Oxytocin

Category: HEALTHY AGING Hits: 157

Oxytocin has become the subject of studies in female sexual dysfunction specifically difficulty achieving orgasm. Oxytocin increases sexual receptivity and counteracts impotence. Higher levels of oxytocin in the blood have been associated with better health, more rapid healing, and critical for erections and orgasms.

Oxytocin is produced in the brain in an area called the hypothalamus. Oxytocin is also produced in smaller amounts in tissues such as the uterus, the ovaries, placenta, testicles, and the heart.

Research has shown how the effects of oxytocin on the body slowly dwindle down with advancing age, making the need for oxytocin supplementation progressively greater as years pass by. 

Oxytocin Beneficial Effects

Psychosocial: Sociability, kindness, attachment, deeper affective bonds, love, happiness, better mood, anxiety reduction especially for social contacts.

Physical: Protection against ischemia, blood pressure reduction, muscle relaxation, pain relief, appetite reduction, possible prevention of breast, ovarian and prostate cancer, potent anti-oxidant.

Sexual: Sexual arousal and drive, vaginal or glans penis lubrication, increase in penis or clitoris sensitivity to sexual contact, multiple orgasms or ejaculations, increased orgasm pleasure.

Attachment with Oxytocin

A major effect of oxytocin is its capacity to make you feel warmly attached to people and groups of people who bring security and stability such as the family. Oxytocin is the attachment hormone. The higher the level of oxytocin is in people the easier and more intense they attach themselves to others. Oxytocin increases attachment by appeasing the anxiety for encounters with other individuals, while it increases at the same time the please and excitement we feel for them.

The brain centers that control trust feelings and behavior are the amygdale. The amygdale is full of oxytocin receptors, oxytocin administration reduces amygdale activation and calms down fears.

Stress Coping with Oxytocin

Severe stressful situations recent or long ago in the past can lower oxytocin levels permanently. Oxytocin may attenuate stress feelings in us, making us cope with stress in a more relaxed way. Oxytocin reduces the anxiety that appears in stress conditions and creates a positive atmosphere wherein it is easier to find solutions to stressful problems. A supplementary benefit of oxytocin is that it minimizes several potential harmful physical consequences of stress such as increases in blood pressure, as well as levels of cortisol and ACTH, further calming down the body’s reaction to stress.

Hormone of Love

Oxytocin fills up the female body with warm feelings, infuses positive emotions, instills a sense of deep attachment, and is important for normal sexual arousal. Oxytocin increases lubrication; at orgasm peaks of oxytocin heightens the orgasmic experience, it intensifies contractions of the uterus, the vagina and the anus at orgasm. Another information further supports oxytocin’s enhancing effect on orgasm. Women who easily get multiple orgasms at one sexual encounter have higher levels of oxytocin.

Who Needs Oxytocin?

Not everyone needs oxytocin. The older we become, the greater the likelihood for us to have an oxytocin deficiency and a need for supplementation. Oxytocin is an essential hormone for all of us. An increase in oxytocin levels may help people become friendlier, more affectionate; enjoy being with the people around them. It may slightly increase their fear of losing them, but overall its bond-strengthening and social effects are strong enough to consider oxytocin as very beneficial to improve a person’s social skills and one’s personality and relationships. Oxytocin also boosts on all levels our sexuality. It increases the intensity and frequency of sexual experiences, making lovers more attracted and attached to each other, making them better ambassadors of love for their circles of friends and family.