The Hormone of Closeness offers an exciting physiological perspective on intimacy and relationships. The closeness hormone, oxytocin, give us comfort and peace, but it also creates and reinforces relationships throughout life. Based on current research, Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg, the author of the ground-breaking The Oxytocin Factor, describes the importance of oxytocin in the connection between parents and children, in love and companionship and in increasing trust in our society. The author argues that oxytocin plays a crucial part in our ability to socialise, feel secure and calm, work well and be healthy. She investigates the effects of oxytocin in pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding, and looks at the role of oxytocin in the mother-child relationship and its long-term benefits. Oxytocin also has an important role to play in adult relationships. It creates a bond between lovers and stimulates social interaction allowing us to form friendships and work in groups. The sense of trust triggered by oxytocin enables us to trust in strangers and accounts for the Doula phenomenon. The relationship between food and closeness is explored, and we learn how the hormone of closeness can offer the key to good health and a longer life.

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.

At first, they thought it wasn't real, but science has discovered the truth. Sometimes people call oxytocin the "cuddly" hormone, and rightfully so, because this hormone stimulates closeness, creates happiness, affects attachments patterns, and creates a chemical, biological connection between partners, friends, and family members. What else can we learn about oxytocin? Why do we need oxytocin as human beings? How can we increase oxytocin releases in our brain? Although these are the most important issues that will be tackled in this short read, other subtopics related to it will be addressed as well. These include but are not limited to: How exactly oxytocin functions in male and female brains. What you can achieve with meditation and how it boosts oxytocin levels if done the right way. How oxytocin counters stress. The main differences between oxytocin and co-dependency. The best ways to grow your relationship by boosting your testosterone and oxytocin levels. When you understand the significance and the best triggers of oxytocin releases, you can have more fulfilled, happier life. Add this book to your cart. You and perhaps your partner, too, will benefit from it.

Oxytocin, or 'the hormone of health and life', is a hugely important substance for pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding working in a woman's body and brain to make changes during pregnancy, optimise labour, increase milk production and support bonding. Research has shown that we can encourage the body's oxytocin system by supporting mothers wellbeing through birth practices and postnatal care. We also now know that oxytocin is present in everyone, of any age, directing a whole system of effects that have consequences for family life, including bonding, stress reduction and social interaction. In Why Oxytocin Matters Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg, a leading oxytocin researcher, shows how a better understanding of our biology can be immensely helpful for new parents and those who work to support families.

This award-winning book “offers a thorough compilation of what modern science, from biomechanics to neurochemistry, knows about the secrets of orgasm” (Publishers Weekly). The coauthor of the international best-selling book The G Spot and Other Discoveries about Human Sexuality, Beverly Whipple joins neuroscientist Barry R. Komisaruk and endocrinologist Carlos Beyer-Flores to view orgasm through the lenses of behavioral neuroscience along with cognitive and physiological sciences. Covering every type of sexual peak experience in women and men from intense to phantom, this fascinating and comprehensive work illuminates the hows, whats, and wherefores of orgasm. The authors explain how and why orgasms happen, why they fail to happen, and what brain and body events are put into play at the moment of orgasm. They also describes the genital-brain connection, how the brain produces orgasms, how aging affects orgasm, and the effects of prescription medication, street drugs, hormones, disorders, and diseases. Winner of the 2007 Bonnie and Vern L. Bullough Book Award, given by the Foundation for the Scientific Study of Sexuality

The bestselling author of Hold Me Tight presents a revolutionary new understanding of why and how we love, based on cutting-edge research. Every day, we hear of relationships failing and questions of whether humans are meant to be monogamous. LOVE SENSE presents new scientific evidence that tells us that humans are meant to mate for life. Dr. Johnson explains that romantic love is an attachment bond, just like that between mother and child, and shows us how to develop our "love sense"--our ability to develop long-lasting relationships. Love is not the least bit illogical or random, but actually an ordered and wise recipe for survival. LOVE SENSE covers the three stages of a relationship and how to best weather them; the intelligence of emotions and the logic of love; the physical and psychological benefits of secure love; and much more. Based on groundbreaking research, LOVE SENSE will change the way we think about love.

What role does oxytocin play in the many changes that occur during pregnancy and breastfeeding designed to make mothers better mothers? How does birth, breastfeeding, and skin-to-skin contact affect oxytocin release? How do birth interventions--epidurals, Cesarean sections, oxytocin infusions, and medications--impact oxytocin release? And how does oxytocin release (or lack of) impact the mother and baby? After many years of researching oxytocin, author, physician, and researcher Dr. Kerstin Uvnas-Moberg presents compelling scientific data that demonstrates the important role oxytocin plays in motherhood. In this book Dr. Uvnas-Moberg describes how oxytocin helps mothers access an inborn female competence that helps them transition to motherhood and give birth more easily, feel better after birth, breastfeed with fewer problems, and establish a good connection with their children. She also explains the impact oxytocin release has on infants--helping them become better at handling stressful situations and impacting their future health. This book provides scientific data to demonstrate that oxytocin plays an important role far beyond stimulation of uterine contractions during birth and milk ejection during breastfeeding, including the following: Oxytocin is a signaling substance in the brain that when released during birth, skin-to-skin contact, and breastfeeding induces important physiological and psychological adaptations in the mother and infant. The way we give birth, handle, feed, and interact with our infants may influence the release of oxytocin and the development of the both short-term and long-term oxytocin-linked effects in both mothers and infants. Medical interventions during birth may influence the release of oxytocin and the development of the oxytocin-linked effects. Anyone working with pregnant and breastfeeding mothers will find this book enlightening and thought-provoking. It will give you evidenced-based information to change practices to protect oxytocin release during birth and in the postpartum period and to better inform new mothers about the role oxytocin plays in pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding; the importance of natural birth, skin-to-skin contact, and breastfeeding; and the impact of birth interventions."

Marriage should be based on love, right? But does it seem as though you and your spouse are speaking two different languages? #1 New York Times bestselling author Dr. Gary Chapman guides couples in identifying, understanding, and speaking their spouse's primary love language-quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, or physical touch. By learning the five love languages, you and your spouse will discover your unique love languages and learn practical steps in truly loving each other. Chapters are categorized by love language for easy reference, and each one ends with simple steps to express a specific language to your spouse and guide your marriage in the right direction. A newly designed love languages assessment will help you understand and strengthen your relationship. You can build a lasting, loving marriage together. Gary Chapman hosts a nationally syndicated daily radio program called A Love Language Minute that can be heard on more than 150 radio stations as well as the weekly syndicated program Building Relationships with Gary Chapman, which can both be heard on fivelovelanguages.com. The Five Love Languages is a consistent New York Times bestseller - with over 5 million copies sold and translated into 38 languages. This book is a sales phenomenon, with each year outselling the prior for 16 years running!

An eye-opening book that reveals crucial information every woman taking hormonal birth control should know This groundbreaking book sheds light on how hormonal birth control affects women--and the world around them--in ways we are just now beginning to understand. By allowing women to control their fertility, the birth control pill has revolutionized women's lives. Women are going to college, graduating, and entering the workforce in greater numbers than ever before, and there's good reason to believe that the birth control pill has a lot to do with this. But there's a lot more to the pill than meets the eye. Although women go on the pill for a small handful of targeted effects (pregnancy prevention and clearer skin, yay!), sex hormones can't work that way. Sex hormones impact the activities of billions of cells in the body at once, many of which are in the brain. There, they play a role in influencing attraction, sexual motivation, stress, hunger, eating patterns, emotion regulation, friendships, aggression, mood, learning, and more. This means that being on the birth control pill makes women a different version of themselves than when they are off of it. And this is a big deal. For instance, women on the pill have a dampened cortisol spike in response to stress. While this might sound great (no stress!), it can have negative implications for learning, memory, and mood. Additionally, because the pill influences who women are attracted to, being on the pill may inadvertently influence who women choose as partners, which can have important implications for their relationships once they go off it. Sometimes these changes are for the better . . . but other times, they're for the worse. By changing what women's brains do, the pill also has the ability to have cascading effects on everything and everyone that a woman encounters. This means that the reach of the pill extends far beyond women's own bodies, having a major impact on society and the world. This paradigm-shattering book provides an even-handed, science-based understanding of who women are, both on and off the pill. It will change the way that women think about their hormones and how they view themselves. It also serves as a rallying cry for women to demand more information from science about how their bodies and brains work and to advocate for better research. This book will help women make more informed decisions about their health, whether they're on the pill or off of it.

How do we define compassion? Is it an emotional state, a motivation, a dispositional trait, or a cultivated attitude? How does it compare to altruism and empathy? Chapters in this Handbook present critical scientific evidence about compassion in numerous conceptions. All of these approaches to thinking about compassion are valid and contribute importantly to understanding how we respond to others who are suffering. Covering multiple levels of our lives and self-concept, from the individual, to the group, to the organization and culture, The Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science gathers evidence and models of compassion that treat the subject of compassion science with careful scientific scrutiny and concern. It explores the motivators of compassion, the effect on physiology, the co-occurrence of wellbeing, and compassion training interventions. Sectioned by thematic approaches, it pulls together basic and clinical research ranging across neurobiological, developmental, evolutionary, social, clinical, and applied areas in psychology such as business and education. In this sense, it comprises one of the first multidisciplinary and systematic approaches to examining compassion from multiple perspectives and frames of reference. With contributions from well-established scholars as well as young rising stars in the field, this Handbook bridges a wide variety of diverse perspectives, research methodologies, and theory, and provides a foundation for this new and rapidly growing field. It should be of great value to the new generation of basic and applied researchers examining compassion, and serve as a catalyst for academic researchers and students to support and develop the modern world.