Love is all about us

9:35 PM

Monday, February 26, 2007

Hello!!! Wow, this is probably the eighth post on oxytocin already! By now you should know quite a lot about oxytocin, so here are some common questions asked about oxytocin. You can test yourself, too!

Q. What is oxytocin?

A. Oxytocin is a hormone that is produced in the body, which is released during arousal, excitement, orgasm stages of sexual response cycle and non-sexual physical content. It causes feelings of warmth, relaxation and decrease in stress. It is related to feelings of love and emotional connections between two parties.

Q. What is the use of Oxytocin?

A. Oxytocin is used to stimulate breastfeeding; it is being released during breastfeeding to help the breast to eject milk. It also stimulates uterine contractions of the uterus during conceiving so as to induce labour.

Q. What are some of the side effects when using oxytocin?

A. One may suffer from nausea, vomiting and more intense or abrupt contractions of the uterus. In severe cases, one would experience breathing difficulty, swelling of mouth, irregular heartbeat, heavy bleeding after childbirth and even blood clotting problems etc.

Q. What happens when there is insufficient or no oxytocin present ?

A. One will suffer from deficit in social recognition. These causes people to face difficulty in social interactions. One will face difficulty in defining emotions. In severe conditions, a mother suffering from lack of oxytocin would not have a natural bond with her child and it may cause danger to the child as the mother suffers form impaired nurturing abilities.

That's about it.. hope this post clarifies your doubts about oxytocin. (=

Love is all about us

5:34 AM

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Hey! :D Today I shall blog about how oxytocin affects stress level and also how it may be a treatment for autism.

Let's talk about how oxytocin is related to stress now

Stress and Oxytocin

Do you know that the level of oxytocin in one’s body affects how stress one feels?

In a stressful situation, both sexes produce the hormone oxytocin. Shelley E. Taylor, the main researcher of a study conducted by the University of California, suggested that this hormone has a significant effect on our body, and that animals and people with high levels of oxytocin are calmer, more relaxed, more social and less anxious. In several species, oxytocin leads to maternal behaviour and to affiliation.

However, this hormone reacts differently with the gender-specific hormones, oestrogen and testosterone, which results in the difference in the ability to cope with stress for men and women. The testosterone in men counteracts the calming effects of oxytocin, while women's oestrogen enhances it.

This actually means that women may be able to cope with stress better than men! Haha!

Anyway let's move on to see how oxytocin might be a treatment for autism.

Oxytocin Touted As Autism Treatment

Do you know what is autism? Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder of children, characterised by impaired communication, excessive rigidity, and emotional detachment.

So how is autism related to oxytocin? Well, some studies have shown that oxytocin might be a cure for autism!
The annual meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (wow, what a long word!) has been told that oxytocin may have significant positive effects on adult autism patients. The study examined the effects of oxytocin - sometimes referred to as the trust drug (remember the oxytocin trust spray? Hehe.)- on repetitive behaviors and aspects of social cognition in adults with autism.

Autism could be a good candidate for treatment with oxytocin as it presents with the types of symptoms that have been found to be associated with oxytocin. Studies with animals have found that oxytocin plays a role in a variety of behaviors, including parent-child and adult-to-adult pair bonding, social memory, social cognition, anxiety reduction and repetitive behaviors.

In the study, adults with autism received an intravenous infusion of pitocin (synthetic oxytocin) over a four-hour period. During that time, participants were monitored for repetitive behaviours that are hallmarks of autism spectrum disorders including the need to tell/ask, touching, and repeating.

The study found that the infusion of pitocin produced results that were both clinically and statistically significant, bringing about a rapid reduction of repetitive behaviors over the course of the oxytocin infusion.

The researchers also looked at the effects of oxytocin on social cognition (autism patients are often unable to detect or read emotion in others through facial and voice cues). To test the participants' ability to assign significance to speech, participants listened to pre-recorded sentences with neutral semantic content that were presented with different intonations such as anger, sadness, or happiness. Participants were then asked to identify the emotion. Interestingly, participants who received oxytocin on the first testing day retained the ability to assign affective significance to speech when they returned approximately two weeks later. This effect was not found among participants who received the placebo on the first testing day.

Though the findings are promising, this research is still very preliminary. Researchers need to understand more about the safety of these potential treatments, particularly before these effects are explored in autistic children.

If such treatments are proven to be useful and safe, it’ll be a great help to people with autism, and help them to lead normal lives! Wouldn’t that be a great discovery?

(http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-12/g-nrs120106.php)

Anyway, here are just some extra information on autism:



Looks like oxytocin is a really useful hormone, right? =D

Love is all about us

9:24 AM

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Hello! (: Chinese New Year holidays are over, and now we are back in school again (sigh!). Anyway hope everyone had fun collecting angbaos! Haha. Ok let's get back to learning more about oxytocin.

Having seen all the various aspects of oxytocin, today we will be looking at the problems of using oxytocin on both humans and animals.

Risks of Using Oxytocin

As mentioned before, oxytocin is used in breast-feeding and it causes milk to be present in the mother’s breasts. Oxytocin can be given as a nasal spray to help breast-feeding women who are experiencing poor milk let-down during the first few days of breast-feeding.
However, oxytocin nasal spray should not be used by pregnant women because it may cause uterine contractions and miscarriage. Other side effects may include irritation of the inside of the nose, uterine bleeding and/or contractions, watering eyes and headache. Hence, one must be really cautious in using oxytocin nasal spray!

Other forms of use of oxytocin include Pitocin and Syntocinon. Pitocin is the trademark name that King Pharmaceuticals uses for its synthetic oxytocin. It is a clear liquid that is injected into an intravenous drip(into a vein) so that it may help to start a labour or speed up a slow labour etc.

Risks of using Pitocin are as followed:

(a) Increased pain with contractions.
(b) Long contractions with double peaks.
(c) High possibility of a uterine rupture and likelihood of depressed fetal heart rate patterns.

Ouch>.< Looks like one really has to be careful about using oxytocin.

Ok I shall end here. Anyway good luck to everyone for the upcoming tests! Byee(:

Love is all about us

8:15 PM

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Yo yo! I believe after reading our last few posts on oxytocin, you should have quite a good idea on what oxytocin is and how oxytocin works. Today's entry will be on some ethical issues pertaining oxytocin.

Ethical Issues Pertaining Oxytocin
Well, do you know that oxytocin may have the ability to actually manipulate the level of trust between people?

Hmm, sounds cool? Now, what does manipulating the level of trust between people imply? Is it an important issue to know about? Well, this violates the trust between people. Let me illustrate a simple example: Guy A likes this girl B, but sadly, this girl doesnt like this guy! So, the chemistry of love can be build up by using oxytocin. After letting the girl consume oxytoxin, she might like the guy after all! Doesn't this sound magical? Well, that's when the problem arises. This girl doesn't like the guy in the first place but due to some medical dosage, she is induced to do something out of her own free will. Now, does this example allow u to understand the problems pertaining oxytocin? =)

Now let's discuss on other matters regarding oxytocin that is much more grave. If it is true that oxytocin can increase the level of trust, what will happen if the government uses it on the people? The political parties would be able to gain the people’s trust without earning it and it could result in drastic situations like amending rules enforce laws, which will benefit them and not the people! Isn’t that unfair?! Not only that, imagine what will happen in places like school and companies etc. Teachers, employers could just spray oxytocin on students and employees and they will listen to them. In other words, they may be under the control of others! This no doubt violates human rights. I myself wouldn’t want this to happen. Would you?

All in all, manipulating one’s trust brings about serious consequences. The victim will be more gullible, affecting the person’s sense of judgment and they may end up in dangerous situations. No doubt, this would benefit the person using such a method to gain people's trust, but has it occurred to you that this person could be making use of oxytocin to perform illegal actions, and in this democratic society, it just isn’t fair for people to be controlled and manipulated by others. Although this may seem to be a positive alternative for couples who want to ignite their love for each other so as to maintain a steady relationship, but after taking other issues into account, I feel that products such as the oxytocin trust sprays would bring more harm than good. It would probably be better for these sprays to be banned. Don't you agree?

This is an example of consumable oxytocin.

So these are just some of the ethical issues regarding oxytocin. Hope you enjoyed reading this post! Anyway, have a great CNY holiday! ((:

Love is all about us

6:45 PM

Monday, February 19, 2007

Hey! After learning so much about oxytocin and the importance of it, the next question is, what happens when our oxytocin hormone malfunctions? Read on to find out! =D

Oxytocin malfunction

When our oxytocin is working…
Some researchers did a research to find that our ability to love and bond to others arises from the activation of certain brain circuits that are thought to help reinforce behaviors by producing feelings of pleasure or reward. For example, in one recent study, researchers used imaging techniques to highlight the brain activity of people experiencing romantic love or maternal love. Participants in the romantic group professed to be "deeply, and madly in love" with a lover. Researchers measured the groups' brain activity while they viewed pictures of their lover compared with pictures of friends. In the maternal group, mothers viewed pictures of their infants, compared with pictures of other babies. The study found that regions in the brain's reward system were active in those experiencing romantic love or maternal love. Also, the areas coincide with some regions where oxytocin and vasopressin are active.

When our oxytocin is not working…
A lack of genes for oxytocin receptors results in a deficit in social recognition. Some researches have indicated that these hormone systems may malfunction in people who have difficulties with social interaction. Included are those with autism who also tend to have problems communicating and often repeat activities again and again. One study discovered that a group of children with autism had lower levels of oxytocin in their blood than a group of normal children, suggesting that their oxytocin systems were failing.

Researchers found that infusions of oxytocin reduced repetitive behaviors in adults with autism while they were receiving the hormone.





In these two images, the blue coloring signals where oxytocin can create actions in the vole brain and the red coloring signals where vasopressin can create actions. Some of these highlighted brain areas are thought to be associated with reward. Researchers believe that oxytocin and vasopressin create bonding in mammals, and possibly humans, by activating brain areas that produce feelings of pleasure or reward, which helps reinforce behaviors.

In the case where there is oxytocin deficiency, clinically significant problems rarely occurs. Oxytocin is most important during labor and delivery at the end of pregnancy, and can be replaced in that circumstance by pitressin.

(http://www.sfn.org/index.cfm?pagename=brainBriefings_loveAndTheBrain)

Anyway, hope you have a better understanding of the effects when oxytocin in our body malfunctions. Ok, I'm pretty tired now, so good night! See you tomorrow! =)

Love is all about us

7:34 PM

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Hello! As we learnt in one of the earlier entries, humans with high levels oxytocin are calmer and more social. What about in animals? Do oxytocin affect animals in the same way? That's what we are going to find out today.

Oxytocin in animals
Animals with high levels of oxytocin are calmer, more relaxed, more social and less anxious. In several animal species, oxytocin leads to maternal behavior and to affiliation.

These are some of the uses of oxytocin in animals:

• The primary use of oxytocin is to induce labor in animals having weak or no contractions. The drug enhances uterine contractions at the time of fetal delivery.
• Oxytocin is also used medically to expel any residual placental material that might be left in the uterus, preventing the subsequent development of metritis
• Oxytocin helps to stimulate milk release after delivery.
  

For example, mice that are unable to secrete oxytocin due to targeted disruptions of the oxytocin gene will show deficits in milk ejection and have subtle derangements in social behaviour.

Here are some studies involving oxytocin in mammals:
In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers used mice to show that oxytocin’s receptor may also facilitate the formation of trust demonstrated through social bonding. The hormone uses a receptor to bind to a cell and perform its duties.

The results showed that male and female mice that lacked the oxytocin receptor had problems forming trust and establishing normal social relationships. For example, female mice lacking the oxytocin receptor had impaired nurturing abilities and were slow to retrieve their pups when they wandered off. Male mice lacking the receptor tended to be more aggressive toward other males and had "social amnesia" when reintroduced to a female. The males also had less vocalized calls and a greater tendency to move around and explore.

In another series of studies in mice-like animals, known as prairie voles, which have a penchant for monogamy (having only one ‘love’ partner), indicate that oxytocin, as well as another hormone called vasopressin, are important for social attachment. For example, researchers found that supplements of either one of these hormones increase the voles' social contact with other voles and their development of a preference for a familiar partner. When voles receive a compound that blocks the activity of either hormone, supplements of the hormones do not create any partner preference and social contact is low.

What about in other animals?

Cattles
If you want to obtain trivial amounts of milk from animals like dairy cattle, you have to stimulate oxytocin release because around 80% of the milk is available only after ejection, and milk ejection requires oxytocin. Watch someone milk a cow, even with a machine, and what you'll see is that prior to milking, the teats and lower udder are washed gently - this tactile stimulation leads to oxytocin release and milk ejection.


Dogs
Oxytocin is used in cases when you suspect that your dog starts to get fatigued or that there is a uterine atonia, which can be derived from tiredness or the lack of muscular tone. But its administration must be very meditated and rigorously controlled, always keeping note of how much you have administered, depending on the size and weight of the dog. In any case, you should proceed if the dog has not had the uterine dilatation, either by natural means or by the administration of a certain amount of a uterine dilator. If you administer oxytocin before the first birth, it can rupture the uterus, with irreparable consequences like the death of the female dog. =x

(http://www.petplace.com/drug-library/oxytocin/page1.aspx)
(http://arbl.cvmbs.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/hypopit/oxytocin.html)

Wow, looks like oxytocin plays a really important role in animals, just like how they do in humans!

Love is all about us

6:53 PM