Word: oxytocin
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...modafinil), athletic enhancers (steroids, EPO), sexual-performance enhancers (Viagra), immune enhancers (vaccinations) and concentration enhancers (Ritalin). One can expect improved versions of these to become available in the short term. In addition, memory enhancers are currently in clinical trials. Perhaps there will be compounds that facilitate trust - such as Oxytocin - and encourage pair bonding, or improved diet pills, or treatments that slow the rate of aging and increase sustainable mental energy. Each intervention has to be judged on its merits, the benefits weighed against the costs and risks...
...with signing a marriage certificate. In fact, if anything changes, it might be the couples' biology - which may only worsen postwedding blues. When people are newly in love - or feel a rekindling of love just after getting engaged - their bodies release more of the feel-good hormones dopamine and oxytocin, which stimulate bonding. But as the relationship wears on, the levels of those hormones drop. That accounts in part for the fact that "in the transition from dating sex to married sex, the interest, frequency and effort goes down," says Gannon. But having less sex precisely when couples think they...
...poor-quality water--in Sierra Leone, I visited a traditional birth attendant who said she had delivered hundreds of babies in a windowless room in a slum of cramped shanties, with no indoor plumbing--there are new hazards. Afghanistan, for example, has seen growing sales of over-the-counter oxytocin, an injectable hormone that is used to stanch postpartum bleeding and speed labor but that can kill if administered incorrectly. Shamisa, a midwife, says that recently a heavily pregnant woman was brought to her rural Badakhshan clinic in a coma after being given a range of drugs by a pharmacist...
...shot of oxytocin is what you want, there are other, more natural ways to boost the hormone's production. Massage, petting a dog, even eating food with a friend can trigger the chemical's release, says Zak. So can sensorimotor, or "mind-body," therapies, like breathing exercises and yoga, which help people cope with their emotions by controlling their body's physical reaction to stress and fear. "We should look at other ways to juice the system without having to put two spoons of liquid up your nose every four hours," Zak says...
Preliminary findings may be intriguing, but most oxytocin researchers remain skeptical about its widespread clinical use and the notion of "paradise engineering." "If you feel safe and allow yourself to feel safe, you can learn, you can cooperate with others, you can build societies," says Carter. "Now does that mean we should run around and spray everyone with oxytocin? I don't think...