The Oxytocin Factor: Tapping The Hormone Of Calm, Love, And Healing

by Kerstin Uvnas Moberg, Roberta Francis (Translator)

Overview

In recent years there have been exciting scientific discoveries about a powerful hormone whose role in the human body has long been neglected. Oxytocin is the hormone involved in bonding, sex, childbirth, and breast-feeding, as well as in relaxation and feelings of calm. It is the mirror image of the stress hormone (adrenaline), which triggers the "fight or flight" systems in the body. Much has been written about the latter but the many-sided importance of oxytocin is currently known only to specialists in obstetrics, physiology, and psychiatry. The Oxytocin Factor, by Dr. Kerstin Uvnäs-Moberg, is the first book on the subject for a general audience. The new research findings, as well as the potentially beneficial applications of this hormone in reducing anxiety states, stress, addictions, and problems of childbirth, are not only fascinating but of great significance to all our lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738207483
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	09/18/2003
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Kerstin Uvnäs-Moberg, M.D., Ph.D., is an internationally known scientist at the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. She lectures frequently in the United States and all over the world.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	v
	Introduction: A Neglected Side of Life	ix
Part 1	The Calm and Connection System	1
1.	Oxytocin	3
2.	The Environmental Context	11
3.	An Essential Balance	19
Part 2	Oxytocin's Role in the Brain and Nervous System	27
4.	The Body's Control Centers	29
5.	How Oxytocin Works	53
Part 3	Oxytocin's Effects	63
6.	Effects of Oxytocin Injections	65
7.	The Oxytocin Tree	81
8.	Nursing: Oxytocin's Starring Role	93
Part 4	Connections	105
9.	Oxytocin and Touch	107
10.	Oxytocin and Other Senses	113
11.	Oxytocin and Sexuality	117
12.	Oxytocin and Relationships	121
Part 5	The Ways We Seek Calm and Connection	133
13.	Massage	135
14.	Eating: An Internal Massage	143
15.	Cigarettes, Alcohol, and Other Drugs	151
16.	Medication-Induced Calm and Connection	157
17.	Motion and Stillness	165
18.	Our Inner Ecology	175
	References	181
	Index	197
	About the Author, Translator, and Illustrator	205