What is Oxytocin in men?
Oxytocin is a hormone that acts as a neurotransmitter that is secreted by the pituitary gland. When one human being touches another human being there is a release of Oxytocin in both bodies. When you repeatedly hug, kiss, or have an orgasm there is a surge in oxytocin levels in the body. This is why it is also called a Bonding hormone or Cuddle hormone.
If you ever saw a girl and felt that she is the one then it’s Oxytocin that is talking. Oxytocin acts in the central nervous system on the neurons and develops emotional bonding between human beings. Usually, females release more oxytocin compared to men and that is why females get more attached or bonded to men, and men do get bonded but weakly.
Oxytocin is responsible for causing us to feel love, whether it’s love from a mother for her child or love between partners in an intimate relationship.
Functions of Oxytocin in men
Oxytocin plays a complex and nuanced role in the body’s social bonding: Oxytocin is the main hormone that helps individuals to bond socially. Oxytocin is necessary for modulating the formation of social memories, and also an expression of aggressive and affiliative behaviors.
- Sperm Movement: Oxytocin helps in the movement of sperm in male bodies. It acts on penile erectile tissues and stimulates ejaculation by promoting sperm transport.
- Testosterone: Oxytocin appears to affect the production of testosterone in testicles.
- Positive impact: Oxytocin is known to decrease stress and anxiety levels when released into certain parts of the brain. Oxytocin also helps people recover from negative social interactions.
- Pair bonding: In couples, oxytocin increases the mood, feeling of attachment, and also helps with sexual arousal or orgasms.
- Sexual activity: Oxytocin plays an important role in penile erection in men and also induces feelings of wanting to cuddle or having physical affectionate contact.
Implications of Oxytocin in Human behavior
- Autism: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a type of brain disorder that onsets during early childhood. The characteristics of this disorder include core social communication impairments as well as restricted, repetitive behaviors, which threaten the formation of appropriate social skills and the conservation of social relationships. The positive correlation between oxytocin and the formation of social bonds in animal studies has made many to believe that oxytocin abnormalities may play a role in autism.
Oxytocin therapy has the ability to reduce suffering in ASD patients by enhancing the quality of life through improved social potentials.
- Schizophrenia: A disorder that affects a person’s ability to think, feel and behave clearly is referred to as schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia may be like that they have lost their ideas with reality. Several early reports indicate that treatments with oxytocin-induced sudden therapeutic results and stayed away from hospitalization in patients with schizophrenia.
- Eating behaviour: Several studies conducted state that oxytocin is a powerful regulator of caloric intake and metabolism. A single dose of intranasally administered oxytocin seems to reduce male caloric intake, and these effects could become greater in them with the degree of obesity. Intranasal oxytocin acutely increases the burning of fat in order to use it up as a fuel for the bodily needs, but effects of the hormone in supplementing energy expenditure have not yet been manifested in man. Oxytocin also put forward some kind of novel therapeutic targets for both obesity and metabolic disorders.
- Well-being: Oxytocin causes a feeling of well-being such as calm, improved social interactions, trust, decreased fear, human bonding as well as hormonal and physiological changes. Oxytocin has the ability to induce the feelings of contentment, bring about the decrease in anxiety and causes a feeling of security and also calmness in the mate.
Oxytocin is also associated with stress linked behaviour, learning and even memory. The effects of oxytocin cause blood pressure reduction, calm and affiliative behaviour. Oxytocin is of potential use in well-being and applications in neuropsychiatric disorders. Additional studies reveal that patients with major depression hold markedly reduced levels of plasma oxytocin; low levels of oxytocin in plasma have been correlated with depressive symptoms. Oxytocin has been proven to serve as a potent antidepressant.
Conclusion
Oxytocin is a hormone with a variety of functions including social functioning, implications in human behavior, etc. A brief description of each function is covered in this article. Further studies are required to find out the role of oxytocin in cancer and eating behaviors.