Oxytocin is a hormone that is known to release during times of breastfeeding and sexual intercourse. A nasal spray which is made from synthetic oxytocin has been working as an element to suppress appetite in a group of healthy from Boston.
Lead investigator Elizabeth Lawson, MD, MMSc, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston, says “Our results are really exciting. Further study is needed, but I think oxytocin is a promising treatment for obesity and its metabolic complications.”
This nasal spray is approved in Europe although not in the US. The testing was carried out with the help 25 participants, all of them being healthy men aging around 27 in average. Out of the 25 participants, 13 of them were fit while the rest of the 12 were either obese or overweight.
The participants were assigned randomly and unknowingly to self-dispense just one dose of the spray consisting 24 international units of either the oxytocin-based spray or a placebo. An hour after their intake, they were at their breakfast ordering from a menu of meals which contained only double portions.
The team of researchers replicated the experiment in a different visit, reversing the treatments in order to ensure that the ones given the placebo in the last experiment got the oxytocin this time around.
The participants informed how much they have eaten during the 3 days prior to the experiment. According to the research team, they had been consuming almost the same amounts of food before both the experiments.
The researchers made comparison on how much they had consumed at the 2 breakfasts and found that the oxytocin spray in their system caused a reduction of an average 122 calories from their consumption level, with a slump of fat intake by 9 grams.
According to the researchers, when under the influence of oxytocin, the men’s body fat was playing the part of fuel for energizing them. Although, how it impacted intake of calories is still indistinct as the men informed no changes in their appetite.
Researchers also confirmed that there were no changes detected between the placebo and oxytocin spray in the blood tests conducted for hormones in charge of controlling appetite
So far, no severe side effects were seen and the same minor side effects took place from the placebo as expected, said Lawson.
The research results were presented on Sunday at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Diego.
