MD Custom Rx can help bring that spark back into your love life. PART 2 of 3
Oxytocin – The Love Hormone
It’s no secret that romantic connections can be just as influential on your health as balanced eating, exercise and plenty of sleep. Cuddling and other sexual behaviors between people actually trigger the release of stress-reducing hormones, flooding the brain with “feel good” substances, like endorphins, dopamine and the amazing oxytocin.
Oxytocin is a very interesting hormone and plays a crucial role in adding that SPARK to a relationship. This “love hormone” is also referred to as “the cuddle hormone.” Oxytocin’s role in sexual response is primarily to facilitate attraction and touch sensation.1 Oxytocin is released in the brain in response to touch; hugs, kisses, caress. So let’s think about this – Without adequate oxytocin there’s no desire or interest in being touched and it’s awfully difficult to initiate sex without touch. With oxytocin the desire to be touched increases and further touch results in the release of more oxytocin, which results in more touching and BINGO before you know it you actually want to have sex [again]!
While there is yet no reliable blood test for oxytocin, there are many symptoms that point to an insufficiency – persistently cold hands and feet, anxiety, lack of orgasms or very short/rare orgasms, low libido, vaginal dryness, and an inability to bond with or relate to your significant other.
This “love hormone” may also play a vital role in the ability for men to make love in that it has a role in causing an erection during sexual arousal.2, 3 Research done by Arletto and Pedersen showed that oxytocin increase sexual receptivity and can counteract impotence.4
Research has shown from women, not only is oxytocin released during orgasm, it appears to be responsible for causing orgasms in the first place. Oxytocin has also become the subject of studies in female sexual dysfunction, specifically in women who experience difficulty achieving orgasm, those with Female Orgasmic Disorder, those with Female Arousal Disorder, or for those women who just desire a more powerful or multiple orgasms.5 During peak sexual arousal, if a woman’s brain is flooded with oxytocin, she may indeed be capable of multiple orgasms.6 Oxytocin is a powerful vasodilator and plays a role in delivering blood to the vagina and sexual organs. Oxytocin vaginal cream can be the answer for many women. Oxytocin causes genital nerves to fire spontaneously, which leads to orgasm and a heightened sexual experience overall.
Other benefits of oxytocin include a reduction in cravings, reduced stress, improved wound healing, and improved immune response.
Oxytocin is destroyed in the gastrointestinal tract, so it is generally administered by nasal spray, or sublingual dosage form. MD Custom Rx currently compounds oxytocin sublingual tablets, oxytocin nasal spray and oxytocin vaginal cream by prescription.
References:
1. Gutierrez MA, Stimmel GL. Management of and Counseling for Psychotropic Drug-Induced Sexual Dysfunction. www.medscape.com accessed Sep 2008.
2. Zhonghua Nan Ke Xue. 2011 Jun;17(6):558-61. Oxytocin and male sexual function.
3. Argiolas, A and Melis, M. Cagliari. Oxytocin-Induced Penile Erection, Role of Nitric Oxide, Italy: 247; 1995. Plenum Press, New York.
4. Marnia The Big ‘O’ Isn’t Orgasm. [Last accessed on 2011 Aug 7]. Available from: http://www.reuniting.info/science/oxytocin_health_bonding .
5. Oxytocin Cellular and Molecular Approaches in Medicine and Research. Increased female sexual response after Oxytocin. Anderson-Hunt M and Dennerstein L. Brit Med J 309:929: 236; 1994 Plenum Press, New York.
6. Carmichael MS, Humbert R, Dixen J, et al. Plasma Oxytocin increases in the human sexual response. J Clin Endcrinol Metab, 1987. 64:27-31.