“(…) It is a wound that hurts and cannot be felt”. A new study has revealed that sex – or even just intimate touch – can help speed wound healing.
Often called the “love hormone” or “cuddle chemical,” oxytocin It stimulates uterine contractions during childbirth, and later lactation, but has also been linked to social bonding and sex.
Previous research, cited by , also showed that it accelerates the healing of oral ulcers, possibly due to its anti-inflammatory effect.
Another revealed, in turn, that hostility between couples has been associated with slower healing of blisters.
This has now led researchers at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, to study the role of oxytocin in healing scars.
On the sidelines of a study this Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry, the team carried out a trial with 80 healthy heterosexual couples, whose average age was 27 years old, who received four small wounds on the forearm using a suction device.
As New Scientist details, the couples were then divided into four groups, all subject to different interventions over the following week.
The first group used an oxytocin nasal spray twice a day and completed a Partner Appreciation Task (TAP) 10 minutes – a structured conversation in which they expressed gratitude for each other and exchanged compliments – up to three times a week.
The second group used the oxytocin spray twice a day, but did not participate in the TAP intervention; the third group used a placebo spray and performed TAP; and the fourth group used the placebo spray without any TAP intervention.
Taking the oxytocin spray alone, or performing TAP with a placebo spray, did not make the wounds heal faster than in the group with no spray or TAP. Combining oxytocin and TAP helped a little – in aspects like reducing the size and depth of the wounds.
But the effects were more pronounced among couples who also reported touching or sexual activity with each other during that week. This has also been linked to lower levels of cortisol, the stress hormone that can suppress immune function, in saliva.
“We saw an improvement in wound healing in this group that combines the interaction [TAP] and oxytocin, but this effect is much less strong than the effect in those who combine oxytocin with naturally occurring touching behavior, and even with sexual or intimate behavior”, explained, to New Scientist, the leader of the investigation Beate Ditzen.
