Having sex is good for your health, it relaxes us, reduces stress and gives psychological well-being even at a certain age. Now to this long list of benefits a study published on JAMA Psychiatry adds another: sex would be able to heal minor wounds, but only if administered in combination with an oxytocin nasal spray, the so-called love hormone which has anti-inflammatory effects.
Congrats and oxytocin spray. The research team involved a total of 80 heterosexual couples with an average age of 27 years in the study; participants were lightly injured on the arms with a suction device. Then the researchers divided them into four groups: the first was given an oxytocin-based nasal spray twice a day, and was also asked to complete a guided discussion (called PAT, Partner Appreciation Task) up to three times a week in which the partners had to compliment each other and express gratitude for each other; the second group only took the spray, without completing the PAT; the third group completed the PAT but took a placebo instead of the spray; the fourth (control) group used the placebo and did not participate in the PAT.
Sex, once a day. The second and third groups obtained healing results similar to those of the control group, while in the members of the first group, who had taken the oxytocin spray and completed the PAT, the wounds healed slightly faster; the effects, however, were much more evident in the couples in the first group who declared they had had intimate relations during the week. In the saliva of these couples, levels of cortisol, the stress hormone that can suppress immune function, were lower.
“The results indicate to us that combining the administration of oxytocin with positive relational behaviors could promote physical recovery”, comments Daryl O’Connor, an expert not involved in the research, to Newscientist, underlining how this represents a promising perspective for future psychosocial interventions in the healthcare sector.
