oxytocin is an endogenous substance, that is, it is secreted by the brain and acts as a drug for use: it releases transmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine or serotonin.
These neurotransmitters allow the brain to flood with phenylethylamine (also known as the “passion hormone”, a chemical compound in the amphetamine family). Chocolate is rich in this compound, so it is common for excessive amounts to be consumed during “love problems”. “.
Oxytocin also plays an important role in jealousy, when we are betrayed we lose confidence, lower oxytocin levels and increase cortisol levels (since stress is a factor that accompanies problems and cortisol is the protagonist).
However, we cannot understand the release of neurotransmitters or hormones only from a biological sense, behaviors, thoughts, beliefs, values, emotions, ideas, prejudices, experiences or fantasies can also lead to a more or less important release of hormones.
Neurotransmitters and hormones such as Serotonin, Endorphins and Oxytocin are a triad that helps reduce high levels of cortisol in times of stress, so physical activity, quiet spaces and emotional ties (family, friends) produce the benefit of combating stress and achieving a state of well-being and happiness.