Hi Patio
I always enjoy your thought-provoking posts, and ate this one up. The following article appeared in this morning's paper, and it is only loosely related to your topic, but I thought you might enjoy reading it nonetheless.
I highlighted the blue sentance because of the orgasm reference; (I endured celibacy and faithfully adhered the no-self-touch doctrine for years while a dub) I often wondered if there was a physiological disadvantage to living orgasmlessly. I wondered if the sexual malnourishment (if not outright starvation) of most active borg-devotees whether married or not was imposed by old, bitter men in New York rather than true "direction from the creator" I know now that there are many physical, emotional, and spiritual advantages to the art of sexuality and orgasming on a regular basis, and I recommend it most emphatically (safe, sane, consensually of course).
Happy Sunday, lauralisa
http://www.startribune.com/stories/389/3166165.html
Stress research turns to hormone linked to bonding behavior
Judy Foreman
Published Aug 18, 2002
FORE18
Do men and women handle stress differently? Or, to put it more provocatively, do women have a built-in hormonal advantage when it comes to dealing with chronic stress?
That's the (highly loaded) question at the heart of a body of research.
The case for this feminist theory of stress management is circumstantial -- built largely on inferences from animal studies and, at some points, frank leaps of faith. Still, the hypothesis has intuitive appeal, at least to women.
For decades, scientists who study the body's physiological response to stress have focused on the "fight or flight" model. This view says that when an animal perceives danger, a number of hormones kick into action to rev up heart rate and blood pressure, get sugar to the muscles and generally speed things up to fight predators or get out of harm's way, fast.
There is absolutely no question that both males and females have -- and need -- this system.
But this view of stress is both male-biased and incomplete, say a number of researchers, most notably Shelley E. Taylor, a professor of psychology at UCLA.
Taylor's theory, based on more than 200 studies by other people, mostly biologists and psychologists, is that women fight stress with a powerful system based in part on a hormone called oxytocin.
Granted, there's no clear evidence that women on average actually have more oxytocin in their bloodstreams than men. But they do have more estrogen, which boosts the effectiveness of oxytocin.
The cuddle response
Oxytocin, which some dub the "cuddling" or social-attachment hormone, is best known as the hormone produced in women during childbirth and lactation and during orgasm in both sexes. It has been shown to stimulate bonding in animals, notably prairie voles and sheep.
Even more intriguing, there's evidence that oxytocin may act as an anti-stress hormone.
For instance, researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm reported in 1998 that daily oxytocin injections in male and female rats decreased blood pressure and the stress hormone cortisol. The group also has shown that injections of oxytocin in rats enhanced sedation and relaxation and reduced fearfulness.
To Taylor and her colleagues, the thrust of this evidence suggests that women may be programmed to deal with stress, not just in the "male" way, by fighting aggressors or running away, but also by "tending and befriending," that is, turning to each other for moral support and for nurturing the young.
In other words, "there appears to be a counter-regulatory system that may operate more strongly in females than males, that leads to engagement of oxytocin and social contact," which in turn may reduce stress, says Taylor, author of "The Tending Instinct" (Henry Holt, 320 pages, $25).
Oxytocin is made in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. It works closely with a related hormone, vasopressin, which is so similar to oxytocin that the two chemicals fit into each other's receptors in the brain, says Sue Carter, a behavioral neuroendocrinologist at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
However, oxytocin, which acts in tandem with estrogen, often has calming effects, while vasopressin, which acts in tandem with the male hormone, testosterone, can enhance stress response by, among other things, raising blood pressure.
The most intriguing feature of oxytocin is that it seems to act as both a cause of bonding and a result of it.
In prairie voles, Carter's studies show, injections of oxytocin lead to increased bonding. When stressed, Carter has found, both male and female voles choose to bond -- with females.
"Many things stimulate production of oxytocin, including breast stimulation, orgasm or even contact with a friendly companion," Carter says. "All these are known to release oxytocin, which may help damp down the body's reactions to stressful experiences, in men as well as women.'
Gender and stress
Beyond oxytocin, there are other chemical clues to differences in the ways in which women and men may handle stress.
At Ohio State University, Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychiatry and her husband, Ronald Glaser, an immunologist, have studied hormonal and immunological responses to stress and found some striking gender differences.
In one experiment, the Ohio team asked 90 young, happy, newly-wed couples to spend 24 hours, including a night's sleep, in the hospital lab. The researchers placed a catheter in each subject's arm so that blood could be drawn every hour to test for hormone levels and various aspects of immune function.
Early in the stay, each couple was asked to spend 30 minutes discussing an area of disagreement. This conflict was recorded on videotapes that were later scored by trained observers, male and female, for evidence of negative behavior such as hostility, sarcasm, put-downs, etc.
The results were stunning: Marital strife was much tougher on women than men. The women showed a faster and more enduring response to hostility, says Kiecolt-Glaser, noting that women's stress hormones rose more sharply and stayed up longer than men's. Women also showed a lowering of certain aspects of immune function.
Kiecolt-Glaser said the studies suggest that women are more accurate judges of what's going on emotionally in a marriage. Indeed, the ratings of outside reviewers correlated with the women's.
-- Judy Foreman's column appears every other week. Past column are available at http://www.myhealthsense.com.