Love is healthy more than ever. A team of researchers from the University of Sydney and the University of Regensburg (Australia) has discovered that oxytocin – popularly known as the “love hormone”, can have a surprising effect relative to alcohol: neutralize its effect by preventing alcohol intoxication due to to the increased production of hormones in our brain during acts of intimacy.
The experiment, carried out with mice, went through different phases. First, they looked at the effects of alcohol on rodents that dozed off in one corner of the cage while under the influence of alcohol and scamped all over the cage when they were sober. Later, a third group of mice were injected with oxytocin before giving them alcohol, discovering that oxytocin mitigated its effect, allowing them to run and move around the cage as if they had not ingested any alcoholic substance .
“We discovered that oxytocin blocks the effects of alcohol intoxication and prevent it from acting on places in the brain that are linked to the effect of alcohol intoxication ; for example, it almost completely reversed the effects of alcohol ”(such as muscle relaxation), explains Michael Bowen, a co-author of the study.
Thanks to this study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , experts believe that if these same conclusions can be confirmed in humans – the next step in research – it would help make great strides in the fight against alcoholism , since there could be a drug based on oxytocin that would reduce the number of alcohol poisonings as well as the accidents related to its consumption.
