Podcast appearances and mentions of Sue Carter

C. Sue Carter, is a distinguished University Research Scientist, biologist and behavioral neurobiologist. She is an internationally recognized expert in behavioral neuroendocrinology and resides as the Executive Director of The Kinsey Institute and Rudy Professor of Biology at Indiana University. Carter was the first person to identify the physiological mechanisms responsible for social monogamy.This episode is proudly sponsored by:YETI, who's all about helping you embrace a life lived fully and actively, supported by gear that never lets you down. Head to https://www.yeti.com/ to start living every moment to its fullest!Seed®, a microbiome science company creating novel applications of bacteria like the DS-01® to support our gut and digestive health, designed to keep things moving. Head to Seed.com/EVERYBODY and use code 25EVERYBODY to get 25% off your first month of DS-01®..

Welcome everyone to episode 30.Today's conversation is focused on the SSP for Kids. In my work supporting families with children who are experiencing challenges, whether that be neurodevelopmental or mental health-related; I have observed significant improvements following the SSP. I am also privileged to receive a lot of feedback from pediatric-focused therapists on the improvements they observe because of the SSP.  So I wanted to help build awareness both for practitioners working with children or for any families listening who are experiencing challenges. As you will hear the SSP offers hope and evidence-based improvements across psychosocial-biophysiological systems.Today I am speaking with two senior-level clinicians, each with over 30 years of experience in pediatric therapy. I am honored to know them both as colleagues and good friends. Doreen Hunt, Occupational Therapist is the co-owner of Children's Therapy of Woodinville, Seattle USA. Irena Woodward, Occupational Therapist, is the owner of Family Connections in Sydney Australia. Both have extensive training beyond the Safe and Sound protocol and I will include their contact details at the end of the podcast. Some of the Key Points:Doreen discusses the case of an adolescent female who had significant mental health challenges- hospitalized for self-harm and had begun auditory hallucinations- after the first 30 min of SSP, her hallucinations stopped.- Listen in for more to this story.Irena discusses a young female with Functional Neurological Disorder and eating disorder- initially on nasogastric tube feedings- over SSP repeats was able to eat regular foods.SSP impacting the integrated social engagement system to see improved intake for feeding difficultiesSSP for infants - micro premi or failure to thriveSSP and vagus stimulation and resulting bowl and bladder awareness in a young childSSP to improve facial expressivity- connection to attachmentMore harmonious family life after SSPSSP and improved emotional intelligenceSSP and increased feelings of happiness in kidsSSP and improved vocal quality and inflectionSSP with improvements in gross and fine motor skillsWe discuss the neurobiology of SafetySSP with resulting improvements in family dynamicsImprovements in global developmentImportance for the family to nourish a sense of safetyI hope you enjoyed this episode and found the information helpful.  It would be a great honor if you could share this episode with a colleague, friend, or family member. Knowledge is power and sharing this episode may help someone who is struggling. A big thank you to those who sent in questions. My apologies if I did not get to yours. We do plan to record a follow-up session in early 2024 targeted to specific questions around SSP implementation so if you have any questions or suggestions please email me joanne@integratedlistening.com.au or message me via the Safe and Sound Protocol Podcast FB group.Doreen, Irena, and I, support clients globally. I will list contact details in the show notes and our SSP FB page. But to contact Irena- contact Irena@familyconnections.com.au Doreen at- dhuntotr@comcast.net Myself- Joanne@integratedlistening.com.au My next guest is the esteemed Dr Sue Carter, founder of Oxytoxin, the Social bonding hormone and wife to Dr Stephen Porges. I look forward to sharing that with you. Sending you kindness and self-compassion until next time. Take care, Joanne.Support the showPlease support my work by sharing this episode with a friend or colleague:)

Themes: Oxytocin, Neuroiology, Sociostasis, Safety, Healing, Evolution, Future of Work, and Healthcare Summary: a fascinating conversation with pioneering neuroscientist Dr. Sue Carter about the crucial role of oxytocin in human social bonding and flourishing. We discussed how oxytocin promotes trust, empathy, and prosocial behaviors - essentially helping us connect. However, modern society and technology often work against our oxytocin systems, increasing isolation and anxiety. Understanding oxytocin's biology provides insights into how we can engineer better systems and spaces that nurture our inherent need for belonging. Links: Learn more about Dr. Sue Carter's Work Read about Sociostasis Read about Oxytocin Pathways and the Evolution of Human Behavior Follow Matt on IG

Dr. Anthony Gustin welcomes back Dr. Molly Maloof, an entrepreneur, Stanford professor, and biohacker for an information-packed episode.    You'll hear how the pandemic taught Dr. Molly that social bonds and community are just as vital to our health as good nutrition, sleep, and exercise. She also discusses the quantified self, how to heal past trauma to prevent and reverse metabolic disease, and touches on her research with psychedelic therapies.   Dr. Molly then ventures into her new fascination with emerging sex therapy protocols, an overlooked area that hasn't been innovated in 50 years. She highlights the recent epidemic of sexual trauma and sexual dysfunction plaguing society, and how we can learn to heal through meditation and the reprogramming of our thoughts and memories (in what she calls the “next wave of psychiatry”).   As a practicing physician and healthcare reform lobbyist, Dr. Molly also touches on how to create a community of people who advocate for their wellbeing in a broken healthcare system designed to keep us sick for profit.   In this episode, you'll hear about: How Dr. Molly assesses her patient's social and support networks along with their general health The benefits of creating stronger social ties and being more engaged in your community  Why the next frontier of optimizing health is tackling stress and improving mental, emotional, and spiritual health How stress manifests itself in our physiology and sexual dysfunction, especially for women, and the sexual trauma epidemic plaguing the nation  Studying implicit vs. explicit memories and how we can change our brain's “programming” to lessen the reactivity and negativity triggered by past trauma, PTSD, childhood experiences, etc. Meeting our pain with compassion  Connecting to a higher power via meditation and spiritual coaching in the absence of formal religion Psychedelic therapies and regenerative medicine like NAD Why EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) might help people who haven't had luck with talk therapy   Resources mentioned in this episode: Dr. Molly Maloof's website where you can find her online course based on the one she teaches at Stanford and preorder her new book, The Spark Factor Dr. Maloof's Instagram: @drmolly.co Natural Action Water Revitalization Polar H10 Hanu Oura Ring EMDR Mindlight Myneurva remote neurofeedback therapy Sue Carter, who's studied the endocrinology of love and social bonds for over 30 years Helen Fisher, the most cited woman on love

The latest edition of the Beautifully Broken Me podcast is here. In this episode, we discussed, Feeling Unfulfilled? Activate your best this 2023. In this, the first episode of 2023, I wish you all the best for the coming year. Welcoming you to yet another fantastic year, I decree and declare that this is your year of divine acceleration and overflowing plenty. You will find yourself being more, accomplishing more, and possessing more than ever. This year, we must make conscious decisions about how we live, and one of those decisions should be to learn to love, accept, and appreciate ourselves completely. In today's episode, my guest, Dr. Sue Cater Collins, a former police officer, retired university professor, and attorney, is our guest on this episode. Dr. Sue disclosed her struggles with self-esteem, alcoholism, and suicide attempts, as well as her efforts to overcome the harmful stereotypes others had created about her. To start the year 2023 off on the right foot, you must listen to this episode.Dr. Sue Carter Collins is an author, speaker, executive life coach, and a metaphysical ordained minister.  She provides healing (Reiki and Pranic) to individuals and groups. She also provides training in Reiki and synergistic energy healing techniques. Reach out to Dr. Sue at:https://aele.org/scollins.phphttps://www.facebook.com/suecartercollinshttps://shoutoutatlanta.com/meet-dr-sue-carter-collins-greatness-life-coach-synergistic-energy-healer-reiki-master-teacher/ Connect with the Host ~Noble Ij:Links: https://podbio.me/thebeautifullybrokenmeJoin our Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/thebeautifullybrokenmeFollow us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/thebeautifullybrokenme

Healing with Angelica with Guest Dr. Sue Carter Collins Episode 41: ENERGY HEALING

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Dr. Sue Carter, the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world-renowned scientist. She talks about oxytocin's important role in human social behavior. She underscores the fact that oxytocin affects every tissue of the body and is the physiologic basis for pair bonding and relationships. Under stress, the body produces large amounts of oxytocin, and can help us make better judgments about who it is safe to connect with. She shares how her understanding of oxytocin grew out of her research studies on the social behavior of prairie voles. Sue Carter, PhD is the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. Her research program has discovered important new developmental functions for oxytocin and vasopressin, and implicated these hormones in the regulation of human connection and early social experiences. She is also studying oxytocin's implications for controlling stress and chronic pain.

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Dr. Sue Carter, the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world-renowned scientist. She talks about oxytocin's important role in human social behavior. She underscores the fact that oxytocin affects every tissue of the body and is the physiologic basis for pair bonding and relationships. Under stress, the body produces large amounts of oxytocin, and can help us make better judgments about who it is safe to connect with. She shares how her understanding of oxytocin grew out of her research studies on the social behavior of prairie voles.Sue Carter, PhD is the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. Her research program has discovered important new developmental functions for oxytocin and vasopressin, and implicated these hormones in the regulation of human connection and early social experiences. She is also studying oxytocin's implications for controlling stress and chronic pain.

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Dr. Sue Carter, the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world-renowned scientist. She shares how the importance of oxytocin has come to be recognized in the scientific community over time. She discusses the evolutionary history of oxytocin and explains the role that oxytocin plays in lowering inflammation and reducing stress. It also helps the body to build and repair bone tissue and plays an important part in healing processes. Sue Carter, PhD is the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. Her research program has discovered important new developmental functions for oxytocin and vasopressin, and implicated these hormones in the regulation of human connection and early social experiences. She is also studying oxytocin's implications for controlling stress and chronic pain.

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Dr. Sue Carter, the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world-renowned scientist. She shares how the importance of oxytocin has come to be recognized in the scientific community over time. She discusses the evolutionary history of oxytocin and explains the role that oxytocin plays in lowering inflammation and reducing stress. It also helps the body to build and repair bone tissue and plays an important part in healing processes.Sue Carter, PhD is the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. Her research program has discovered important new developmental functions for oxytocin and vasopressin, and implicated these hormones in the regulation of human connection and early social experiences. She is also studying oxytocin's implications for controlling stress and chronic pain.

Why do we care for others? Why did morality evolve? Is unselfish behaviour possible in a Darwinian world? Patricia Churchland joins to discuss these topics with your host, Ilari Mäkelä. Author of Conscience: Origins of Moral Intuition, Patricia Churchland is an emerita professor of Philosophy at UC San Diego. Ilari and Professor Churchland discuss topics such as: Warm-bloodedness and morality Psychological egoism vs unselfish behaviour Neurobiology of care: Oxytocin, cannabinoids, opioids Elements of morality: How much of morality is about care, vs problem-solving, cooperation, and social learning? Churchland's criticism of Western moral philosophy Neurophilosophy: is studying the brain all that useful? Free will: does studying the brain show that free will does not exist? Technical terms mentioned: Endothermy (i.e. warm-bloodedness) Cortex Oxytocin, vasopressin Endogenous opioids and cannabinoids Utilitarian ethics Kantian ethics (i.e. deontology) Metta meditation Vitalism Names mentioned: Christophe Boesch (chimpanzee adoption) Peggy Mason (helping behaviour in rats) Sue Carter (oxytocin and stress) David Hume & Adam Smith Mencius (early Confucian philosopher) [For Ilari's article on Mencius, see An Empirical Argument for Mencius' Theory of Human Nature] The Dalai Lama (H.H. the 14th) Simon Blackburn (contemporary Cambridge philosopher) Dan Bowling (placebo and oxytocin) Olivia Goldhill (review of Conscience for the New York Times) Lidija Haas (review of Conscience for the Harper Magazine) Other scholars to follow (Churchland's recommendations) Topics in this interview Frans de Waal Owen Flanagan Philosophy & neuroscience more generally Nick Lane (genetics and evolution) Ann-Sophie Barwich (neurophilosophy of smell) Gregory Berns (soon to appear on the podcast) Ned Block (philosophy of cognition)

Listen to episode 149 (and 150) before you listen to this one! IFS Model - https://ifs-institute.com/resources/articles/internal-family-systems-model-outline IFS Study - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10926771.2021.2013375?scroll=top&needAccess=true  Sue Carter - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00914/full Building Safety Anchors -https://www.justinlmft.com/bsa  Polyvagal 101 Class  - https://www.justinlmft.com/PVT101   Intro/Outro music & Transition Sounds by Benjo Beats - https://soundcloud.com/benjobeats   National Suicide Prevention Hotline - 1 (800) 273-8255 National Domestic Violence Hotline -1 (800) 799-7233 LGBT Trevor Project Lifeline - 1 (866) 488-7386 National Sexual Assault Hotline - 1 (800) 656-4673 Crisis Text Line - Text “HOME” to 741741 Call 911 for emergency This and other content produced by Justin Sunseri (“JustinLMFT”) (i.e; podcast, YouTube, Instagram, etc.) is not therapy, not intended to be therapy or be a replacement for therapy.  Nothing in this creates or indicates a therapeutic relationship.  Please consult with your therapist or seek for one in your area if you are experiencing mental health sx.  Nothing should be construed to be specific life advice; it is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

Heal with Angelica Watters's Podcast with Guest Dr. Sue Carter Collins Episode 15: ENERGY HEALING

Why are we so self destructive and how do we grow past it? Dr. C. Sue Carter gives us a scientific explanation for our urge to fail at natural selection. Writer Christine Wiedenbach somehow makes the image of a burning bridge inspirational. OBGYN Peter Weiss dispels some myths about endometriosis. And Rachel Bell teaches us that Twitter is a pretty handy tool for getting over a breakup. Dr. C. Sue Carter https://kinseyinstitute.org/about/profiles/cscarter.php Dr. Peter Weiss https://www.rdwhc.com/provider/dr-peter-weiss Rachel Bell http://rachelbell.info/

The question on everyone's mind: Is it possible to be in love with more than one person at the same time? Sex therapist and best-selling author Dr. Ian Kerner and Kinsey Institute research fellow and podcast host Dr. Justin Lehmiller share their expertise when it comes to the complications of loving more than one person at a time. Dr. C. Sue Carter teaches us what we have in common with prairie voles. And Maggie shares a story about the time she was in love with two people and still wound up being the jealous maniac. Dr. C. Sue Carter https://kinseyinstitute.org/about/profiles/cscarter.php Dr. Ian Kerner https://www.iankerner.com/ Dr. Ian Kerner's best-selling book, She Comes First https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060538260/ Dr. Justin Lehmiller https://www.sexandpsychology.com https://open.spotify.com/show/6DCIGjOUaenoKdY71N7NqI

We're still hung up on sex and love. Is there a biochemistry of love? And how do we talk about sex if it's making us crazy with all these hormones? Dr. Justin Lehmiller helps us answer that question and shines a light on the role of sex education in learning to talk about sex. Noam tells the story we lovingly call ‘the art of the blowjob.' Writer Lux Alptraum helps us feel better about our kinks. And then we look at the biological and cultural factors that color our views of sex and love with actor Tadgh Murphy, Dr. C. Sue Carter, and Dr. Martha Kauppi. Dr. Ian Kerner https://www.iankerner.com/ Dr. Ian Kerner's best-selling book, She Comes First https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060538260/ Dr. Justin Lehmiller https://www.sexandpsychology.com https://open.spotify.com/show/6DCIGjOUaenoKdY71N7NqI Lux Alptraum http://www.luxalptraum.com/ Lux Alptraum's book, Faking It https://www.sealpress.com/titles/lux-alptraum/faking-it/9781580057660/ Martha Kauppi https://www.instituteforrelationalintimacy.com/ Dr. C. Sue Carter https://kinseyinstitute.org/about/profiles/cscarter.php

On today's podcast, Amy talks with Dr. Sue Carter, Dr. Sue is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia and also a Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is the former Executive Director of the Kinsey Institute and a Rudy Professor Emerita of Biology. She has held professorships at the University of Maryland (Distinguished University Professor) as well as at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois, College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. She has authored more than 400 publications and edited 5 books including “Attachment and Bonding: A New Synthesis,.” MIT Press. Dr. Sue Carter is the scientist, who first discovered the relationship between oxytocin and social monogamy and the formation of adult social bonds. She has a longstanding interest in birth and lactation and the evolution of human sociality and love. She is currently examining the developmental effects of oxytocin pathways and their role promoting in the capacity for social bonding, parental behavior and healthy relationships across the lifecycle.Amy and Sue discuss the Biology of Love and the Role of Oxytocin in Connection and Relationships, Sue's personal experience that led her to go into Oxytocin research, Her discovery of the relationship between oxytocin and social behavior and so much more.They talk about the following:• What Oxytocin is and its effect• Sue's background and experience that led to her career as a social biologist • Sue's birth story, how Oxytocin affects birth experience and early childhood experience • How Sue discovered the relationship between Oxytocin and Social behavior• Importance of Emotional safety in Oxytocin release• Lack of research and why there are few studies on Oxytocin and Yoga• The importance of longitudinal studies of Yogic & Ayurvedic lifestyle medicine approaches and why it is difficult to accomplishIf you would like to receive the free infographics and handouts that correspond to each episode on the Yoga Therapy Hour Podcast, please subscribe to our segmented email list. You will have the opportunity to determine the Infographic Topics that you would like to receive. When The Yoga Therapy Hour Podcast has a topic that corresponds to your choices, then you will receive an email for that week with the PDF's for download.Topics you can choose from include: • Yoga Therapy & Mental Health• Yoga Therapy & Physical Health• Social Justice in yoga & Yoga Therapy• Yoga/Ayurveda Toolbox• Yoga & Indian Philosophy• Global & Trending Yoga Therapy TopicsClick the link below to subscribe. It takes 10 seconds total.https://amywheeler.com/subscribeToday's podcasts is sponsored by: The International Association of Yoga Therapistswww.iayt.orgWe have all benefitted from the ancient wisdom of India and her people, so it feels really great to be able to serve in this way. The Optimal State family has pledged on-going support of $250 per month, to go directly to KYM Mitra (www.kym.org). We will collect the monies and gift them each month. Please consider a recurring monthly payment to the fund. Even a small gift or intention makes a difference! If we make more than $250 in any given month, it will roll into the following month's payment. The hope is that we can contribute for many years to come. If you even lose the link to donate, it is at the top of the homepage at www.amywheeler.com also. I will be reporting on the website the progress; how much money is coming in at any given time and where we are in the process of getting this project off the ground.Here is the link for you to get started with your donation. We are so happy that you have decided to join us. We thank you for the bottom of our hearts!Link to click in the description: http://Paypal.me/KymMitraDonationCheck out Amy's website http://www.amywheeler.comCheck out Sue's page https://psychology.as.virginia.edu/people/profile/scp21

"There's this kind of dance between biology and this little molecule that gave us the capacity to take care of our infants by feeding them directly. That gave us tremendous freedom - we didn't need a nest so we were able to wander the planet. We could interact with all kinds of others as long as mom was there for the first couple of years, or let's say, at least six months, to feed the baby. The relationship between the mother and the baby, of course, has been shown by many to be foundational to other forms of relationships. So oxytocin is part of the system that allows us to be maternal, that allows us to be mammals, that allows us to be humans."     Episode Description: We begin by distinguishing quick-fix ideas about 'the love hormone' from the complex biological systems that interface with oxytocin. Sue describes oxytocin as the biological core of what it means to be human. We discuss the role of oxytocin in lactation and as a facilitator of long-term emotional bonding which impacts longevity and an overall sense of well-being. We consider the paradoxical negative impact of exogenous oxytocin in those who have a history of early developmental trauma. We review those methods of increasing our endogenous oxytocin, i.e. exercise, and orgasm, as well as the role of the microbiome in stimulating its production. We close with reflections on the aesthetics of the scientific enterprise.    Our Guest: Sue Carter, Ph.D. is a Distinguished University Research Scientist at the Kinsey Institute, former Director of that Institute, and Rudy Professor Emerita of Biology at Indiana University Bloomington. She formerly held professorships at the University of Illinois Medical Center, Chicago as well as the University of Maryland and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She was the recipient of a National Institute of a Mental Health Research Scientist Award and has had federal funding for her research for over 50 years. She has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and edited 5 books including Attachment and Bonding: A New Synthesis. Dr. Carter's research in socially monogamous mammals led to the discovery of the relationship between social behavior and oxytocin. Her current work examines mechanisms through which oxytocin pathways help to explain both positive social experiences and physical wellness. 

Hey guys! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Now that we are back from the holiday here is Part 2 of a 2 part story. Don't forget, if you have not listened to part one go back and do that now! Debbie Sue Carter was a young woman just starting out when her life was cut tragically short. Listen as we discuss the many questionable tactics used in the investigation and trial. We also hear from Debbie's cousin Christy as she talks about her cousin, her family and the lasting impact made by Debbie. Below are links to resources used in this story: https://www.defendingthelion.com/christy-sheppard Netflix series: The Innocent Man - https://www.netflix.com/title/80187030 https://time.com/5476081/the-innocent-man-netflix-true-story/ https://heavy.com/news/2018/12/glen-gore/ https://www.theadanews.com/news/local_news/convictions-for-glen-gore-others-vacated/article_1bfa03fc-5ba6-5f9b-a6a4-873f6da5b66a.html

On this episode we talked about Dr Sue's own journey to connecting with her truth, energy & intuition, and an introduction to metaphysics.**FREE 30-minute insight coaching for the first 10 callers - DM Dr. Sue on FB Messenger to grab your spot**△ABOUT DR. SUEDr. Sue Carter Collins (DrSue) is an author, speaker, and Greatness Life Coach. She speaks on a variety of topics related to self-empowerment, spirituality, spiritual resilience, and the Imposter Syndrome.She is an ordained metaphysical minister, an intuitive channel, and a Master Synergistic Energy Healer. She is certified in multiple healing modalities including Reiki, Pranic, and Mindfulness Meditation.DrSue's story is this. She is the daughter of a convicted felon—her father--and of an uneducated maid—her mother, both of whom are now deceased. She was born into a family of 10 children who were thought least likely to succeed because of their socio-economic circumstances. She was on the cutting edge of the Civil Rights Movement in education being one of the first African Americans to integrate a high school, two universities, and a law school. Against all odds, she completed five academic degrees—BS, MS, JD, PhD, BMsc—and was the first Police Legal Advisor for a major metropolitan police department in the Deep South. She also was the first African American to be tenured and awarded Associate Emeritus Professor status by the Georgia State University Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology.Despite her accomplishments, DrSue lived with a big secret. She never thought she was good enough or smart enough for the things she achieved and often felt like an imposter. To the outside world it looked like she had it all together but inside she lived in constant fear that she would fail. She began to shrink her career ambitions and play small in the game of life. As a result, she drank alcoholically to deal with life issues and suppress her pain. In July 2012 she became a member of AA.Today DrSue assists high-performing professional women to connect with their true self, master their mindset, and release limiting beliefs that stop them from attaining their next-level goals. She strives to make the invisible visible and often coaches around spiritual insights. As a result of working with her women feel empowered to break through mental barriers that have held them back and successfully pursue their goals. △CONNECT WITH DR. SUEWebsite: https://www.synergistichealingcenter.com/energy-medicine/Facebook: https://www.Facebook.com/drsuecartercollins/Instagram: @drsuecartercollinsGrab her book: https://www.amazon.com/Return-Self-Emotional-Spiritual-Freedom/dp/1724297619 △MENTIONED RESOURCESBook: The Bible△ABOUT YOUR HOSTJenni is an Empowerment & Breathwork Coach + Transformation Facilitator.  She specializes in helping high-performer women transition from the corporate grind into their power, passion and purpose.  She does this by alchemising dynamic energetics, breathwork, neural programming and coaching together to enable you to stop outsourcing your power and leaking energy, no longer trapped in the corporate grind of hustle and burnout.Jenni facilitates your transition into radical self-belief, self-confidence and self-trust, so you can amplify your gifts and the core of what's always been there: YOU.She stands for our right to NEVER settle, and believes we all deserve to have our dreams and desires fulfilled, and to live a beautiful, heartFULL life.  It's time to get out of your own way and master self-confidence and self-worth. △CONNECT WITH JENNIWebsite: https://www.iamjanne.com/Find me on Instagram @iamjennianneListen to my healing meditations & breathwork on Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/iam.j.anne 

This is part 1 of a 2 part story. Debbie Sue Carter was a young woman just starting out when her life was cut tragically short. Listen as we discuss the many questionable tactics used in the investigation and trial. We also hear from Debbie's cousin Christy as she talks about her cousin, her family and the lasting impact made by Debbie.

How can spirituality give you self-empowerment? How do we deal with imposter syndrome and the demons in our lives? These are just some of the questions posed and answered by Dr Sue Carter Collins as she joins Katherine as this week’s guest on My Dead Dragon. Hear Dr Sue’s incredible life story of a convict father, joining one of the first integrated schools in America, alcoholism, and finally finding spiritual empowerment and sharing that empowerment with others. KEY TAKEAWAYS Dr Sue was one of just eighteen black students in her entire High School. She went from one of the top students in her old all black school to feeling like she was behind and didn’t have the opportunities compared to all the white students. It was the luck of getting in trouble that she spoke to her school’s guidance counsellor and was presented with an opportunity to go to university. After the loss of her mother, Dr Sue was in a low period and says that she wouldn't still be here today if it wasn’t for her son. If you can connect with the “I am” that’s within you then you can connect to the “I am” that’s within anybody else. Until we take our last breath we will always be evolving and becoming more and more. With every new thought, you are evolving. Dr Se grew up believing in failure, and that she was a failure. By thinking this you set yourself up for pain. You haven’t failed, you’re just still learning. Your smile is energy, the person you’re smiling at could have not had a smile from someone in a while. We all have the ability to raise other people. BEST MOMENTS ‘I cared more about what other people thought of me than what I thought of myself’ ‘You have to love yourself first’ ‘I drowned my loneliness in alcohol’ ‘It is my purpose to heal through the spoken word’ EPISODE RESOURCES www.synergistichealingcenter.com https://www.facebook.com/drsuecartercollins https://www.instagram.com/drsuecartercollins/ ABOUT THE GUEST Dr Sue Carter Collins is an author, speaker, and Greatness Life Coach. She speaks on a variety of topics related to self-empowerment, spirituality, spiritual resilience, and the Imposter Syndrome. She is an ordained metaphysical minister, an intuitive channel, and a Master Synergistic Energy Healer. She is certified in multiple healing modalities including Reiki, Pranic, and Mindfulness Meditation. Dr Sue is the author of Return to Self: 5 Steps to Emotional and Spiritual Freedom and the owner of the Synergistic Healing Center of Atlanta, where the mission is “Empowering Women and Transforming Lives One Spirit at a Time.” Dr Sue’s story is this. She is the daughter of a convicted felon—her father--and of an uneducated maid—her mother, both of whom are now deceased. She was born into a family of 10 children who were thought least likely to succeed because of their socio-economic circumstances. She was on the cutting edge of the Civil...

Tensions in some families have increased as the COVID vaccine rollout has reached younger children. Psychologist Sara Dimerman joins us to talk about navigating different perspectives when it comes to vaccinating kids. Finding groundwater in your home is not a pleasant situation to deal with, but that's the reality for some families in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. We get an update from Brad Keats about the flooding in his home. One father in Labrador shares the story of how his critically ill newborn had to wait over 30 hours to be transported from Happy Valley-Goose Bay to the Janeway in St. John's. Robert Way joins us. Our help wanted series continues today with a business owner in Labrador City having trouble finding full-time workers. According to one Labrador car dealer, local buyers are interested in purchasing electric vehicles, but a lack of fast charging infrastructure may be an issue. We hear from Joel Hamlyn of Goose Bay Motors. Working out at the gym can feel daunting for anyone who is just starting. Work Out World, in partnership with the Town of Labrador City, is holding training sessions to change that. We hear from bodybuilder Greg Louvelle. For one senior, visiting the set of the television show Last Stop Garage in North West River was a wish come true. We hear from Ray and Barb Benjamin. Finally, the pandemic has slowed global trade, and that affects everything, including books. The publishing industry is telling people to buy books early because shipments from outside the country are now unreliable. Publishing expert Sue Carter joins us to explain further.

Starting thinking now about ordering books for Christmas gifts! Sue Carter the former editor-in-chief at Quill & Quire, Canada's book-publishing magazine explains how the publishing industry has also been disrupted by supply chain problems; Poet, writer, and dancer Abena Beloved Green tells us about her contribution to this year's virtual edition of Kingston Writers Fest; Our Queen's Park reporter Mike Crawley updates us on Premier Ford's appearance at a news conference yesterday - the first in more than two months. And he discusses how the outcome of the federal election could influence the outcome of the provincial election next year; It took them 20 years but mother and daughter Mary and Kristine Verbeek have finally completed the last leg of the Bruce Trail. They tell us about their two decades of hiking together; Artist Houssam Alloum brought 200 paintings with him to Gananoque in 2018 when he arrived as a refugee. He'll be sharing his story in a virtual speaker series at the Pump House Steam Museum tonight in Kingston; Family doctor Peter Lin talks about booster shots for those already vaccinated for COVID-19; Olivier Bourbeau of Restaurants Canada updates us on the continuing labour shortage in restaurants across the country; Mno Bimaadiziwin means "A Good Life" in Anishinaabemowin. It's the title of of the latest production at Theatre by the Bay in Orillia. We'll hear about the unique origin story from the show's creator, Ziigwen Mixemong.

Carolyn Harding with Mike Ferner and Markie Miller, advocates and activists for the health and well being of Lake Erie. Mike Ferner is coordinator of Lake Erie Advocates, a grassroots citizens' group that educates and organizes to build awareness and public pressure to stop the assault on Lake Erie by factory "farms" and other polluters. He lives with Sue Carter, his wife of 35 years, and an ever-changing number of cats, with Lake Erie as their front yard, in Toledo. Markie Miller is a volunteer organizer for Toledoans for Safe Water, and the Ohio Community Rights Network. She is an ambassador for the Lake Erie Bill of Rights and the Rights of Nature, speaking at the United Nations, appearing on The Daily Show, and numerous local, national and international media outlets. Mike I just read your AUGUST 27, article in Counterpunch, "There is No “Fixing” This Industry: the Third Battle for Lake Erie", with the visual of a huge billboard Saying “Lake Erie is Not a Toilet”- Markie, you and Julian Mack were my First GrassRoot Ohio guests 2 1/2 years ago, just after Toledo citizens voted to enact The Lake Erie Bill of Rights. The Objective is the same - a clean, safe, healthy lake. With everything that has gone on since that glorious day - What have you learned and what are your new tactics to protect Our Great Lake on Ohio's North shore? lakeerieadvocates.org Lake Erie Bill of Rights: LakeErieAction.org https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/08/27/there-is-no-fixing-this-industry-the-third-battle-for-lake-erie/ GrassRoot Ohio w/ Carolyn Harding - Conversations with every-day people, working on important issues here in Columbus and all around Ohio! There's a time to listen and learn, a time to organize and strategize, And a time to Stand Up/ Fight Back! Every Friday 5:00pm, EST on 94.1FM & streaming worldwide @ WGRN.org We now air on Sundays at 2:pm, EST on 92.7/98.3FM & streams @ WCRSFM.org & 4:00pm EST, at 107.1 FM, streams @ http://67.163.237.198:8000, Wheeling/Moundsville WV on WEJP-LP FM. Contact Us if you would like GrassRoot Ohio on your local station. Check us out and Like us on Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/GrassRootOhio/ Check us out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grassroot_ohio/ If you miss the Friday broadcast, you can find it here: All shows/podcasts archived at SoundCloud! https://soundcloud.com/user-42674753 GrassRoot Ohio is now on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/.../grassroot-ohio/id1522559085 This GrassRoot Ohio interview can also be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/cinublue/featured... Intro and Exit music for GrassRoot Ohio is "Resilient" by Rising Appalachia: https://youtu.be/tx17RvPMaQ8

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Dr. Sue Carter, the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. She explains the role that oxytocin plays in lowering inflammation and reducing stress. In fact, under stress, the body produces large amounts of oxytocin, and this amazing hormone can help us make better judgments about who it is safe to connect with.Sue Carter, PhD is the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. Her research program has discovered important new developmental functions for oxytocin and vasopressin, and implicated these hormones in the regulation of human connection and early social experiences. She is also studying oxytocin's implications for controlling stress and chronic pain.

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Dr. Sue Carter, the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. She explains the role that oxytocin plays in lowering inflammation and reducing stress. In fact, under stress, the body produces large amounts of oxytocin, and this amazing hormone can help us make better judgments about who it is safe to connect with. Sue Carter, PhD is the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. Her research program has discovered important new developmental functions for oxytocin and vasopressin, and implicated these hormones in the regulation of human connection and early social experiences. She is also studying oxytocin's implications for controlling stress and chronic pain.

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Dr. Sue Carter, the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. She discusses the evolutionary history of oxytocin and its important role in human bonding. She underscores the fact that oxytocin affects every tissue of the body and is the physiologic basis for pair bonding and relationships. In a sense, it defines who we feel safe with.Sue Carter, PhD is the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. Her research program has discovered important new developmental functions for oxytocin and vasopressin, and implicated these hormones in the regulation of human connection and early social experiences. She is also studying oxytocin's implications for controlling stress and chronic pain.

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Dr. Sue Carter, the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. She discusses the evolutionary history of oxytocin and its important role in human bonding. She underscores the fact that oxytocin affects every tissue of the body and is the physiologic basis for pair bonding and relationships. In a sense, it defines who we feel safe with. Sue Carter, PhD is the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. Her research program has discovered important new developmental functions for oxytocin and vasopressin, and implicated these hormones in the regulation of human connection and early social experiences. She is also studying oxytocin's implications for controlling stress and chronic pain.

My guest today is Julian Abel, MD, the Director of Compassionate Communities UK. Julian was on the show a couple of years ago to discuss his innovative model for combating social isolation in the town of Frome in Somerset, UK.  The goal of his project was to improve health outcomes and quality of life, and a measurable difference was made, in both healthcare cost savings and reduced ER admissions. The work of Compassionate Communities has since spurred further initiatives and is now transforming perspectives on matters of healthcare and social wellbeing around the world.  On this podcast Julian and I talk about the power of compassion, and how reason, emotion, and inspiration can help build connection and reduce loneliness. Julian shares how Compassionate Communities is growing as a social movement and talks about what each of us can do to make the world a kinder place. He also reveals plans for Compassionate Communities USA, set to launch in the next few months with a free and inclusive conference. Here’s the outline of this interview with Julian Abel: [00:00:16] Previous podcasts with Julian: 1. Building Compassionate Communities to Improve Public Health, and 2. Maintaining Social Connection in the Era of COVID-19. [00:03:21] Compassion. [00:05:28] Oxytocin is present throughout the animal kingdom. [00:06:00] Film: My Octopus Teacher (available on Netflix). [00:06:55] Book: Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity, by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods. Podcast with Brian Hare: Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity. [00:07:07] Book: Humankind: A Hopeful History, by Rutger Bregman. [00:09:03] Julian's study: Abel, Julian, et al. "Reducing emergency hospital admissions: a population health complex intervention of an enhanced model of primary care and compassionate communities." British Journal of General Practice 68.676 (2018): e803-e810. [00:11:18] Julian’s Podcast: Survival of the Kindest.  [00:11:25] Julian’s interview with Holly Prince: Dancing in the Field of End of Life Care. [00:13:46] Compassionate Communities UK.  [00:15:50] Review on social relationships and mortality: Holt-Lunstad, Julianne, Timothy B. Smith, and J. Bradley Layton. "Social relationships and mortality risk: a meta-analytic review." PLoS medicine 7.7 (2010): e1000316. [00:17:16] Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari. [00:17:48] Book: Propaganda by Edward Bernays. [00:21:01] Julian's interview with Waleed Nesyif: It's Never Too Late for Compassion.  [00:22:28] Compassionate City Charter (and other tools). [00:23:41] How to get people to be more compassionate - reason, emotion, and inspiration. [00:23:52] James Maskell: podcast: The Community Cure: Transforming Health Outcomes Together, and book. [00:26:46] Steps an individual can take. [00:33:36] Podcasts: The Neurophysiology of Safety and How to Feel Safe. with Stephen Porges, PhD., and Oxytocin: More Than Just a “Love Hormone”, with Sue Carter, PhD. [00:33:57] The people you spend time with affect your health outcomes; Book: Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, by Nicholas A. Christakis and James Fowler. [00:34:03] Article: Threats to causal inference in an increasingly connected world. [00:35:51] People who are fiercely independent or resistant. [00:39:57] Enhancing naturally-occurring networks. [00:42:10] Town planning. [00:44:23] Subsidiarity (skin in the game). [00:45:25] Compassionate Communities USA / Elevate Compassion (Coming Soon). [00:48:10] Julian's book: The Compassion Project: A case for hope and humankindness from the town that beat loneliness. [00:49:11] Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine article: Compassion is the best medicine, by Julian Abel and Lindsay Clarke. [00:49:15] Guardian Article: The town that’s found a potent cure for illness – community, by George Monbiot.

Jessica Fern is a psychotherapist, author, public speaker and trauma and relationship expert. She has worked with individuals, couples and people in multiple-partner relationships to overcome reactive communication patterns rooted in insecure attachment and trauma. She is the author of Polysecure, a book that focuses on creating emotionally intimate and securely attached relationships with multiple partners. On this podcast, Jessica talks about attachment theory, what it means to be securely attached, and how insecure attachment could be limiting your relationships. We discuss how to raise securely attached children and how to spot the different forms of insecure attachment. We also discuss polyamory and why the success of consensual non-monogamy hinges on the attachment status of the participants. Here’s the outline of this interview with Jessica Fern: [00:00:09] La Ecovilla, Costa Rica. [00:02:47] Down to Earth with Zac Efron: Episode 3: Costa Rica. [00:03:22] Early interest in psychology. [00:04:51] Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. [00:05:44] Attachment theory. [00:08:40] Achieving secure attachment: ARE (Available, Responsible, Engaged). [00:09:29] Daniel P. Brown; Quiz on attachment styles. [00:09:43] Expressed delight. [00:11:47] Book: Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding, by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy. [00:13:32] Book: Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy, by Jessica Fern. [00:14:57] Attachment styles and adult relationships. [00:16:28] Insecure attachment styles. [00:19:39] Trauma. [00:23:32] Consensual non-monogamy. [00:23:59] Book: Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships, by Christopher Ryan; Podcast: Civilized to Death: Are We Really Making Progress? [00:28:16] Emotional and sexual exclusivity. [00:31:01] Compersion. [00:33:39] Justice jealousy. [00:37:08] Metamour relationships. [00:37:38] Polyamory structures. [00:44:51] HEARTS acronym for secure attachment. [00:48:31] Couples who argue (peacefully) are more likely to stay together; Study: Gottman, John Mordechai, and Robert Wayne Levenson. "The timing of divorce: Predicting when a couple will divorce over a 14‐year period." Journal of Marriage and Family 62.3 (2000): 737-745. [00:49:10] Dr. John Gottman. [00:49:42] Jessica’s website. [00:50:13] Podcast: The Neurophysiology of Safety and How to Feel Safe. with Stephen Porges, PhD. [00:50:15] Podcast: Oxytocin: More Than Just a “Love Hormone”, with Sue Carter, PhD.

Ever wonder why oxytocin is called the “Love Drug?” This week, Dr. Sue Carter, author of "Attachment and Bonding: A New Synthesis” joins me in a very interesting discussion on why oxytocin is one of the primary glues that keeps long-term relationships together. According to Dr. Sue Carter, without oxytocin, we probably would not have been able to evolve into the complex creatures that we are today. If you have always wanted to know the relationship between oxytocin and attachment dynamics, you’ll want to check this out. Shownotes: 2:50 Introduction - Dr. Sue Carter 10:15 Pair bonding, relationships and the origins of oxytocin 19:40 Oxytocin fluctuations and a sense of safety 17:45 The influence of oxytocin on our relationships 34:40 Effects of oxytocin on men and women 39:15 Action Step Useful Links: https://relationshipschool.com/training

Debbie Sue Carter knew she was in trouble.  Someone was at her home at 2:00 am that made her feel uncomfortable enough to call her friend to come to get her.  Before her friend left, Debbie called her back and told her not to come over.  The next day Debbie was found raped and murdered.  She had been brutalized with a ketchup bottle and her killer had written messages all over her body and apartment. Two men, Ronald Williamson and Dennis Fritz were convicted of the murder.  Twelve years later, they were exonerated and her real killer was brought to justice.  Listen to find out who tortured, raped, and murdered Debbie Sue Carter.Don't forget to follow us on your podcast app!You can help support us by becoming a member and get access to all of our exclusive online/members-only episodes.  Go to www.tntcrimes.com  www.patreon.com/tntcrimesIG: @tntcrimespodcastFacebook: @tntcrimespodcast

Eric Rieger  0:00  All right, it is now time for the gut check project with the COVID file installment number 11. I'm Eric Rieger, with your co host, Dr. Kenneth Brown. Dr. Brown what's happening today?Ken Brown  0:10  What's going on Eric? I love you sticking to your roots and the hair just keeps getting bigger and bigger this COVID do that. Yeah going on it's starting to starting to really rock right now.Eric Rieger  0:20  You can you can see roots you can see some gray Kevin but yeah, roots. Whatever it takes. Ken Brown  0:27  How have you been? What's going on with the family? let's get let's get caught up on that stuff. We're not doing enough personal stuff lately.Eric Rieger  0:33  Man family. It's funny. You mentioned that. Yeah, considering what we're going to talk about. But this weekend, I get to go and see my oldest he is in his first semester at Texas Tech. He's loving it, but I'm not seeing him in over a month can't wait till this weekend for us to say hello to each other and youngest Mac has got basketball this evening. They're doing tournaments. And of course, both of them are having to do this readjustment obviously around COVID. And Marie, I couldn't be more excited to to obviously go and watch the boys play. And then go watch or go catch up with gage this weekend. And she and I just remain busy. So it's a it's it's the world we live in now. It's prefaced by my COVID. What about yourself?Ken Brown  1:23  things are going really good with the family. We're trying to figure out how to get back at some of these tennis tournaments, as they put them on, and they cancel them and so on. So talking to mom a lot and trying to be very proactive about speak with mom trying to figure out how I can get my 79 year old, very Spry mom who's feeling better now than she did when she was 69. So and then 59. I think she's feeling better now than she has in 20 years. And so I started thinking about that I started thinking about family and how important that is. And this is what I want to kind of get into today today's I kind of threw you a curveball, I initially said we're going to talk about something and then I started going down these rabbit holes of research. And rather than rabbit holes, I'm gonna call them vole holes, the prairie vole holes. Alright, I'll explain how that ties in. But when we're looking at this, I'm sitting there talking to my mom, and she sounds great. And we're trying to do this. I've got, you know, we did some some zooms with some other friends around the country. And I'm like, wow, this is an interesting time. And I then started thinking about my practice. And I'm like, and my practice is really busy right now, like people are really struggling, and they're very desperate. So I started down this whole path. This is where it began. And this is going to end up being Angie Cooks podcast, because she's going to come on and I'm challenging her to be the expert in this, because I just got done doing Chris Kresser's podcast where he agreed, we need to bring this one thing out in the open. What we're seeing and what I'm seeing with patients is a consistent deal where if people have some sort of gastrointestinal problem, specifically CBOE, I can trace it back. And then you have these people that are showing up with dysautonomia, they've got pots. Ehlers Danlos and which comes first chicken of the egg did something cause that, if those terms don't mean anything to you, good. If they mean something to you, then you know what I'm talking about, because it's this. It's this constellation of symptoms that nobody has put together before, which is gut something happens to your gut, then suddenly, you're diagnosed as having Ehlers Danlos. And then it's postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome called pots. So for all those people that have this, and there's actually way more than we realize, that's what I started with this, I was like, Oh, I'm going to do a, I'm going to do the preface, the the sort of general 30,000 foot view of why we have this and then I started thinking, Wait a minute, why is this why are we seeing more of this now? Why are we having more gastrointestinal issues, which conceivably can lead to chronic long term stuff. And then I had a wake up in the middle of the night moment where I went COVID people are recovering from COVID. But then they're having chronic issues. And it's really all over the map. Now, cardiac issues, pulmonary issues, some some nerve issues, are we going to end up with a whole new wave of almost post Lyme, chronic infection type things that the immune system is turned on? So then that got me thinking, I'm like, Oh my gosh, we got to figure out this whole motility deal. And during this really busy time, I've got all these people and then I got a article was sent to me by the Journal of American Medical Association, this month, September 2020, that signs of depression have tripled in the US since COVID 19 pandemic So 28% of the people surveyed had at least one symptom of depression, you compare that to 8.5% pre pandemic. So it's not just the number, but the severity of depression is increasing tremendously also. And there's actually a significant number of people that have been diagnosed with serious depression. When you fall into that category, you start really worrying about suicide, you start really worrying about breakthrough of other problems. And it usually requires a ton of treatment and different things to try and get this under wraps. So there's very little research going on right now discussing this. So we've got this COVID problem, even if you don't get COVID. So if you get COVID, it's possible, you have to worry about a long term consequence. We know it can infect the gut. And then even if you don't, we're seeing the next wave of impending pandemic of depression that we're going to have to deal with. SoEric Rieger  6:00  No joke. I was just going to add that the I guess the the syndromes that you're describing Ehlers Danlos, and POTs, etc. It is reminiscent to the time when you were addressing IBS and bloating, okay, because those were somewhat seen as throwaway trashcan diagnoses. And that's really kind of stealing a lot from you. That's what people felt they're like, well, I don't know, it's IBS, I don't know. It almost feels like it, we're we're now sustaining a wave of POTs and Ehlers. And we're seeing these people come through and they don't really know who they can turn to. And little bit by little bit, it seems like maybe we're making a little bit of headway. So drawing this connection really pulls me in, and others who may actually have happened to suffer from this, or who have witnessed family members suffer from this kind of stuff, because there has to be a way out. And there's usually a cause and just kicking it under the rug and pretending like it's not there is not really going to work. And if we know that COVID is setting us up to experience syndromes similar to this, then more than likely, we can walk backwards and figure out what was it that COVID did to put these things in motion? And what can we do about it? If we become infected to hopefully either curve it or not experience it all together?Ken Brown  7:23  Well, I think one of the biggest things is that if you are in a situation, you cannot have a healthy immune system without a healthy gut. So what I'm saying is that we do have evidence now that when you have a something that affects your gastrointestinal system system, like an h2 receptor, where spike protein can bind to it, and then that's where the, the whole disease starts, that could lead to a domino effect of more chronic problems. And so I'm sitting, I'm just like, wow, okay, this is daunting, my practice is full, we're getting all these people showing up with these, I don't, I can't give them a good answer. On the whole, you had got problems. Now you've got these other long term issues you have to deal with, and this JAMA article comes out. And so this is where I start going down some balls, like man, I really want to be able to help, like, what is this connection, it says there. And then I started looking down this and I was like, wait a minute, let's look at this. Depression essentially is a form of reaction to some sort of stress. Stress, we know causes a sympathetic response in the body, right? We understand that a fight or flight response is the sympathetic response that affects intestinal motility. And we know through all of our other podcasts that we've done, and and other people and guests that there's a tremendous brain gut access. So as your co-host of the gut check project, co COVID, files number 11. I'm at least gonna try and do my part, which is if all this is going on, let's at least protect the gut. And we know that if you were to change the motility, you can develop cebo then you can get leaky gut, and then you can develop these other problems. So I was like, Okay, wait a minute. Now we're seeing that these covered people are having heart issues, brain issues, there's all different kinds of things. I'm like, I can't just get on there and say, well, we got to protect the gut. So I found an article published this month, and I went, Oh, this is what this episode is going to be about. It's going to be about give your neighbor and Atrantil and a hug. Give your neighbor just a little bit of powerful nature's polyphenols and a hug, huh? Yeah. Kudos to Chris Kresser. Because he mentioned this study, in which he went Oh, did you see that thing? So that means like, this study just came out like last week and I was like, Man that stays on top of it. Yeah, a recent study. This is where we're gonna end up. And this is why giving somebody a hug could be very important for your gastrointestinal health. Okay, this is what's gonna be about it given to you in a hug. Okay, so a recent study with rats looked at gastrointestinal motility in the setting of stress. So what these researchers did is they showed that when rats are exposed to acute or moderate amounts of stress is that they were able to show that the rats developed gastroparesis, they did not go into why gastroparesis is slowing of the stomach. I'll explain to my patients that when you go through amount of stress, the sympathetic nervous system slows your intestines down. And were to develop bacterial overgrowth, you have a reflex from your small bowel to your stomach, that slows it down. I get all these people diagnosed as gastroparesis. And when we fix their cebo, the gastroparesis goes away. So these guys were saying, okay, we know that these rats when we expose them to stress, they develop gastroparesis, but we don't really have a way to help them. So then one of them, I really like to see how they decided on this one particular thing, then they decided to check something that has not actually ever been reported before. Someone was that somebody had the wherewithal to say, let's check the oxytocin level. You familiar with oxytocin?Eric Rieger  11:24  Yeah, I am familiar with oxytocin and, and or pitocin. oxytocin, I think is the endogenous form of pitocin. Correct?Ken Brown  11:33  Correct. Yeah, it's also known as the hormone that mostly is associated with pregnancy and giving birth. Right, the pitocin part of it, you as a crna. You, you know, you do the epidural and somebody and then you start the pitocin, drip and it and there's lots of contractions,Eric Rieger  11:49  causes uterine contraction, you get the baby If someone's been induced, and that's what we're doing is we're giving them that hit or pitocin through their IV.Ken Brown  11:59  Yeah. And so the way that I learned about oxytocin was mostly through my gynecologic rotations, where you're looking at stuff like this. Well, as it turns out, it's a really cool little neuropeptide slash hormone, you made it dead and just have one use that we isolated for our own convenience doesn't just have the one use and then everybody thinks about it. It's been, it's been labeled as the love hormone, the cuddle hormone. It's what helps moms develop their lactation when the baby cries, it's an oxytocin response, all this other really cool stuff. These guys said, hey, what if we got their oxytocin up higher? conceivably, what if the stress decreased their oxytocin raise their vasopressin. And maybe that's why they're having GI issues. Nobody's ever put the link together before where it's like, Look, we just say that, oh, when you're under stress, you're you have gut issues. How, hence the vole hole. So what they're able to show is that these rats with higher levels of oxytocin recovered from the stress and improved gastric motility. their guts recovered when they can raise their oxytocin level. Okay. And then they took these knockout rats and what knockout rats and mice are is that they genetically raise one that is incapable of producing something that they want. So then they raise these rats that were incapable of producing oxytocin, and their gastric motility and their GI tract was horrible. So their data showed that oxytocin directly influences the neural pathway of the stress response. Why is that relevant? Because when we have Angie on and we do our motility, deep dive, maybe a couple different podcasts, and Kresser agreed with me on this one, it all comes down to motility, we have to fix the motility. And this is a particular it's known as a neuropeptide. A lot of people refer to it as a hormone that actually affects the neural motility. Eric Rieger  13:59  RightKen Brown  13:59  And I went, Oh my gosh, I have not heard of this before. So now what we're talking about is oxytocin as a stress adaption that could actually help motility. So rather than just immediately build a cuddle room in my clinic, where patients come in and they get rain and Amber and Andy and my all my other staff will rotate cuddling with patients to improve their oxytocin level. I thought I'd look into the science a little bit more before I just jump into that. And then I it got me thinking with not only is COVID creating all this depression is it is some of the problem because we're isolating ourselves. I mean, I still want I mean, I still don't like the zoom way that we're doing this, but at least we have some interaction but is it conceivable that one of the reasons why we're having so much depression so many of these other issues that are we ignoring our oxytocin?Eric Rieger  14:58  Hey, you know, I had to quick things one is quick. And that is, I think that now we've established especially with the with the mice or the rats, that oxytocin is not a gender specific marker or a hormone, right? So males and females are going to benefit from this. But a side note long, long ago, I was watching a special and they were talking about some of the side effects that happen to people who happen to be imprisoned, and who were put like into isolation, for whatever reason, you know, down in the hole. And one of the early issues that occurs with them is GI distress. So I kind of feel like, maybe we're going, I mean, beyond the depression beyond the the the things that could just simply drive someone crazy in their own mind by being isolated. A lot of it was just simply inability to have normal functioning GI tract. SoKen Brown  15:56  anyway. And so let's, let's just keep on that for a second. You have stress, you are able to muscle through some of your gastrointestinal issues. Instead, just have to have to keep the stiff upper lip and keep moving. What you don't realize is that if you're not taking care of your gastrointestinal health, then this could lead to a cascade of other inflammatory things. So how do you improve the inflammatory aspect of everything? That's the really, that's the really interesting thing. Now we have talked improving your immune system by mitigating your inflammatory response using polyphenols. We've talked about improving your NRF two pathway which decreases the inflammatory response. So now I'm going to give you the trifecta of let's go down some vole holes and talk oxytocin. And why do I save vole holes? Because I found this incredible scientists. She's a neurobiologist named Sue Carter. And she's internationally recognized as this behavioral neuro endocrinology PhD. She is the director of the Kinsey Institute, which looks at this and all her work has focused on oxytocin. And she found the what was presumed to be the only mammal that had a monogamous relationship, the prairie vole. So when I say I went down vole holes all the research on oxytocin has actually been done on Prairie voles by this badass scientist named Sue Carter. Yeah, and her work is really cool, because when you read some of this, she studied oxytocin and voles. And the reason why is because they were they were presumed to be the most social mammal and monogamous and they really don't care about their environment. So you can take two moles that love each other, and put them anywhere, and there'll be just as happy because as long as they're socializing, they're, they're super cool. And her first discovery was, voles are not monogamous. In fact, female voles will actually go and mate with a random male vole, and then fight with them afterwards to kick them out to basically come back and be with her lifelong mate. So they have lifelong mates. But the vole will actually go out. And she explained that this is probably it's not like it's a super what's the term for when somebody sleeps around a whole lot? And but the appropriate term is going promiscuous. Eric Rieger  18:34  Thank you for rescuing. Yeah. None of which we're going to be appropriate for today. But yeah, good save.Ken Brown  18:43  So it wasn't that these that these female voles were promiscuous, it's that there's a genetic reason for doing this, that if you can have a genetic pooling, where you have more genes, but it's the family rearing aspect, and so what she was able to show is that it doesn't have to be the original Mother/Father, as long as there's a family unit or some sort of unit. And then, you know, she references a lot of psychological studies in humans, which this has been shown multiple times that, you know, this is where it's at. So the vole has a very similar oxytocin response to humans. So it's the perfect mammal to actually study. And at this point, that's why I'm going down boltholes. Now we should probably define really, what oxytocin is on a little more scientific level. oxytocin, it's an evolutionarily ancient neuro modulator, and hormone produced in the hypothalamus where it's pumped directly into the brain and into your circulation. So very complex way to say this thing has been around since the dawn of time, to help us adapt to our environment. And in fact, oxytocin, which is the love hormone is known as the cuddle hormone. It's associated with childbirth and women. But now we realize it's in everybody. When it goes up, that really means that you're in a time of abundance, that means that you're in a time, this is a time to love, this is a time to do things. And when that's up, it actually does all different kinds of things. And we'll get into that in a second. But one thing it definitely does is it improves your immune system by decreasing inflammatory markers, very similar to how the NRF two pathway functions. When there's types of stress, All right, now, your oxytocin goes down, your vasopressin goes up, and you send signals that you're under duress. Does that make sense?Eric Rieger  20:46  It does. And so basically, if you it just sounds to me, like if you're under a lot of stress, it's hard to love. And if you aren't receiving love, you're probably going to find yourself in a lot of stress.Ken Brown  20:59  Yes, so here is the thing that nobody's talking about, we've got a massive amount of depression going on, because of COVID. And then we're saying everybody stay away from each other. Yeah. When the reality is what we're going to do at the end of this podcast is talk about how we can increase our oxytocin levels. But just to show how important it is, what was she was able to do just a few of the things it enhanced memory production. It has been shown to increase muscle mass. So it has been shown to help heal wounds quicker. So they can show when your oxytocin levels up. You have less serious infections, you actually can learn things better. You can develop more muscle, it's like kind of a, it's one of those like, that does too much. Well, it's that important. It's one of these homeostasis type hormones. oxytocin vasopressin, she was talking about all different kinds of studies that perhaps one of the reasons why there's a cycle of teen pregnancy in certain lower socio economic areas. Could be that when a mother is stressed, she sends a signal to the baby that's in her. Oh, hey, we got hard times. Yeah, baby. Down regulates its ability to produce oxytocin. Oh, my. So it comes out. guns blazing, not ready to cuddle? Yeah, baby has been sent a signal that says you are being born into hard times. And when that happens, then you can end up with a sequence of events. And it's just tip of the iceberg about where she was going with it. And she showed it with these prairie voles, she had certain moms that were under stress, well, then the baby would have lower oxytocin levels throughout its life. They go so far. Yeah, it's really wild stuff. Super, super wild. Because I'd never really thought about oxytocin before. I've always thought of as a pregnancy thing. And now I'm like, whoa, wait a minute. So what it helps you do is it helps you adapt to a changing environment. I was thinking of a Time Suck. With what? Dan Cummins, Dan Cummins. And I just had to laugh about it. Because he he almost describes this when he was doing the Genghis Khan, he's just like, Yeah, can you imagine being born in this is a kind of like, you're born into this horrible world, and you're just about money. And I'm like, oh, that oxytocin was really low in poor Genghis. Yeah. And yeah,Eric Rieger  23:29  it really, really was.Ken Brown  23:31  And so a lot of the oxytocin levels in a community can be manipulated by the strength of the community, and learning from others. So part of what makes the oxytocin go up a little bit, is the reward aspect also. So when you learn from somebody, and you don't have to fail a bunch of times your oxytocin goes higher. So each generation, if done right, should have slightly higher ability to have the oxytocin because you're learning from the next group in front of you. And then it it's, it's a safety thing, the more control you have, the more abundance you have the higher abundance, meaning you're not fighting for your life, not Lamborghini, whatever, I'm pretty sure that, you know,Eric Rieger  24:20  in a weird anecdotal way, if you think about just growing up and being in a classroom, it seemed like that, in certain subjects, you would have friends that were just more adapt and and better at listening and getting instruction. And so as a lesson progressed, they didn't seem to stress about subject matter. So their ability to relax and learn and take in information. They had a comfort zone with that. So they may have had some amounts of oxytocin being released, which allowed them to take up the material and then they didn't stress as the material is reintroduced. They were tested on I mean, it's, it's a cycle, right? So it's probably there's probably a pattern there, too. Where we can, we can help our young kids and children, etc, by learning how to get comfortable learning, learn how to learn.Ken Brown  25:07  Yeah, absolutely. Now the good news, Eric, you don't have to worry about this at all, because as we've discussed in multiple different ways, Big Pharma is super excited to be involved in the oxytocin rush here.Eric Rieger  25:20  Yeah, I'm sure that they've, they've got our best interest at every dollar.Ken Brown  25:24  So they've got multiple animal studies showing that you can kind of manipulate the oxytocin in an animal. They've got nasal sprays in Europe with just straight oxytocin, we've got this synthetic one pitocin. Well, she's also got a ton of ton of work about how that will never work. Now, it will never work. You cannot play Mother Nature in somebody's body with something so intrinsic and delicate and complicated. So unfortunately, at least in human studies, when they have tried to do this and develop a drug where you just take a shot of oxytocin, and your immune system improves and everything, your body, surprise, surprise, starts to down regulate some of the oxytocin receptors up regulate the vasopressin receptors, because it goes this is weird. This is something's odd, and so then the body automatically offsets it. So then when you stop, you've got all this vasopressin, which is your fight or flight, workplace and when you beganEric Rieger  26:21  gonna be stressed out to the hilt, it's it's it's no different than when someone over for a long period of time consumes steroids, and then they don't produce their endogenous steroids anymore. I mean, that the adrenal fatigue or they shrivel up, they don't do anything. So it's a it's a real problem.Ken Brown  26:38  Yeah. So here we are, in this pandemic, the vole hole was I'm I'm worried about chronic conditions, and dysautonomia, and gi issues, which then led to finding the study on the rats, which then used oxytocin to look at. And so here we are, in this pandemic, depression is super high, we're socially isolated. We know that when we're stressed, we're going to have lower levels of oxytocin. It's that seesaw. If you're really stressed out, you're basically telling the vasopressin to go up and oxytocin goes down. Easier said than done, right? Don't be stressed, you'll be fine. So we know that right now everybody's stressed. So your oxytocin is lower, this can lead to my perspective, the GI tract will be affected. So a neurologist will tell you what it will do in the brain. a cardiologist will tell you what it will do in the heart. But we do know that oxytocin affects gi motility. Gi motility, in my opinion, is the underlying reason why all these chronic conditions are actually developing. So you're gonna have poor intestinal motility, you feel bad, which actually leads you to want to be more socially isolated. So a lot of the stuff when people are like, man, I just, I'm unhappy. I'm depressed, but I don't want to be around anybody. Yeah, give you a neuropeptide reason why that is your oxytocin is low. Your vasopressin is saying this is not the time to be cuddling. You know, we are flight thing going on. Right?Eric Rieger  28:10  It is getting to these, there are many, many examples it seems in life where we you can easily fall into these catch 22's, where you're, yeah, you're heading this one way. But for you to recover, you almost have to break the bounds and force yourself to do something that will allow you to get better. Otherwise, you're just going to stay unfortunately, in this cycle.Ken Brown  28:31  Yeah. So if you're listening to this, and you do have a little, any type of depression, any type of anxiety, we need to get your oxytocin up. If you have irritable bowel, if you've got cebo. If you've got any other gastrointestinal issues, we need to get your oxytocin up. Oh, if there's a slight possibility that you could be exposed to a virus. You need your oxytocin up so that your immune system reacts appropriately. Now let's get to oxytocin and the immune system is that oxytocin does exactly what our NRF two pathway does. They all work together, polyphenols, decrease interleukin six, which helps mediate your response. Yeah, it turns out oxytocin mediates the body's response so that you don't overreact. It's all about the thing that we talked about the endocannabinoid system, it's about being in balance. So oxytocin actually helps your immune system, which could be one of the reasons we said it during the NRF two, podcast but you can almost say, well, maybe a little bit of oxytocin's taking place because when you're NRF two is down. That means that you have higher inflammation. Once you have higher inflammation, that means your oxytocin will go down. So it's that you're exactly right. You got to break a cycle here.Eric Rieger  29:50  Yeah, you got to you've got to go against intuitively what's Unfortunately, the pattern that feels like that, that you're on the path that you're on, right. You ever think about it? When you've got your friend and you're, you're growing up and your friend, he just broke up with his girlfriend, or if you're a girl, it's your girlfriend, or boyfriend, they're really sad. They don't know what they want to do and feeling really down, but you convince them to come and hang out with the friends, etc. And almost every single time, by the end of the evening or the outing, whatever it is, that particular person is ecstatic that they were, they're surrounded by people that cared about them, they loved them. It sounds like it's a lot of this community that you're describing, because it helped them get through something, right.Ken Brown  30:34  So this is the crazy thing. So I've talked to patients that been going through a lot, they start going through depression, they start gaining weight. They're like, I don't know, I'm even now I don't want to be around anybody I've put on, you know, 40 pounds, since it's COVID. Oh, I hate to break this to you. You're gonna put on weight if your oxytocin is low. Why? Because your vasopressin goes up, which is your fight or flight, which is your cortisol. So every time that you said, Well, I'll start mingling, once I lose weight. So as a weight loss product, we're going to tell you how to get your oxytocin up. In fact, I was talking to a patient today. Wonderful, just love to see people when they round a corner, and they're just really happy. Yeah, a patient of mine I've had for 17 years, and looks phenomenal. Did his COVID hair looks great. And it's his disease, underlying disease that he sees me for is under total control. And I start finding out, got remarried, has a new social circle. They have a they have a process where they, every Sunday, they have dinner together every whatever. And I went that is it right there. Because in every single medical study, listen to this one more time in every single medical study, a support system and social interaction will outperform drugs and diet. Now, there's a lot of people that would go No, no, no, no, no, you're insane. But if you look across the board, and you start really realizing that and you start teasing out some of these factors, actually people that do have a support system, and it was always theorized, oh, well, they have a support system, because their family members help them make sure they stay on their drugs. Oh, they have a support system, because they've got this and that could be oxytocin. Yeah, it could be this one thing that nobody's talking about?Eric Rieger  32:29  Yeah, definitely. No, I agree. I mean, just take an inventory of the people that you know, best. And not I mean, probably not every time someone will have a different example. But usually, your happiest friends, your happiest family members are those who are in touch surrounded by not only support, but they give support and they receive it. And I'm just thinking of just several people. Yeah, that's who they are.Ken Brown  32:56  So the oxytocin's every night, this Volvo was really big this that Sue Carter has dedicated her whole career to it. And the science behind it is all her data. And it's really big. It's the first time I started looking into it. But of course, I got to do what we try and do, which is bridge some bridge some gaps. So we will try and give you some tips on how to increase your oxytocin naturally. But I also want to look at a couple other things, we always seem to find that when you start looking at Mother Nature, secret weapon polyphenols, is there any data with this? So I really struggled to find a direct one to one, but there was a couple small studies looking at breast breast milk production, through the elevation of oxytocin. And this particular study showed that the combination of two different polyphenols, one of them being reservatrol, increased milk production through oxytocin release. So that was one of the only times that actually found that polyphenols directly increased oxytocin. And they were looking at it to try and stimulate more milk production. Okay, and then there was one randomized trial on delivery. And they were looking at, interestingly enough deal extract and its effect on oxytocin. And they showed that it actually showed a randomized trial where when you added the dill extract, which is a polyphenol, then it improved the delivery process. So smooth muscle contract, contractility, etc. And then I found this one, which is a little bit interesting, it makes a little bit more sense. Because we know this, we say this all the time. This article comes from the journal of probiotics and health, microbes, oxytocin, and healthful longevity. In this particular tastes, they showed how our microbiome interacts and through decreasing what they believe are different inflammatory mediators. We know that Do it has a direct effect through the vagal nerve directly on the hypothalamus to oxytocin levels. So, all of this is kind of extrapolating Dr. Carter does most of her work on these voles and amazing on family units and stuff, that one right there that nobody's really looking into as do these polyphenols also have an effect on the oxytocin level couple small studies, but we do know that these polyphenols increase the microbial diversity. So the reason why I said take out Ron teal and give somebody a hug, is because we know that the polyphenols, stable large molecular polyphenols, increase the microbial diversity. And we know when you have that, that a lot of other beneficial things happen. These guys in this paper showed a direct vagal mediated oxytocin response, meaning the vagus nerve, the great highway is a motility thing, we keep circling back to the same things. So other than make sure that you do the usual stuff that was talking about get some good sleep. I believe that polyphenols probably increase x increase oxytocin levels. And we know that at least in a couple small studies, that you can increase oxytocin through several different smaller polyphenols. And then this final one was that if your microbiome is diverse, you will produce more oxy tosun. That's really cool. That's really nice. Here's what's the best. It's called the cuddle hormone for a reason.Eric Rieger  36:39  Now, hugsKen Brown  36:40  let's quit being so sciency get our accion. Oh, no, no, don't I actually googled that. And I started to type in how to increase oxy. And it was like cotton levels were to get. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,Eric Rieger  36:57  no. Yeah, yeah, you don't you don't want that of your teenager how to increase your oxy acne wipes, you know, so.Ken Brown  37:07  But it's kind of interesting, because you because you, you look at these little voles, and you realize it's probably, the more the more that you love and share, the more that you open up, the more that you allow your body to increase the oxytocin receptors, so that they can be saturated more, and you're getting away from that sympathetic response. So what's your favorite way to raise your oxytocin?Eric Rieger  37:30  Ah, man, I can tell you right now a hug from a from wife and or family member friend. And any of that it sounds to me would be the most fun way. And then favorite way to to raise my own oxytocin. Alright,Ken Brown  37:46  so there's lots of ways to raise your oxytocin. And this is a this is a quiz for you. Eric Rieger  37:53  Oh, no.Ken Brown  37:54  Yeah. So we know that exercise raises oxytocin. Okay. We know that listening with your eyes, meaning real eye contact with somebody can increase your oxytocin being intimate with someone will increase your oxytocin. Okay. And basically, the whole cuddle aspect is there. So if you can incorporate all those different things, is there one particular act that would really knock the socks out of the oxytocin ballpark? If you could exercise be intimate? be close with somebody share a moment? Oh, oh.Eric Rieger  38:37  Probably, man. It's rolling dice here. All those are things that hopefully everyone's getting the opportunity to do daily. I would say getting close to somebody would be the one that raises the most, maybeKen Brown  38:50  you and I think differently.Eric Rieger  38:55  I guess you're about to break out a barbell not really sure.Ken Brown  38:57  No. Eric Rieger  38:58  Okay.Ken Brown  38:59   Exercise, being intimate. Being close. Having human contact. sex. Sex is amazing for raising oxytocin. SoEric Rieger  39:08  Oh, yeah, no, I mean, um, maybe, maybe. You're what? Maybe I was getting too g rated.Ken Brown  39:17  I'm just saying that, that do not underestimate the power that that being intimate with a close partner. A company accomplishes all those things at the same time.Eric Rieger  39:26  Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oh, I get it.Ken Brown  39:29  You say another way. Another way to increase oxytocin is to have an orgasm. So okay, having but you know, but they've also shown that by having a close intimate partner, the oxytocin goes up much higher. Your body knows you can't fake it, you know? Sure. It's so that's so alright. So, exercise, social gatherings. Listen with your eyes, have sex. Oh, give a gift. being generous will actually bump your oxytocinEric Rieger  40:00  Interesting now that that actually is is is awesome. So sorry but I guess the the noble rewards in life tend to tend to be associated with doing good deeds right? Because you share love with someone and that's so good deed you're letting them know that you care about them you you know you foster your relationships with with your friends then that that's that's a good deed you're helping them out. So yeah, I mean to me it makes sense. Yeah, it's funny you didn't you didn't mention that, that using businesses as a reason to screw somebody over increases oxytocin. You didn't mention that theft or isolation increases oxytocin, it's all of the it's all of the opposite things that we all say that we want to do for Yeah,Ken Brown  40:48  so next time you're in traffic and somebody kind of a jerk and cuts you off. Don't just sit there and get super upset. Just go, oh, that person's oxytocin is low. They're not doing the things to cultivate their oxytocin levels.Eric Rieger  41:01  Yeah, put your car in park and then look at them and listen with your eyes.Ken Brown  41:04  Yeah, listen with your eyes.Eric Rieger  41:10  Maybe not. That may not be the right.Ken Brown  41:12  Yeah, maybe that's not the right way. You could also I had to laugh. So a deal I was I was talking to her deal yesterday, my, my, my wonderful Scheduler. And I was trying to describe what I want to talk about today. And I was like, hey, do you know that like, heading a dog has been shown to increase oxytocin levels? And what about a cat? I have a cat and I was like, No, no, never.Eric Rieger  41:35  Not a cat.Ken Brown  41:36  No. Only dogs. I think cats also i'm not sure the study was done on dogs. So it just got me thinking I'm like, Okay, look, we're in this COVID environment. There's so many things against us. And yet we have a few things under our control. So listening to music, playing music can also raise that but waking up every day and saying, Okay, I'm going to try and figure out how to raise my oxytocin, which means that I'm going to try engage with somebody a little bit more, which means that I'm gonna try and take care of myself a little bit more if I'm going to be easier on myself. Because when you're hard on yourself, you raise your vasopressin level, which decreases your oxytocin. So give yourself a break. If anything, do it for your intestinal motility. Say, I'm, I'm going to make a concerted effort to which is why I said at the very beginning of the show, I'm trying to call mom more because we need to keep each other's oxytocin up, but you know, she lives alone. And I want to make sure that, you know, she's able to keep that oxytocin up. So this is a this is the vole hole called How to Increase your oxytocin kind of out of left field, I started down a motility path and we're going to come full circle because once we start really hitting that motility, this may become standard of care for a gastroenterologist to help patients.Eric Rieger  42:56  I mean, kind of a cool intersection now, I mean, we do a lot of things whenever people come through and use everything from diet to behavior to recommend exercise, why not just start saying be sure that you give a hug to your family members everyday or a close friend every day? Yeah,Ken Brown  43:13  and that's the problem is that we're in COVID. So that was one of my theories, that the isolation could be controlled Yeah, massive increase in depression, no doubt.Eric Rieger  43:25  No doubt at all.Ken Brown  43:27  got me thinking. So I would like to check oxytocin levels on you guys that do jujitsu because there's there's lots of hard cuddling going on during jujitsu if you call it cuddling, choking someone, for instance, which I think has kind of a has an oxytocin bump, but also a vasopressin fight or flight going on. I'm wondering if jujitsu people I'd need to check with Ricardo Abreu and see we just need to monitor his oxytocin levels as he's as he's smashing peopleEric Rieger  44:04  as he is if he uses the same tone as he aggressively went after you as a polyp. I don't know that I want to help him raise his oxytocin levels.Ken Brown  44:14  Yeah, that's true. Maybe it's Yeah, maybe it's low. So um, you know, we we keep coming back to the same thing we keep coming back to intestinal health is the root cause of all health. And now we're finding these different things that are really subtle that we can do in a holistic approach. You can increase your NRF two levels by doing certain things, you can increase your oxytocin. And all of this will play into the immune mediated aspect. I start thinking of people that are diagnosed with a pretty serious, you know, chronic situation, and it's depressing and it's sad and they're maybe in pain and all that just keeps lowering that oxytocin. If you could just get that back up. Maybe it'll break the cycle and you could start on a road to recovery.Eric Rieger  45:01  Yeah, I don't know, either. But it would make sense. I mean, maybe having people isolated in a hospital, for instance, especially during COVID where we're not allowing people in there is actually stunting their ability to overcome disease. I mean, think about that when how many people and stories have we heard of firsthand so and so had to go in for surgery, we don't really know how they're doing that but they call and said that they're just going out of their mind you're stuck there and it's taking longer for them to to be released from the hospital. I mean, it could have a profound effect as we're trying to stem the the the spread of the virus, but at the same time, we're not allowing other people to heal. You know, at the rate that they should, I don't know, it's it's pandemics present lots and lots of problems that areKen Brown  45:49  not been trying to figure out there. There used to be there was a gastroenterologist in my community that when he retired, he, he loved dogs. And so he had like these show dogs, he would bring them as animals and just allow patients to pet the dogs. Yeah. And now I look back, I'm like, wow, I'm like, let's take it up a notch. I mean, if we know that these prairie voles really raise their artsy tosun levels, then maybe we should have some variables and just like let them bite people and just inject the oxytocin and I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to talk to Dr. Carter about that one. I'm not really sure that's gonna work. Yeah, you just made oxytocin a venom. So the hard part is you got to get the prairie voles super happy and comfortable, then you gotta piss it off enough to bite yourEric Rieger  46:35  budget. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, I don't I don't think that's the avenue but that's okay.Ken Brown  46:41  And I do believe that they have the full science on the half life of it also. So it's not like it happens. And then unlike the NRF, two pathway that stays elevated for some time, the oxytocin is much like an Endocannabinoid like, like an amide. It comes out and it works and it comes back. And it just is as needed when it comes. So what I'm saying is you got to get that parallel the prairie vole to bite you really quick, because I think the half life is only like 30 minutes. It's gonna be hard.Eric Rieger  47:10  Yeah, I it's, it's going to be hard to, to prove to even see your ideas worth anything. You know, I don't know.Ken Brown  47:19  What we're doing here laughing a little bit that's raising our oxytocin also. So even if just at least make some jokes about prairie voles, and maybe that'll raise yourEric Rieger  47:28  venomous prairie voles. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of jokes in there. But yeah, that would be weird and strange. But, yeah, maybe you'll get happy out of it, too.Ken Brown  47:40  So that's the vole hole I went down. So can you summarize all this for me really quick, because I realized I was kind of all over the map on this one. But that's not I think it allEric Rieger  47:48  over the map at all. I mean, he just gave more reinforcing evidence that the fact is, is that can paint the reason why we don't like being isolated is because we're not supposed to be but one of the many reasons that a pandemic really stinks and, and not being able to see your friends why people are longing to get back and seeing their families because we're meant to be social. So when it's safe, and you can figure it out, by all means be as social as possible. Find the people that you care about the most embrace them, tell them that you hug them, it's it's not just enough to see them on camera, it's not just enough to, to just hear them on the phone. You You really want to go embrace and hug and let somebody else know. And then I like the other one, too, listening. Look at someone hear them. That's one of the most empathetic things that you can do for someone is just be quiet, don't talk over them. And let them voice whatever is on their mind, happy, sad or indifferent. And it's actually going to work to your benefit to do it. kind of crazy.Ken Brown  48:53  Are you actually talking about oxytocin or the fact that I do interrupt all the time, and this is just a polite way to tell me to just listen,Eric Rieger  48:59  so you didn't do it? Right. You're supposed to sit there and just keep staring in one of these days. I'm just kidding. Yeah, now? I do. I do think it's kind of cool. There's a lot of lessons in there if you just want to be happy and healthy. Scott Golden Rule stuff, treat people as you want to be treated. You want to be hugged, give you you need a little help do some charity. Yeah, it's it's, it will all work to your benefit. Well,Ken Brown  49:19  we know that giving a gift works. We know that improving your microbiome works. So your sign behind you your bloating relief, it's what we do. I'll try until what you should do is buy a bunch of Tron to and give it away as a gift and hug that person. And then you're going to bump your oxytocin way up and you're going to help that person bump their oxytocin.Eric Rieger  49:42  I don't see how you can go wrong with that. You can'tKen Brown  49:44  go wrong with that. Give Atrantil and give a hug. That's awesome.Eric Rieger  49:50  Yeah, that's a much better summary summary than what I was working towards.Ken Brown  49:54  Now, I didn't have time to look into how the endocannabinoid system plays with oxytocin but you know, that's tied And also, because this is all this just shows how complex humans are tied in, we'll eventually get to how improving your endocannabinoid system. But it seems like everything that improves everything that I just said for oxytocin actually decreases the sympathetic response, we get back to the same thing over and over and over again, inflammation creates disease, inflammation does is the root cause of the disease process. When you have inflammation, your NRF two pathway goes down and your oxytocin goes down. So you at least need to take the reins, stop some of the inflammation through a proper diet, eating polyphenols, taking a proper CBD to improve your endocannabinoid system, and then maybe your body will adjust by rising these other systems, these other molecular processes.Eric Rieger  50:49  Yeah, oxytocin, ultimately, not just a pregnancy hormone or peptide. It's quite important for us throughout our entire existence. So unfortunately, I mean, we mostly in the medical community, at least allopathic Lee only talk about oxytocin as it applies to the maternity ward. So way more important than that,Ken Brown  51:10  it's way more important to that. And you know, that we really can't have animals in the endoscopy suite. But I'm gonna ask a small favor since your hair is really grown out. Okay. I think we should let stressed out patients just pet your head as they're waiting to go back for their colonoscopy.Eric Rieger  51:24  Yeah, day after hand sanitizer, I guess. Again,Ken Brown  51:29  or somebody that's super stressed out here. Would you mind letting them pay?Eric Rieger  51:34  As long as I don't have to lay down and kick my leg several times across?Ken Brown  51:40  Well, that's awesome. Yeah. oxytocin, we just keep throwing curveballs at you.Eric Rieger  51:44  Yeah, well, hey, listen. For the listeners out there. I think that we keep hitting hinting at it but pretty soon we need to dedicate a series or a show to the vagus nerve and we have actively been looking and talking to a few different people will have a vagal nerve expert on here pretty soon and I'm excited about it. It really ties into exactly what Ken is talking about with oxytocin and everything that we can do to help out our parasympathetic nervous system which is the relax the love the feel the the rest and digest mode, I guess, if you will, for our bodies. Yes, it's quite a bit I thinkKen Brown  52:26  we're gonna end up so we're gonna let Angie run point on this because she has done so much research on the dysautonomia, which is the the dysregulation of your neurologic processes in relation to different organ systems. And that's the whole Potts, maules, cebo relation, Ehlers Danlos, and all these other things. So we'd start with that. But I think if we can figure out the motility aspect, it helps so many people, it's all it's all connected. And it's an it's almost like you can't just do the one thing, you can't just, it's like you got to do it all. You got to get socialized, and you got to feel good about yourself, you got to be happy or try to be happy. Anyway, that works for you meditate, everything start working on that, though, you will start losing weight, then we can start the healing the gut it all, it's all coming together. And if we could develop some sort of really nice rationale why people are having issues they are. And I think that alone helps people to start on the road to recovery. Because just being told it's all in your head is doesn't cut it.Eric Rieger  53:43  No, not at all. Not at all. Well, Ken, I think that the instructions are hopefully clear. Go hug somebody. Go hug somebody.Ken Brown  53:53  Yeah, so as always, this is a medical show, but I'm not giving medical advice. I'm a medical doctor Eric delivers anesthesia for a living. But just speak with your doctor. If we said anything that looks like you need to question it, but we're in social isolation. So don't randomly go up and hug people. But you can certainly you can certainly improve your oxytocin by sharing this episode, possibly liking this episode that will increase your oxytocin level.Eric Rieger  54:24  Yeah, absolutely. Well, I can share I can share. This is obviously code file installation number 11. I'm Eric Rieger here with the awesome co host, Dr. Kenneth Brown. Thank you all for the continued email and shares that we get. I don't know. I'm amazed every single week that we have more and more people who write in and say, Hello, thanks for doing the show. So as long as we get those will, will keep meeting up and hopefully we're we're covering topics that they interest youKen Brown  54:53  know, I want to send it when we send this email out to let people know that we've published this I'm going to send a virtual hug know what virtual hugs Come on back at us just just take just just just take a little video of you just hugging.Eric Rieger  55:04  Oh, yeah, yeah, hugging. Oh and quick shout out to Sheila Unger, she she actually you asked about the family earlier she sent a a free complimentary sample of a Texas Tech face covering out the gauge. That's awesome. Cool. Yeah, awesome.Ken Brown  55:23  So they're right there. She raised her oxytocin level he didEric Rieger  55:26  that was that wasn't a charitable gift. Absolutely. Okay. I think that's gonna do it for this episode. We will see you all next time. Stay safe. Give a hug. Listen to people. And don't forget to like and share and we'll talk to you all soon. Right onTranscribed by https://otter.ai

Love is not a soft feeling, it is "deep biology."  Oxytocin research pioneer Dr. Sue Carter joins co-host Sue Marriott to unravel the mystery of Sue's favorite neuropeptide.  You may have heard of oxytocin in the popular press, it's often called that "love drug." You'll hear that t's story is a bit more complicated than just that, as it also helps us protect and defend from intruders, and heals our body physically. www.therapistuncensored.com/episodes.

Love is not a soft feeling, it is "deep biology."  Oxytocin research pioneer Dr. Sue Carter joins co-host Sue Marriott to unravel the mystery of Sue's favorite neuropeptide.  You may have heard of oxytocin in the popular press, it's often called that "love drug." You'll hear that t's story is a bit more complicated than just that, as it also helps us protect and defend from intruders, and heals our body physically. www.therapistuncensored.com/episodes.

Dr. Sue Carter is a Distinguished University Scientist and Rudy Professor Emerita of Biology at Indiana University. A career biologist, Dr Carter has studied the endocrinology of love and social bonds for more than three decades. Her research on pair bonding helped lay the foundation for further work on the behavioural and developmental effects of oxytocin and vasopressin in humans. Recently, she has been examining the role of these neuropeptides in psychiatric and neurological disorders such as autism and depression. In this podcast, Dr Carter discusses the many ways oxytocin is integral to our development, physiological health, and social behaviour. She explains how too much or too little can be detrimental and describes her long-standing concern regarding the consequences of using synthetic oxytocin to induce labour during pregnancy. She talks about some of the recently discovered developmental functions of oxytocin and vasopressin, including muscle and bone synthesis and regeneration, and shares what you can do to increase the oxytocin your body produces naturally. Here’s the outline of this interview with Sue Carter: [00:00:15] Book: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, by Robert M. Sapolsky. [00:01:01] Studying prairie voles. [00:07:51] Thomas Insel, Larry Young, and Zuoxin Wang at Emory University. [00:14:13] Book: Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles, by Robin Baker. [00:14:36] Sarah Hrdy; Book: Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding. [00:17:29] Effects of early life stress on oxytocin and vasopressin. [00:26:15] "Cry it out" sleep training. [00:28:04] Oxytocin and autism. [00:30:13] Oxytocin being studied in treatment of autism; Reviews: 1. Benner, Seico, and Hidenori Yamasue. "Clinical potential of oxytocin in autism spectrum disorder: current issues and future perspectives." Behavioural Pharmacology 29.1 (2018): 1-12; 2. Okamoto, Yuko, et al. "The potential of nasal oxytocin administration for remediation of autism spectrum disorders." CNS & Neurological Disorders-Drug Targets (Formerly Current Drug Targets-CNS & Neurological Disorders) 15.5 (2016): 564-577. [00:31:57] Pitocin (synthetic oxytocin). [00:34:06] Just the right amount of oxytocin is required; too much and the system is disrupted. (Study mentioned by Sue is not available). [00:36:19] Postpartum depression. [00:39:52] Oxytocin as anti-inflammatory. [00:40:40] Higher oxytocin associated with faster wound healing; Study: Gouin, Jean-Philippe, et al. "Marital behavior, oxytocin, vasopressin, and wound healing." Psychoneuroendocrinology 35.7 (2010): 1082-1090. [00:42:08] Optimizing your body's production of oxytocin. [00:42:43] Oxytocin necessary for muscle regeneration; Study: Elabd, Christian, et al. "Oxytocin is an age-specific circulating hormone that is necessary for muscle maintenance and regeneration." Nature communications 5.1 (2014): 1-11. [00:43:35] Effect of exercise on oxytocin production. [00:44:53] Oxytocin during exercise could prevent breast cancer; Study: Alizadeh, Ali Mohammad, et al. "Oxytocin mediates the beneficial effects of the exercise training on breast cancer." Experimental physiology 103.2 (2018): 222-235. [00:46:30] Dr. Josh Turknett on minimizing environmental mismatch; Podcast: How to Win at Angry Birds: The Ancestral Paradigm for a Therapeutic Revolution. [00:46:38] Book: The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease, by Daniel Lieberman. [00:46:41] Article: Evolved to Exercise, by Herman Pontzer. [00:50:22] Potential use in treating COVID-19; Commentary: Oxytocin, a possible treatment for COVID-19? Everything to Gain, Nothing to Lose. [00:55:03] Effects of adversity on oxytocin and vasopressin. [00:56:02] Dr. Stephen Porges; Book: The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology). [00:57:58] Possible downsides of oxytocin; Creating intergroup bias: De Dreu, Carsten KW, et al. "Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108.4 (2011): 1262-1266. [00:58:26] Vasopressin implicated in out-group phenomenon; Review: Kavaliers, Martin, and Elena Choleris. "Out-group threat responses, in-group bias, and nonapeptide involvement are conserved across vertebrates:(A Comment on Bruintjes et al.,“Out-Group Threat Promotes Within-Group Affiliation in a Cooperative Fish”)." The American Naturalist 189.4 (2017): 453-458. (On SciHub). [00:59:18] Podcast: Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity, with Brian Hare, PhD. [01:02:42] Podcast: The Postmenopausal Longevity Paradox and the Evolutionary Advantage of Our Grandmothering Life History, with Kristen Hawkes, PhD. [01:04:13] The value of breastfeeding. [01:09:54] Review paper: Is Oxytocin “Nature’s Medicine”? Not yet published. Please contact Sue if you would like a copy. [01:11:15] Where to find Sue: Indiana University; Kinsey Institute; Pubmed.

Dr Sue Carter Collins is a professional speaker, a greatness life coach and author of the book “Return to Self: 5 Steps to Emotional & Spiritual Freedom”. Dr. Sue is here to share her story of rising above what seemed like insurmountable obstacles and how this has helped her to enlighten others. To learn more about Dr Sue, visit her on Facebook, Instagram and linked in @drsuecartercollins or email drsuecartercollins@gmail.com.

Dr Brian Hare is a scientist and the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Dogs. He received his PhD from Harvard University and is now a Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University. Brian founded the Hominoid Psychology Research Group while at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and subsequently founded the Duke Canine Cognition Center. His publications on dog cognition are among the most heavily cited papers on dog behaviour and intelligence. In this podcast, Brian talks about his new book, Survival of the Friendliest, which masterfully applies research on the psychology of dogs, chimps and bonobos to our understanding of human benevolence and cruelty. He explains why identifying with a group can result in hostility to others, and why species that find a way to cooperate tend to dominate. He also offers innovative solutions for reducing divisiveness and increasing cooperative behaviour in our contemporary society.  Here’s the outline of this interview with Brian Hare: [00:00:16] Book: The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think, by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods. [00:00:48] Book: Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity, by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods. [00:01:16] Shared intentionality. [00:05:18] Dognition assessment; online course. [00:07:29] Duke Canine Cognition Center publications. [00:13:45] Chimps and bonobos. [00:18:33] Analysis comparing chimps and bonobos on lethal aggression: Wilson, Michael L., et al. "Lethal aggression in Pan is better explained by adaptive strategies than human impacts." Nature 513.7518 (2014): 414-417. [00:19:58] Friendliness pays huge dividends. [00:24:32] Sue Carter, PhD on oxytocin. [00:25:27] Sexual behavior of bonobo females helps form alliances; Article: Parish, Amy Randall. "Female relationships in bonobos (Pan paniscus)." Hu Nat 7.1 (1996): 61-96. [00:27:24] Book: The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution, by Richard Wrangham. [00:31:08] Jane Goodall; Documentary: Jane. [00:31:18] Claudine Andre; Documentary: Bonobos: Back to the Wild. [00:32:23] Louis Leakey funded Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birutė Galdikas (The Trimates) to study hominids. [00:38:41] Books: The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man, by Charles Darwin. [00:39:45] Michael Tomasello, PhD. [00:47:14] Group identity. [00:53:47] Paul Bloom, PhD. [00:59:06] Increasing friendliness; Contact hypothesis. [00:59:41] Policy recommendations and innovations to increase friendliness. [01:06:40] Book: The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today, by David Stasavage. [01:09:17] Brian on Twitter. [01:09:52] Getting a dog: refer to the Humane Society website. [01:10:51] Hypoallergenic dogs have the same amount of dander; Study: Nicholas, Charlotte E., et al. "Dog allergen levels in homes with hypoallergenic compared with nonhypoallergenic dogs." American journal of rhinology & allergy 25.4 (2011): 252-256. [01:11:50] American Kennel Club.

DR. SUE CARTER COLLINS is an Empowerment and Transformation LifeWorks Certified Coach, a Master Synergistic Energy Healer, and a certified Reiki Master Teacher. She also is an advanced Pranic Healing Practitioner, Channel, and Intuitive Reader. Dr. Sue specializes in working with women and men to overcome low self-esteem and related issues such as lack of self-confidence, feelings of insecurity, and poor self-worth. Her goal is to help them achieve their highest potential. Having fought her own battle to be free of these crippling characteristics, Dr. Sue was determined to learn more about belief systems, brain functioning, and energy medicine in order to help herself and others identify and release disabling core beliefs and live thriving lives. In furtherance of this goal she established the Synergistic Healing Center (SHC) of Atlanta. The mission of the SHC is “Empowering Individuals and Transforming Lives One Spirit at a Time.” Dr. Sue uses a multiplicity of divinely guided life coaching techniques and complementary energy healing modalities to support each client on his or her unique journey. When used in combination these protocols produce a synergistic healing effect that is significantly greater than any technique or modality that is used alone. Dr. Sue is a master healer who draws upon a lifetime of personal and professional training and experiences to support her clients in their transformation process. Her professional approach is collaborative in nature and based upon the belief that we each are responsible for our own healing, which takes place from the inside out. In order to overcome our fears and experience complete freedom we must commit to doing our own inner work. Clients that embrace this philosophy and participate fully in the process achieve soul-level healing and inner spiritual peace resulting in happier, more joyous, and financially abundant lives. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/journeytoentrepreneurship/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/journeytoentrepreneurship/support

Put your seatbelt on for this one - you are about to hear some TRUTH! Dr. Sue Carter Collins has a Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice and is a specialist in resilience. She accomplished everything she could dream of and one day found herself on the couch ready to end her life if she could not change it. Over the next few years and much self-examination, she realized that we all have greatness as our birthright. From the time Sue was 1 to 16 years old, her father was in prison. Her strong mother raised her to believe in herself, but deep inside she still felt like she was less than. Sue speaks from her heart and acknowledges that we all have fears and encourages us to use our fear as an opportunity for growth. "Lean in and embrace it," she says, "because that is where your greatness is."Hear her story here. It is filled with twists and turns and pearls of wisdom - one of them is - "The greatness comes when you learn what the lesson is. Dr. Sue holds a Facebook group and a Sunday Evening group. Find out more here: www.facebook.com/drsuecartercollins or email: drsuecartercollins@gmail.comCheck out Dr. Sue's Book available on HERE on AMAZON.Return to Self: 5 Steps to Emotional and Spiritual FreedomHas your life lost its sparkle? Are you wondering if “this” is all there is? Are you struggling with questions such as who am I and what do I want in life but can’t seem to find the answers? Have you been so busy thinking, being, and doing what others tell you that you’ve become disconnected from your True Self and forgotten your spiritual nature? And what about your divine purpose? Are you curious about what it is? If you could create your ideal world who would you be? What would you be? How would you show up in life? In Return to Self Dr. Sue Carter Collins describes a 5-Step transformation process that gives you all the knowledge and tools you need to recreate yourself and live the life of your dreams. Commit to working the process and you are well on the way to achieving spiritual and emotional freedom.

Put your seatbelt on for this one - you are about to hear some TRUTH! Dr. Sue Carter Collins has a Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice and is a specialist in resilience. She accomplished everything she could dream of and one day found herself on the couch ready to end her life if she could not change it. Over the next few years and much self-examination, she realized that we all have greatness as our birthright. From the time Sue was 1 to 16 years old, her father was in prison. Her strong mother raised her to believe in herself, but deep inside she still felt like she was less than. Sue speaks from her heart and acknowledges that we all have fears and encourages us to use our fear as an opportunity for growth. "Lean in and embrace it," she says, "because that is where your greatness is." Hear her story here. It is filled with twists and turns and pearls of wisdom - one of them is - "The greatness comes when you learn what the lesson is. Dr. Sue holds a Facebook group and a Sunday Evening group. Find out more here: www.facebook.com/drsuecartercollins or email: drsuecartercollins@gmail.com Check out Dr. Sue's Book available on HERE on AMAZON. Return to Self: 5 Steps to Emotional and Spiritual Freedom Has your life lost its sparkle? Are you wondering if “this” is all there is? Are you struggling with questions such as who am I and what do I want in life but can’t seem to find the answers? Have you been so busy thinking, being, and doing what others tell you that you’ve become disconnected from your True Self and forgotten your spiritual nature? And what about your divine purpose? Are you curious about what it is? If you could create your ideal world who would you be? What would you be? How would you show up in life? In Return to Self Dr. Sue Carter Collins describes a 5-Step transformation process that gives you all the knowledge and tools you need to recreate yourself and live the life of your dreams. Commit to working the process and you are well on the way to achieving spiritual and emotional freedom.

Sometimes you just need simple strategies to give yourself a boost. In today’s episode, we’re going to cover ways that you can increase your sense of wellbeing and connectedness - by harnessing your own biochemistry to foster oxytocin production. This can all be done solo - no partner required (though you can do them with a partner too). Our guest, Dr. Jessica Zager, is a Pelvic Health Physical Therapist, and one of only 5 physical therapists in the world with an AASECT certification in sex counseling. Along with these simple oxytocin-boosting strategies, you’ll also learn a bit about how pelvic floor physical therapy can help with pain during sex. It’s a lighthearted conversation full of practical ways to keep you feeling good, and connected, that you can use whenever...but especially during these times of social distancing. As always, I’m looking forward to your thoughts on this episode and what revelations and questions it creates for you. Join us in the Relationship Alive Community on Facebook to chat about it!  Sponsors: Find a quality therapist, online, to support you and work on the places where you’re stuck. For 10% off your first month, visit Betterhelp.com/ALIVE to fill out the quick questionnaire and get paired with a therapist who’s right for you. This episode is also sponsored by Native Deodorant. Their products are filled with ingredients you can find in nature like coconut oil, which is an antimicrobial, shea butter to moisturize, and tapioca starch to absorb wetness. They don’t ever test on animals, they don’t use aluminum or any other scary chemical ingredients, and they’re so confident that you’ll like their deodorant that they offer free shipping - and returns. For 20% off your first purchase, visit http://www.nativedeodorant.com/alive and use promo code ALIVE during checkout. Resources:  Check out Jessica Zager's website to pick up her free cheat sheet to boosting oxytocin, and to find out more about her work. FREE Relationship Communication Secrets Guide Guide to Understanding Your Needs (and Your Partner's Needs) in Relationship (ALSO FREE) www.neilsattin.com/oxyboost Visit to download the transcript, or text “PASSION” to 33444 and follow the instructions to download the transcript to this episode with Jessica Zager. Amazing intro/outro music graciously provided courtesy of: The Railsplitters - Check them Out Transcript: Neil Sattin: Hello and welcome to another episode of Relationship Alive. This is your host, Neil Sattin. It's an interesting world that we're living in right now with social distancing or sheltering in place happening in most parts of the world to combat the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus pandemic that's affecting the world. And I think that there's probably not many of us who can escape the impact that it's having on the degree of closeness and intimacy that we're experiencing with the people in our lives. And if there aren't people in our lives, like if we're single or solo, or if we're separated from people who are important to us, then it brings a whole different dimension to it. Potentially, loneliness and missing out on the benefits of even just connection with close friends or going out on dates. Neil Sattin: And then, of course, those of us who are cooped up together, that has its benefits and also the challenges as well. So it's an interesting time and for the past several weeks, I've wanted to give you a wealth of resources to help you get through this time, staying sane, staying connected, and feeling connected not only to yourself, but to the people in your life that matter. Today, we're going to cover a special subject. We've talked on the show before about oxytocin, which is sometimes labeled the love hormone. Maybe a bit of a misnomer if you really dive into the scientific literature. But what we do know about oxytocin is that it is one of the chemicals that is in our bodies, and is primarily responsible for pair-bonding and it is also a chemical that helps us feel really good, and when we are connecting to ourself or to others, we can enter into blissful states of transcendence which are different than the ways that we feel when we're focused on activities that are more dopamine-driven. Neil Sattin: So a long time ago, in Episode 37, we had Sue Carter on the show, who is one of the leading researchers, who discovered oxytocin and its effects on pair-bonding. She was studying prairie voles at the time. But since that research has gone on to cover what happens within humans as well as prairie voles and if you want to listen to that episode, you can visit neilsattin.com/oxytocin. Now, I wanted to have someone new on the show. We were... This person actually happens to be a friend of mine, and we were talking the other day and she mentioned to me that she knew a lot of ways to foster oxytocin within us during these times of social distancing. So I thought it would be great to have her on the show to talk to you about these special techniques. Neil Sattin: Her name is Dr. Jessica Zager and she's a doctor of pelvic health physical therapy. She's also a sex counselor and a sex educator. She is one of the five physical therapists certified by AASECT, which is the American Association of Sexual Educators, Counselors and Therapists. She is one of the only five physical therapists certified by them in the entire world, which is pretty amazing. And so, she's here to share her vast knowledge of this particular narrow topic, and we'll get also a sense of some of the other things that Jessica does as well. But she is, in my experience, a profoundly kind and generous soul who has lots to offer the world. I know that she does sex counseling for people who have pain during intercourse or who have trouble with desire or libido and arousal. She also works with people around gender identity. And she's friendly to... No matter where you are on the gender spectrum or the kink spectrum, she is a open-minded, open-hearted person who is doing great work in the world. Neil Sattin: It's a pleasure to know her and call her one of my friends. And Dr. Jessica Zager, it's a pleasure to have you here today on Relationship Alive. Jessica Zager: I'm so excited to be here with you, Neil. Thank you for that very generous introduction. Neil Sattin: You are welcome and you deserved every word of it. I just want to let you know that we will have a transcript of this episode as always, you can get that if you visit neilsattin.com/oxyboost, that's O-X-Y as in oxytocin, and boost, B-O-O-S-T. And the things that we're going to talk about today, Jessica also put together a little cheat sheet guide that you can download, that'll have it all listed out in a condensed form for you and you can get that if you visit her website, which is drjzager.com, that's D-R-J, and then her last name, Zager, which is Z-A-G-E-R.com and you'll be able to download the free cheat sheet to all the things that we're going to talk about today to boost your oxytocin in a world where we have to stay six feet apart from each other. Neil Sattin: And I was just seeing, Jessica, an article today that had this picture of people who were all hanging out on their... In their pick-up trucks, and in their backyards and they were six feet apart from each other. And apparently, this is not what they mean by social distancing. The idea is if you go out in the world, stay six feet from people. But you're not supposed to just like hang out with people staying six feet away from them. That defeats the purpose and you might still... We don't know enough to know if that over a longer period of time would expose you to something from that person or expose them to something from you. Jessica Zager: Correct. Neil Sattin: So it's really important, I think, to be observing these... What do we call them? Orders from on high? But they're really kind of orders from within, 'cause we're trying to take care of each other, and at the same time, we don't want to miss out on some of the most treasured aspects of the human experience, the ways that we feel connected to ourselves and to each other. And anyway, that's why we're here, so... Jessica Zager: I think that's why this has been... One of the reasons why this has been so difficult for people right now is because we're in the midst of this global, worldwide pandemic, and we're being forced to be apart, and it's necessary, and it's beneficial, and then it's what we all need to do in order to help slow the spread, to, as they say, flatten the curve so that we're not overwhelming the healthcare system with as many hospitalizations and crisis situations at one time. But the drive for human connection is so strong that I think it's easy for people to do things, like you just said, and convince themselves that, "Well, as long as I'm six feet apart from my friends, we can hang out." But you're absolutely right, we don't know a lot about this virus, and we don't know exactly how it's transmitted. We keep hearing over and over again that if you are within six feet of somebody for 15 minutes, that puts you at a greater risk for catching the coronavirus. But we don't know about extended periods of time near others but greater than that six feet. Neil Sattin: Right. Yeah. And I like what you're bringing up, that there's such a drive within us to connect, and I think for many of us, we don't realize just how pervasive... If we're people who are connectors, we don't realize just how much we get from bumping into a friend every so often, and getting and giving a big hug. Or if you're dating, that even if you're just going out and you don't have a steady partner, just that act of being out with someone is igniting something in us that helps sustain us. Jessica Zager: Definitely. Whenever we are in close contact with people, especially people that we care about, to begin with, that will help to... Help our brains to start to release oxytocin. And as you mentioned, sometimes it's called the love hormone, it's also nicknamed the cuddle hormone, which I think is a little bit more accurate than the love hormone. Neil Sattin: Well, the challenge, though, is in this world, it... The state of things as they are right now, it's challenging to do the things that would typically ignite oxytocin. But I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about why we care, like, why focus on oxytocin in the first place? Why would we want to produce that within ourselves? And also I just want to mention to you listening that we're going to go over these things. We happen to be in a time of pandemic right now, but these are things that will be helpful for you no matter when you're listening to this episode, because they're the kinds of things that are always there as a resource for you to boost your own inner experience and reserves of the cuddle hormone, as Jessica was just mentioning. So yeah, why? Why do we care? Why do we want to boost oxytocin within ourselves? Jessica Zager: When oxytocin is released in our brains, it fosters an increased sense of well-being and a sense of social connection, like, we're not just isolated beings that exist and are walking around in the world, that we're actually connected to a larger network of others. And so oxytocin helps to really drive that sense of connection to those around us, and I think that's really important, because part of that drive helps us to be responsible for caring about others in times like this. And so it's kind of a catch 22, but right now, the best thing we can do to care for others is to stay away from people, yet when we're with people, that's what helps us to care more about others and create that sense of connection with others. Neil Sattin: Yeah, so it's super complicated, [chuckle] the intricacies and how we're interwoven with each other. And it also strikes me too that the ways that our desire for connection might lead us to choose irresponsibly if we really start to feel like we're at a deficit, that I could see that being another reason why we might want to supplement our internal production of oxytocin so that we aren't doing anything stupid for the sake of a hug or a cuddle. Jessica Zager: Yes. And there are many, many other benefits that are derived from oxytocin that can help us get through this time of social distancing and fear and worry about our loved ones and ourselves. So it also helps to decrease our blood pressure, it helps to decrease our anxiety in general, it helps to mitigate stress levels. So oxytocin is actually released during stressful situations to help counteract that stress response, which obviously would be a beneficial thing right now. Neil Sattin: For sure. Jessica Zager: And it also... You know, you already mentioned pair-bonding, which that I think is a lovely benefit, but also maybe one that is difficult right now, [chuckle] but it helps to decrease our sensitivity to pain... And one of my favorite benefits is because it stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, it helps to improve our gut motility and our gut health and relieve constipation. So as a pelvic floor PT, I love that. Neil Sattin: Yeah. You have like the sneaky side benefit of helping keep people healthy and regular. Jessica Zager: Exactly. And that just makes everyone feel better. Neil Sattin: For sure. For sure. Can you talk a little bit about what you do as a... I know that it's only one aspect of what you do as a pelvic floor or a pelvic health physical therapist, what does that even mean? I know it's a very specialized thing that not a lot of people do. Jessica Zager: It is. It's a specialized field of physical therapy that focuses on the muscles between your hips that are responsible for bowel, bladder and sexual function. And so, as a pelvic health physical therapist, I specialize in helping individuals improve and enhance their bladder, bowel and/or sexual function because oftentimes a lot of issues can be interconnected. For example, when I treat people with pain with sex, it's not uncommon to have constipation as a side effect as well, but we don't often think about our bowel movements being related to our sexual function. But as a pelvic floor PT, it really helps give me a perspective on how the human body works and not just as an isolated unit, but because I help people with sexual dysfunction and pain with sex, I'm also looking at their connections with other people. Neil Sattin: Right. 'Cause it's not a... It's not a closed system, those things are often... We're being impacted by the people that we're with as well as whatever physical condition just happens to be occurring in our bodies. Jessica Zager: Exactly. Neil Sattin: Yeah. So... And just... You know, this is something that will... Maybe we'll have you back on the show to talk about painful intercourse, 'cause I know that that's a problem for a lot of women, having pain during sex. What... For a woman who's experiencing that and thinks like, "Well, that's just how it is," or "My doctor can't see anything wrong, like there's no irritation, there's no obvious sign of why I should be having pain." Like I've heard that from women in the past. Can you just give us a teaser of what is sometimes going on in a situation like that and how the work that you do can actually help? Jessica Zager: Yes, definitely. So what you just said is a very common experience for women experiencing pain with sex, but I will tell you that pain is not normal unless it's a planned part of the sex that you want to be having. And so, pain during penetration, for example, or pain with clitoral stimulation is never normal. And so, if you are experiencing those symptoms, I urge you to see your doctor and they might... To be honest, they might not even know what pelvic floor physical therapy is, but in my experience, if you ask for it, you will get it. So most physicians, especially if they're scratching their head trying to figure out why you're experiencing these symptoms, are very open to referring you to pelvic floor physical therapy. Jessica Zager: And when somebody comes to me from a physician who has been having pain with sex and there doesn't seem to be a known cause, there's always a cause, it just hasn't been identified yet. So it's not in your head. It's not something that, you know, is... You're doing subconsciously, and what I do as a pelvic floor PT is I will help to assess your pelvic floor muscles to see if there's something going on with the muscles themselves that are contributing to your symptoms. So when a gynecologist looks at somebody's vagina who's having pain with sex, they usually push, they move the muscles out of the way with a speculum to take a look at the organs. So they're mainly concerned with how does the cervix look, how does the uterus look, they might do a scan to see if there's anything going on that they can identify with the ovaries or if there are any cysts that they think might be contributing to your symptoms, but if they can't find anything wrong with the organs, then the next step should be referring you to a pelvic floor physical therapist who can assess your muscles to see if there is any increased tension in the muscle that is actually contributing to your symptoms. Neil Sattin: Got it, and then I gotta think that someone here, I know the answer to this, but someone's probably wondering, "Well, what do you do, how do you actually treat that?" What's that experience like? Jessica Zager: So what I do is when somebody comes to my office, I do an examination, but the type of examination that I do does not involve a speculum. I use one gloved lubricated finger either vaginally or anally, depending on where the pain is and other factors to first of all see how the muscles function. Are they contracting well, are they relaxing well, do they know how to alternate between the two, how strong are they, how coordinated are they? And so, I gather all of this information about the muscles and their function and then based on that information, there are often patterns of things that I see happening when somebody has pain with sex, usually there can be increased muscle tension, there can be trigger points in the pelvic floor muscles, just like you can get trigger points in your shoulder if you sleep on one side for too long at night or you sleep with your arm up and then you wake up with a knot in your shoulder and a headache for the rest of the day. Jessica Zager: The same thing can happen in the pelvic floor. And so as soon as we can identify what's going on, we can then address that specific component of the muscle function and treat it. And so I use a lot of manual techniques, using my hand, sometimes we'll do something called dilator therapy, which involves using graduated sized wands in the vagina to gently stretch the muscles. I also do dry needling in the pelvic floor and to trigger points, and that can really be beneficial as well. Neil Sattin: Wow, so there are all kinds of possibilities for how you would treat that. And we said beforehand that we weren't going to go down this road, but it's so interesting, here we are. And if people are listening, and this is impacting them, I guess I want them to have a sense of what the course of treatment is like. So what you, everything that you said is super helpful. Do people recover, like people who have had pain with sex and had it, not known what's causing it and been able to work with the pelvic floor physical therapists. Do they get to a place where they don't experience pain during sex? Jessica Zager: Yes, they do, and it's usually very, very successful. So I highly encourage anybody that's having pain with sex to please build up the courage to see a pelvic floor PT. I know it takes a lot of guts to go, 'cause this is a very emotionally charged type of pain and the idea of this therapy can sound very foreign to a lot of people because they haven't ever experienced anything like this before, but I will tell you that the people that come to pelvic floor PT almost always get better when it comes to pain with sex. So if this is something you're really struggling with, I highly encourage you to find a pelvic floor PT in your area. Neil Sattin: Great, great, I'm glad that we... I'm glad we talked about that. And now, when I have a weird pain down there, I'll just know that I slept on my pelvic floor funny and... Jessica Zager: Exactly. [chuckle] Neil Sattin: I just need some treatment. Jessica Zager: And this is worth being said too, but men also have pain with sex, and I treat men as well as women, so it's not just women that have pain with sex, men can also have pain with sex as well. But again, that could be a whole other podcast. Neil Sattin: I was wondering about that, I can imagine that would also potentially impact their erectile function and... Jessica Zager: Oh, yeah, definitely. Neil Sattin: Or their ability to orgasm, and all of that. Yeah, okay. Jessica Zager: Yeah. Neil Sattin: Good stuff, Jessica. So we'll have you back at some point to talk more about that. And of course, you can always visit Jessica's site, drjzager.com, to find out more about that. And let's go back to... Let's pivot now back to talking about oxytocin, and here we are. I think we made a pretty good case for why it's a good idea to want to boost your own oxytocin in this time of feeling particularly disconnected from others potentially, and then these are things that you'll be able to always use as a resource for yourself, so to boost your well-being, your sense of connectedness. Neil Sattin: As a side note, I was reading some of the literature before we spoke, and I saw that in one study, people who were given a nasal spray of oxytocin, they were actually less friendly to people that they perceive to be outside of their social group, or outside of their clan. So if you start doing these things and then find yourself feeling particularly xenophobic or something like... Just know that it's the oxytocin at work, that you haven't suddenly become someone who doesn't like people other than you. But I didn't read enough to know if that was a widespread phenomenon, or if that was just something they happened to notice in this one study. So, proceed with caution as you boost your oxytocin, but don't let it stop you, 'cause I think the benefits outweigh the risks. Jessica Zager: I would agree. Neil Sattin: Neither one of us is a medical doctor, I'm just going to point that out right now. Jessica Zager: Good to note, yeah. Neil Sattin: Yes. Though you are a doctor of physical therapy, and that took lots and lots of training. So important to know, plus your AASECT certification. Alright, so let's get into the good stuff, Jessica, where do we start with boosting our own oxytocin? Jessica Zager: So one of the first things that you can do to boost oxytocin is give yourself a nice, lovely light massage. Sometimes I call it tickling, but it's not the tickling that makes you want to squirm away from somebody, it's like lightly brushing and stroking your skin. And this can be done all over your body, this can be done on your scalp, If you have one of those head massagers that looks like it has little... Neil Sattin: Little spider leg thingies... Jessica Zager: Yeah, and it goes on your head, and massages your scalp, that's a fantastic thing. Or you can just get some nice lotion or oil, you can make it into a whole self-care experience, but lightly, stroking your skin, that light pressure is important for stimulating the release of oxytocin in your hypothalamus. Neil Sattin: Yeah, I'm doing it right now. It feels really good. Jessica Zager: It does feel good. Neil Sattin: This reminds me actually of something else, which is that when... Light touch massage is something that was encouraged as part of the natural child birth or hypnobirthing courses that I did with my first wife before my kids were born. 'Cause oxytocin also is part of what can encourage uterine contractions during labor. Pitocin that people give to encourage childbirth to begin is actually oxytocin that's being applied in the body, right? Jessica Zager: Definitely. So oxytocin is great for swift birth. Neil Sattin: Oh. [chuckle] Jessica Zager: And so it's most known for its effects on labor and facilitating labor and giving birth and allowing the uterus to contract to make that happen. So yeah, it's... You're spot on with that. Neil Sattin: Yeah, so if you're in the late stages of pregnancy, maybe talk to your doctor before you do some of these things, just in case. Though I will say that I remember practicing light touch massage on my wife at the time, and nothing bad happened. In fact, it was a nice part of our night-time ritual together was practicing for the main event. Jessica Zager: Did you do that for an extended period of... A certain period of time before her due date? Neil Sattin: Well, the purpose was, I believe, to really just kind of perfect the technique. I'm really good at light touch massage. And also because you want to be able to rely on those things when you're in the intensity of labor and birthing, which can be pretty intense. So having that as a set thing that you can rely on. I don't remember there being a specific length of time. I think we would often do a little meditation or something, imagining the different colors of the rainbow or something while we were, or really while I was doing, I was giving the light touch massage, I didn't get much light touch massage during that time, I have to say. I'm making up for the deficit right now during this interview. [chuckle] Jessica Zager: Well, you can continue with the light touch massage. Neil Sattin: Alright, I'm going to continue while we keep talking. Jessica Zager: Yeah, so... Neil Sattin: I'm going to feel very connected to you by the end of this conversation. Jessica Zager: Well, oxytocin actually helps people feel connected to the source of the stimulation. Neil Sattin: Oh, how about that? Jessica Zager: Part of me wonders if that can be extrapolated to... If you're doing these techniques, on yourself really fostering a sense of self-love, I at least like to think that it would. Neil Sattin: Yeah, I think we should have everyone report back after you've been light touch massaged... Light touch massage yourself for a week, not constantly, but over the course of a week, and then report back to how much you love yourself just from that alone. But we're going to give you more... Jessica Zager: Yeah. Neil Sattin: So okay. Jessica Zager: Also stimulating the inside of your mouth. Neil Sattin: Oh! Jessica Zager: So your oral mucosa can facilitate oxytocin, so you can do this with sucking behaviors. Again, this kind of goes back to labor, but also breastfeeding. But sucking behaviors, like gum, hard candy, using a water bottle with a nozzle, sucking on ice, hell, go buy a pacifier, whatever gets you through this COVID-19 is fair game. There is no judgement here. Neil Sattin: Right, it's all going to be happening in the privacy of your own home anyway, so. Jessica Zager: Exactly. You can massage the inside of your mouth with an electric toothbrush, massaging your gums with it, the inside of your mouth with it, but gargling is a way to also stimulate the inside of your mouth and your hard palate, and the hard palate is connected to the vagus nerve, which is the nerve that's responsible for the parasympathetic nervous system, which is our rest, digest, chill out nervous system, which is one of the reasons why oxytocin helps us decrease our stress, decrease our anxiety, decrease our blood pressure. Neil Sattin: Wow, yeah, and I don't think we mentioned this on the show. I think enough time has passed that I can mention it now that one of the leading researchers around the polyvagal theory, as he calls it, Steve Porges, he's actually married to Sue Carter, the oxytocin woman, and Steve was on the show as well talking about polyvagal theory and its role in helping us stay regulated and feeling safe under stress or in relationship. He was on an episode 34 of the podcast, in case you were curious, but that's so interesting about the hard palate. I didn't realize that it was part of that, that it was wired into that system. Jessica Zager: Yeah, I know. And also gargling is shown to help with upper respiratory tract infections. So it's kind of a... Neil Sattin: Win-win. Yeah, yeah, salt water, I think, can be good. So... Jessica Zager: Yeah, nice salt water... Sea salt water gargle. Neil Sattin: Yeah, then a little mouthwash in case you are stuck with someone, they might appreciate that as well. Awesome. Jessica Zager: Another thing that you can do is make yourself warm. So literal warmth. For example, the easiest way to do this is maybe taking a bath. You can create your own oxytocin ritual, like COVID-19 social distancing, I feel lonely ritual, where you would take a bath, and maybe you come out of the bath and you use oil on your skin, and you lightly stroke your skin, and then you brush your teeth, and you gargle, and you go to bed. And so all of those things would help to stimulate the release of oxytocin. Neil Sattin: I like it. And I think it's so interesting that, one, there are probably a lot of people who are doing that sort of thing anyway and not totally getting like why it's so beneficial for them. And I also think that in general self-care practices like that when there's more attention paid to the intention behind it. So even if it's your ritual to have a bath, and brush your teeth, and gargle, like knowing, just knowing that that is going to be boosting your oxytocin I think enhances the effect of that on your physiology. Jessica Zager: I agree. I think we tend to go through our rituals without thinking about what we're doing and without being present during these activities, and really feeling what does it feel like when I brush my gums, what does it feel like when I apply lotion to my skin, what does it feel like when I'm taking a bath? Because our minds are in so many other places typically and right now it's really easy to do that with, if you're constantly looking at the news and it can be difficult to get in the moment, but if you use these guidelines, these ways to bio-hack your oxytocin as almost like meditations in and of themselves, like to practice being in the moment and experiencing what you're feeling in that moment, you're going to get multiple benefits from doing something as simple as brushing your teeth or gargling. Neil Sattin: Yeah, absolutely. I can't wait till tonight with my kids where we go to do our self-love ritual, which they like to do as quickly as possible and I'm like, "No, this is how you love yourself, kids. We're going to really brush our teeth tonight, and now brush your gums. See what that's like." Yeah, it's going to be good, it's going to be a beautiful thing and I'll set them up for a lifetime of self-love and hopefully cavity-free teeth. Jessica Zager: There is a myriad of benefits. Another thing that somebody can do to release oxytocin is fostering positive warm interactions, and those interactions don't have to be in person. So FaceTiming with somebody you care about. And the research was very particular about this in that it works best if you're talking with somebody you have strong warm feelings towards. If you have a tumultuous relationship with your mother or your father and you're FaceTiming with them, that's not going to help you release oxytocin the way that we're talking about. Neil Sattin: Sorry, mom. Talk to you tomorrow. Jessica Zager: So choose wisely. Neil Sattin: Yeah, yeah I like that. And that connects in with one of the techniques that I often offer people for regulation, is this heart-centered breathing technique that the HeartMath Institute promotes. So it's all about increasing your heart rate variability as a way to down-regulate your system. And one important part of that technique is to focus on an image of a scene or a person that brings you joy. So it strikes me that that... It makes sense that that's an important part of choosing wisely around who you're FaceTiming with, like think about who brings joy to your life and make sure that person's on your speed dial. Jessica Zager: Exactly, yeah. Neil Sattin: Do we even have speed dial anymore? I don't think that exists. Jessica Zager: That's such an outdated term. I know you can program people into your phone buttons or can't... Neil Sattin: Can you? I don't know. Jessica Zager: I don't even know. Now, we just talk at our phones. Neil Sattin: That's right, I just let Siri handle that for me. Jessica Zager: That's what she's for. Neil Sattin: Yeah, she manages my Rolodex. [chuckle] Jessica Zager: Again, another very outdated term. Neil Sattin: Yeah, no, I don't think, however, that Siri is very good at fostering it. For the number of times that I've sat with my kids, or I'll admit, alone, trying to get Siri to respond in ways that are connecting and amusing. I don't think, I wouldn't recommend that you rely on Siri or Alexa to foster your oxytocin needs. Jessica Zager: No. There hasn't... We have yet to have a lot of research about the release of oxytocin in human-robot interactions, but I don't think there's a lot of empathy and warmth coming from Siri and Alexa. Neil Sattin: Not yet, although we probably just had everyone's iPhones and Amazon devices like going a little bit haywire if they're... Sorry about that if you're listening to this, you'll apologize to Siri and Alexa for us later. Okay, so we've got a pretty good list. What else comes to mind? Jessica Zager: So this is something I know you do very well, and that's singing. Neil Sattin: Oh! Jessica Zager: So singing out loud, like with gusto for 20 minutes, helps to release oxytocin in... Neil Sattin: For 20 minutes? Jessica Zager: 20 minutes, that's what the research says. It helps to release our oxytocin and foster increased feelings of happiness and decreased feelings of sadness and worry. Neil Sattin: Very cool. Jessica Zager: I don't know, four or five songs. Neil Sattin: Yeah, I can do that. Jessica Zager: Yeah. That's easy. Neil Sattin: I mean, not right this instant, but I did just put something on the quarantine karaoke group on Facebook. I don't know if that was actually started by someone here in Maine, where I live. Last time I checked, it had over 150,000 members now. But it's a Facebook group where people are singing popular songs to each other doing karaoke style. Now, we know, isn't that interesting, 'cause not to necessarily be promoting Facebook here, but as a way to stay connected during these times and add in the singing component, it makes sense why people are responding so much to that. Jessica Zager: It really does. And I always find it amazing how as humans, we tend to figure out ways to create what we need, what our bodies are lacking or missing without even really realizing it. And I see a lot in pelvic floor PT, people will come in and say, "I started doing this particular stretch," or "I started doing this other thing and I don't know why." And there will be a very good explanation why they've done that, and it will be something that I often recommend people do in their situation. And it's just amazing how our bodies figure out what they need. Neil Sattin: Yeah, there's this innate intelligence, especially if we're listening. Jessica Zager: Yes. Neil Sattin: Yeah, I like that one, singing. Neil Sattin: And then this next one is, I alluded to it earlier, when we were talking about sucking. But nipple stimulation is a really big one. So labor and breastfeeding are the two activities most associated with releasing oxytocin, and so stimulating your own nipples can be a way to facilitate oxytocin release and create that sense of well-being and closeness, and decrease stress and anxiety, and all of those wonderful juicy benefits of oxytocin in the comfort of your own home. I was looking to see if this was just studied in women or if this was studied in men as well, 'cause as we know, men have nipples. Neil Sattin: Yes. Jessica Zager: We don't know why. Neil Sattin: I just discovered mine. [chuckle] Just this moment. [chuckle] Jessica Zager: Surprise, you have nipples. And, but there is some research to show that nipple stimulation in men works the same way as it does in women, even though men don't breast feed. So stimulating your own nipples can really help to release that hormone. I was also reading this really interesting article about nipple simulation that was conducted at Rutgers and published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, about how nipple stimulation lights up the same part of the brain as clitoral stimulation or stimulation of the vagina or the cervix. So that kind of helps to explain why nipple stimulation for some people and in men too with the nipple stimulation lit up the same part of the brain as the genitals, so that kind of helps to explain why for some people, nipple stimulation feels really good and can even lead to orgasm, and, but also aside from that, it is a really big avenue for releasing oxytocin, so even if generally your nipples aren't very sensitive or you haven't really enjoyed nipple play in the past, doing it for non-sexual purposes, and for mitigating the effects of social distancing, it can be really effective for this particular reason. Neil Sattin: Is there a preferred way to or a length of time or... Jessica Zager: There wasn't a length of time associated with it. Neil Sattin: Okay. Jessica Zager: In the research, and when they study it, they often look at actions that mimic like a pulling or sucking, kind of like a baby's mouth would do on the nipple. But there are multiple, I would say again, do what feels good and play with it and your body will kind of lead you in the right direction. Neil Sattin: Trust your body, got it. Well, I've been, while you've been talking, I've been experimenting with all these different ways of playing with my own nipples, this is a very interesting interview. It's... [chuckle] Can't say I've played with my nipples while I've spoken to anyone else before, but I feel comfortable with you, Jessica, so thank you for giving me this experience. Jessica Zager: I take that as a compliment. [chuckle] Neil Sattin: Cool. Well, that's a lot. Have we exhausted the list yet, or is there more? Jessica Zager: We've exhausted the list. Neil Sattin: Okay, well, those are some... Jessica Zager: We don't want to overwhelm people. Neil Sattin: No, that's a healthy number of things to try to boost your oxytocin, which will have the benefit of increasing your sense of well-being, increasing your sense of connectedness within, because you will be the source of your own stimulation as well as your connectedness to others. And I'm really curious to hear from you. So if you put these oxytocin-boosting practices into use in your life, keep track of what that's like and let me know. You can find me in the Relationship Alive community on Facebook. You can email me, Neilius, N-E-I-L-I-US, @neilsattin.com, yeah, let us know and I'll make sure to pass this along to Jessica as well, 'cause I think it's really helpful to hear your experience and how this sort of thing has been helpful for you, and it seems obvious that everything we've mentioned is something that you could then, you could do that with a lover, knowing what it does, you could do that with yourself as part of being with another person or just as part of your own rituals, even when we're not forced to be apart from other people. That, all of these things we can bring into what we do to our repertoire of how we enhance the way we feel in life in general, to be more connected, more attuned. Yeah, I see you nodding. Jessica Zager: That's beautifully stated. Neil Sattin: It's powerful, powerful stuff. Well, I'm really glad that you let this idea fall just so casually in a conversation that we were having, 'cause I think it's perfect for the time that we're in right now, and I'm really excited for everyone to try this out. And again, if you want to download the condensed version of, like the cheat sheet version, then definitely visit Jessica's site, drjzager.com, D-R-J-Z-A-G-E-R.com and she has it there available for you to download, you can also find out more about the work she does helping people with sexual issues, or issues around gender identity, painful intercourse, etcetera. Neil Sattin: And thanks also, Jessica, for being willing to talk a bit more about your work as a pelvic health physical therapist. I had never heard of that before, when we were talking about it. And so, I'm going to guess that a lot of people haven't and, as you mentioned, even there are many doctors who don't know that it exists, and yet it's such a huge resource for people who are experiencing very common problems. Jessica Zager: Definitely. Neil Sattin: Yeah. Jessica Zager: And I hope we do get to do another podcast about that, because I think it's really important that everybody know that this exists because there are so many people suffering with issues that can really be easily treated. Neil Sattin: Yeah. Yeah, we will. We'll do another episode together. In the meantime, if you do also want to get a transcript of this episode, visit neilsattin.com/oxyboost, so you can get the full transcript, and I'll also have links to Jessica's site there as well. Or you can always text the word "passion" to the number 33444 and follow those instructions. Dr. Jessica Zager, such a pleasure to have you, thank you so much for offering your inspiring wisdom and being willing to handle me touching myself while we spoke. [chuckle] Jessica Zager: Always a pleasure, Neil. It was great. Neil Sattin: Awesome, we'll have you back soon. Jessica Zager: Sound good, I'll hold you to that.

Dr Sue Carter Collins get ready to go higher, Author, Speaker, Greatness Life Coach, Metaphysical Ordained Minister, Reiki Master Teacher Youtube version https://youtu.be/GdaHHMqnWCA  

If you want to be happier, feel happier, or feel more positivity in your life, and no matter how you much you try, you just can't get that stick…well then do we have the show for you! Today I'll be talking with Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist and author of Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha's Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture. Today we'll be talking about Hardwiring Happiness, or creating the grooves in the record that help us get positive, stay positive, or return to a positive state of being, almost no matter what…we'll talk about why to do it, how to do it, and how it can literally transform your life. Plus we'll talk about tapioca pudding, weeding dandelions, neural Darwinism, Green Brain, Red Brain, A Joyful Amygdala, and what paper tigers, have to do with anything. Questions and Topics Include: How did Rick go from a ‘shy, dorky, nerdy kid' to where he is today. Why it's important to let the good sink into you. How to marinate in the positive – and how it makes you stronger and kinder What happens with zombie worms Shawn Achor – The Happiness Advantage - How we can learn & grow on an exponential curvilinear way' How are brains are constantly being shaped by our experiences Why our brains are wired to look for the negative – and why it's so important to hold the negative in mindful awareness What is paper tiger paranoia? How and why you deliberately want to take in the good Why we need to change the world inside to change the world outside And how “the personal is the political and the political is the personal” How do we hack our brain What we do to H.E.A.L ourselves How we get better at the installation of our beneficial experiences into our brains How to get the most out of our beneficial experiences, even the 1's and 2's out of 10's. How you link to a negative experience to make it a positive. Why our brains are designed to learn from negative experiences, particularly negative experiences in childhood – why we're designed to overlearn and hold onto it…aka why we often can't ‘get over it' How do we use these techniques to help our children? Where can people find Foundations of Wellbeing – RickHanson.net Freely offered resources Talks, videos, writings, interviews The Foundations of Wellbeing – Comprehensive Collection of Resources Tara Brach Barbara Frederickson on positive emotions Sue Carter on oxytocin the love hormone Dan Siegel positive neuroplasticity Plus (Mindfulness) Stress-Releasing, Relaxing Meditation For More Info Visit: www.InspireNationShow.com

Republic is district champion for the first time since moving to Class 5, and now a big showdown with Kickapoo is looming in the state sectionals. On our latest episode, coach Tim Brown talks about how his team is playing and what to expect from the Chiefs on Wednesday night.

Tim Brown joins us to talk about the big district semifinal win over Joplin and the atmosphere of playoff basketball. And we discuss the upcoming rematch with Willard in the district championship game Friday night.

Republic coach Tim Brown sits down to talk about winning a conference championship in his first year at the helm — and doing it on the road in a hostile environment at Ozark. We also look ahead at the final regular-season game of the year at Webb City Friday, as Republic tries to run the table in the COC.

Two more games and two more wins in the COC for the Tigers! We talk to coach Tim Brown about the wins over Willard and Joplin last week, and we look ahead at the Tigers’ Senior Night showdown with Nixa.

Coach Tim Brown joins us to talk about two more conference wins at Branson and Carthage. We discuss Broc Smith’s 1,000-point milestone, and we look ahead to two huge home games on the COC schedule, starting with a showdown against Willard Tuesday.

The Tigers are in the middle of a 3-game skid, but are all 3-game losing streaks created equal? We talk about that with coach Tim Brown, and we look ahead at two COC road games looming on the schedule for the Tigers this week.

Coach Tim Brown joins us to talk about the Tigers’ two home wins to open the conference season. We hear about two players who did some little things right when they came off the bench against Carl Junction. And we look ahead at a busy week of basketball for the Tigers, with a home game followed by a trip to Chanute, Kansas.

Coach Tim Brown sits down to talk Tiger basketball again this week. We look at Republic’s rough-and-tumble win against Neosho, and we take a peek at Carl Junction, who comes to town Thursday night. We also take an opportunity to look at the season up to this point and assess where the Tigers have met or exceeded expectations.

The Tigers are putting the final touches on their preparation for the Central Ozark Conference season next week. We take a look back at the Blue & Gold Tournament and look ahead to next week’s visits from Neosho and Carl Junction.

Coach Tim Brown joins us to talk Tiger basketball for a final time before Christmas. We look back at two big wins––one at home over Jeff City Helias, and another on the road at Bolivar. And we look ahead to this week’s home game against Springfield Central, and the first round of the Blue & Gold Tournament on December 26th.

Coach Tim Brown joins us to talk about the Tigers’ David-and-Goliath week last week. We also look ahead to two big games coming up this week against programs that have had lots of basketball success in recent years.

Republic basketball coach Tim Brown joins us to talk about the Tigers after their 2-1 weekend at the Republic Invitational last weekend. We discuss the wins over Marshfield and Rogersville and the loss against Rolla — and we look ahead to the Tigers’ games against Clever and defending Oklahoma state champion Tulsa Memorial.

If you want to be happier, feel happier, or feel more positivity in your life, and no matter how you much you try, you just can't get that stick…well then do we have the show for you! Today I'll be talking with Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist and author of Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha's Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture. Today we'll be talking about Hardwiring Happiness, or creating the grooves in the record that help us get positive, stay positive, or return to a positive state of being, almost no matter what…we'll talk about why to do it, how to do it, and how it can literally transform your life. Plus we'll talk about tapioca pudding, weeding dandelions, neural Darwinism, Green Brain, Red Brain, A Joyful Amygdala, and what paper tigers, have to do with anything. Questions and Topics Include: How did Rick go from a ‘shy, dorky, nerdy kid' to where he is today. Why it's important to let the good sink into you. How to marinate in the positive – and how it makes you stronger and kinder What happens with zombie worms Shawn Achor – The Happiness Advantage - How we can learn & grow on an exponential curvilinear way' How are brains are constantly being shaped by our experiences Why our brains are wired to look for the negative – and why it's so important to hold the negative in mindful awareness What is paper tiger paranoia? How and why you deliberately want to take in the good Why we need to change the world inside to change the world outside And how “the personal is the political and the political is the personal” How do we hack our brain What we do to H.E.A.L ourselves How we get better at the installation of our beneficial experiences into our brains How to get the most out of our beneficial experiences, even the 1's and 2's out of 10's. How you link to a negative experience to make it a positive. Why our brains are designed to learn from negative experiences, particularly negative experiences in childhood – why we're designed to overlearn and hold onto it…aka why we often can't ‘get over it' How do we use these techniques to help our children? Where can people find Foundations of Wellbeing – RickHanson.net Freely offered resources Talks, videos, writings, interviews The Foundations of Wellbeing – Comprehensive Collection of Resources Tara Brach Barbara Frederickson on positive emotions Sue Carter on oxytocin the love hormone Dan Siegel positive neuroplasticity Plus (Mindfulness) Stress-Releasing, Relaxing Meditation Dr. Rick Hanson on How to Hardwire Happiness & Transform Your Mind Thru Simple Exercises & Awareness! + Guided Meditation! TED | Health | Motivation | Spiritual | Spirituality | Inspirational | Motivational | Self-Improvement | Self-Help | Inspire For More Info Visit: www.InspireNationShow.com

Coach Trevyor Fisher joins me to talk about the final games of the regular season and the upcoming district tournament at Neosho. Republic meets Joplin in the district semifinals Tuesday. We also talk about the 2017-18 Tigers and what Fisher will remember most about them.

Coach Trevyor Fisher joins me to take a look at the Tigers’ loss to Nixa, then look ahead at Friday’s girls-boys doubleheader at Willard.

Trevyor Fisher joins me to talk Tiger basketball. We check in on the JV and freshman teams, in addition to discussing the Varsity Tigers.

Republic is 15-4, and coming off another conference win against Neosho Tuesday. We look back at that game, plus a win over Father Tolton, and we look ahead to a courtwarming showdown on Friday night against Webb City.

I caught up with coach Trevyor Fisher after a long layoff to talk about his team’s start to the conference season, how they’ve handled the time off, and what to expect out of Friday’s game with Lamar.

This week, coach Trevyor Fisher joins me for a mid-season assessment of his Tigers, a look back at the Blue & Gold Tournament, and a preview of a "loaded" field at the Houlihan's Invitational Tournament this weekend at Springfield Catholic.

Coach Trevyor Fisher joins me to talk about the Tigers' two wins in the past week -- one over Parkview on the road and one over Central at home. We also take a look ahead at the home game with Bolivar coming up on Tuesday. 

For our first show of the season, coach Trevyor Fisher sat down to talk about the Tigers' up-and-down performance in the Republic Invitational. We look at what went right, what went wrong, and where the Tigers most need to improve -- and we talk about Forsyth, Republic's upcoming opponent at the Ozark Mountain Shootout at Glendale Saturday. (Republic Tiger Sports will broadcast that game live at 1:30 pm.)

To help celebrate Canada's 150th birthday, we sat down with Sue Carter, Editor-in-Chief at Quill & Quire, Canada's magazine for the book publishing industry, to talk about the current state of the publishing landscape and what challenges we're facing. We also discuss some statistics from our most recent research reports, including what book buyers think of Canadian books and who the most well known Canadian author is. And, of course, we speculate on what the book industry might look like in another 50 years.

If you want to be happier, feel happier, or feel more positivity in your life, and no matter how you much you try, you just can't get that stick…well then do we have the show for you! Today I'll be talking with Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist and author of Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha's Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture. Today we'll be talking about Hardwiring Happiness, or creating the grooves in the record that help us get positive, stay positive, or return to a positive state of being, almost no matter what…we'll talk about why to do it, how to do it, and how it can literally transform your life. Plus we'll talk about tapioca pudding, weeding dandelions, neural Darwinism, Green Brain, Red Brain, A Joyful Amygdala, and what paper tigers, have to do with anything. Questions and Topics Include: How did Rick go from a ‘shy, dorky, nerdy kid' to where he is today. Why it's important to let the good sink into you. How to marinate in the positive – and how it makes you stronger and kinder What happens with zombie worms Shawn Achor – The Happiness Advantage - How we can learn & grow on an exponential curvilinear way' How are brains are constantly being shaped by our experiences Why our brains are wired to look for the negative – and why it's so important to hold the negative in mindful awareness What is paper tiger paranoia? How and why you deliberately want to take in the good Why we need to change the world inside to change the world outside And how “the personal is the political and the political is the personal” How do we hack our brain What we do to H.E.A.L ourselves How we get better at the installation of our beneficial experiences into our brains How to get the most out of our beneficial experiences, even the 1's and 2's out of 10's. How you link to a negative experience to make it a positive. Why our brains are designed to learn from negative experiences, particularly negative experiences in childhood – why we're designed to overlearn and hold onto it…aka why we often can't ‘get over it' How do we use these techniques to help our children? Where can people find Foundations of Wellbeing – RickHanson.net Freely offered resources Talks, videos, writings, interviews The Foundations of Wellbeing – Comprehensive Collection of Resources Tara Brach Barbara Frederickson on positive emotions Sue Carter on oxytocin the love hormone Dan Siegel positive neuroplasticity Plus (Mindfulness) Stress-Releasing, Relaxing Meditation Dr. Rick Hanson on How to Hardwire Happiness & Transform Your Mind Thru Simple Exercises & Awareness! + Guided Meditation! TED | Health | Motivation | Spiritual | Spirituality | Inspirational | Motivational | Self-Improvement | Self-Help | Inspire For More Info Visit: www.InspireNationShow.com

Sue Carter, UC Santa Cruz: The Sustainability Lab and Sustainable Solutions at the Water, Food, Energy Nexus Series: "Women in Science" [Science] [Show ID: 31059]

Sue Carter, UC Santa Cruz: The Sustainability Lab and Sustainable Solutions at the Water, Food, Energy Nexus Series: "Women in Science" [Science] [Show ID: 31059]

Sue Carter, UC Santa Cruz: The Sustainability Lab and Sustainable Solutions at the Water, Food, Energy Nexus Series: "Women in Science" [Science] [Show ID: 31059]

Sue Carter, UC Santa Cruz: The Sustainability Lab and Sustainable Solutions at the Water, Food, Energy Nexus Series: "Women in Science" [Science] [Show ID: 31059]

If you want to be happier, feel happier, or feel more positivity in your life, and no matter how you much you try, you just can't get that stick…well then do we have the show for you! Today I'll be talking with Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist and author of Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha's Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture. Today we'll be talking about Hardwiring Happiness, or creating the grooves in the record that help us get positive, stay positive, or return to a positive state of being, almost no matter what…we'll talk about why to do it, how to do it, and how it can literally transform your life. Plus we'll talk about tapioca pudding, weeding dandelions, neural Darwinism, Green Brain, Red Brain, A Joyful Amygdala, and what paper tigers, have to do with anything. Questions and Topics Include: How did Rick go from a ‘shy, dorky, nerdy kid' to where he is today. Why it's important to let the good sink into you. How to marinate in the positive – and how it makes you stronger and kinder What happens with zombie worms Shawn Achor – The Happiness Advantage - How we can learn & grow on an exponential curvilinear way' How are brains are constantly being shaped by our experiences Why our brains are wired to look for the negative – and why it's so important to hold the negative in mindful awareness What is paper tiger paranoia? How and why you deliberately want to take in the good Why we need to change the world inside to change the world outside And how “the personal is the political and the political is the personal” How do we hack our brain What we do to H.E.A.L ourselves How we get better at the installation of our beneficial experiences into our brains How to get the most out of our beneficial experiences, even the 1's and 2's out of 10's. How you link to a negative experience to make it a positive. Why our brains are designed to learn from negative experiences, particularly negative experiences in childhood – why we're designed to overlearn and hold onto it…aka why we often can't ‘get over it' How do we use these techniques to help our children? Where can people find Foundations of Wellbeing – RickHanson.net Freely offered resources Talks, videos, writings, interviews The Foundations of Wellbeing – Comprehensive Collection of Resources Tara Brach Barbara Frederickson on positive emotions Sue Carter on oxytocin the love hormone Dan Siegel positive neuroplasticity Plus (Mindfulness) Stress-Releasing, Relaxing Meditation Dr. Rick Hanson Shows How to Transform Your Life & Hardwire Happiness (Brain) For Greater Positivity! + Guided Meditation! TED | Inspiration | Motivation | Spiritual | Spirituality | Inspirational | Motivational | Self-Improvement | Self-Help | Inspire For More Info Visit: www.InspireNationShow.com

We can’t help it if we love our dogs so much. There are very scientific reasons for this social bond: Dogs physiologically win over our hearts by causing our brains to release the chemicals responsible for feel-good emotions. Dr. Hare explores the importance of love and what it means for our relationship with dogs, and, most importantly, how they are one of the only animals on Earth to tap into this. Featured Guests: Ragen McGowan, Senior Scientist in the Behavior Group at Nestle Research and Development Center; Sue Carter, Director of the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University in Bloomington; Ramiro Joly-Mascheroni, PhD Student at the Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit at City University London; Dr. Evan MacLean, Assistant Professor, School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona.

This week, host Jim Shanahan is joined by Sue Carter, the director of The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. Carter was appointed to her position at The Kinsey Institute in October, 2014, after a long career in the field of neuroendocrinology. Carter has spent much of her recent career studying the consequences of birth intervention, particularly how the hormone oxytocin affects the health of both mothers and their newborn children. In this interview, Carter will discuss her career, including research on the mating habits of the prairie vole, the present and historical challenges of sex research and the immediate future of The Kinsey Institute. Also on this episode, Colin Allen, a faculty member in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine in the College of Arts and Sciences, talks about National Bike to Work Week, from May 16 to 20. May is National Bike Month. #scienceandtech

How does your biochemistry affect your relationship? Are there ways to foster the inner chemicals of love to keep things feeling fresh and vibrant? Today we’re talking about the big “O” - Oxytocin - and its impact on how we fall into love, and keep love going. In other earlier episodes on the show, we’ve talked about oxytocin, and oxytocin versus dopamine - and it seemed like it was time to go straight to the source of much of what we know about how oxytocin works. Today’s guest is Sue Carter, Director of the Kinsey Institute, and Rudy Professor of Biology at Indiana University. Sue was the first person to figure out oxytocin’s role in how we bond with our partners - so if you hear people talking about this “love chemical” - they’re probably talking about her work or work that’s based on her work. We’re going to chat about what we know about oxytocin, what we don’t know, and how to use the science to help you improve things with your partner. The Love Hormone: Oxytocin is often seen as the ‘love hormone’. It was first discovered to be involved in love in the early 1970’s when it was found to be present in the birth process. Since that time it has been proven to play a key role in birth, as well as in the bonding of mother and child. More recently it has been discovered that oxytocin affects our brains, and is involved in the biological and neurological system of attachment between parents and children, and between adult partners. Why is oxytocin so important in successful long term relationships? Anything that lasts a long time in human behavior has to have a biochemical or biological basis. There has to be a mechanism that allows us to fall in love, one that helps keep us together, as well as a mechanism for allowing break ups to happen. The question of why oxytocin is so important is complicated to answer, but the short answer is that it is a mammalian hormone with an ancient biochemistry (meaning it existed before the emergence of mammals) and it is reused many times for many purposes. The most important things in a human life require oxytocin to be present. This includes birth, caring for offspring, finding a mate, creating a social bond with our partners, and restoration and healing in the face of stress. All mammals have a very similar brain stem.  The basic biology of pair bonding and of attachment is possible using old neural mechanisms and is housed in old parts of our brain - the parts of our brain stem which we share with all other mammals. Many believe that the most important organ for connection is our brain. In fact, Woody Allen once said, that the brain is his “second favorite sex organ”.  The brain is directly engaged in the process of both falling in love and experiencing positive forms of sex. Fostering oxytocin production: We can get low level oxytocin production through simple social behaviors- interacting, play, being in a socially safe place, and engaging with others. The most reliable way to release higher levels of oxytocin in humans is via sexual behavior, specifically orgasm. Another activity with high oxytocin production is birth - in which the hormone is released in repeated bursts. Parent and child - All human babies need a caretaker, and it appears that oxytocin is critically involved in the bonding and attachment necessary to keep children cared for. Attachment behaviors found between parents and children produce similar oxytocin producing results between two adults. For example, it is a fact that the human breast has a monosynaptic connection between the breast and hypothalamus- meaning there is a direct route from the breast to the brain*. This route is not limited to nursing- any kind of breast stimulation has the potential to release oxytocin with other stimulation, if in the right context. *Men also have this same nipple neural network. We have a biology that is beautifully attuned to allow us to attach to people that are safe, and people that we have good potential to become long term partners with. Oxytocin is a very clever molecule! Oxytocin works within a background of a set of complex hormones, and never in isolation. It is highly tuned to context, and is sensitive to high levels of stress. This means that consensual sexual interactions are critical for positive and oxytocin producing physiological responses. Although safety is a very relative concept, our bodies are highly tuned to know how to assess for safety. You can’t just read the sex manual. By all means enjoy reading sex manuals, learning new how tos, and fun tricks, but remember that no matter how well you are trained in the ‘technology’ of sex, there is no assurance it is going to work! You can learn to touch here/suck that, but know that meaningful and fulfilling sexual interactions involve both partners, some key biological processes, and a whole lot of consent. As humans we are always reading the social cues of those that we are forming relationships with. We listen for verbal cues, and are constantly scanning for subtle body language. Always remember that your partner may be having a very different experience than you are. That said, take your time, put yourself in their experience, and look for invitations to move forward. What makes internet dating so challenging? Our bodies use neuroception - our nervous system’s decision making process - to help read physical and social cues to assess safety. Online dating makes this very difficult, and may explain that feeling of disappointment when you finally meet someone in person who you had amazing internet interactions with. Be patient, and trust your body to know who is a good match. How to nurture oxytocin - We humans get bored, and our body is designed to seek spontaneity, variety, and novelty in our lives. Yes we have a need for stability and certainty, but our nervous system also craves stimulation and growth! Oxytocin is involved in both the seeking of safety and in the capacity for not fearing the strange. This allows us to enter into novel situations, and enter into new relationships! Without oxytocin there would be no change, and perhaps no partnering at all!   If you want to up the game and make things feel a bit more potent with your partner, then engage in activities that you find mutually exciting and interesting. It is not enough to just feel safe, on top of the secure base there must be something that makes the relationship feel dynamic and exciting. How well is your relationship balanced? Is there too much variety and not enough safety? Or vice versa, too much safety and not enough variety? Play around with the balance, and check in with each other to help come to a working definition that feels right to both of you. What is happening at the Kinsey Institute - The Kinsey institute is constantly at the cutting edge of research about love, sexuality, and bonding. Currently they are exploring the concept of contact - trying to understand the messy and complex process by which we assess and make better partner decisions. They are also researching how to better help people repair after sexual assault and trauma. Lastly, they are looking into the ramifications of certain medical procedures and surgeries on reproductive and sexual processes. Resources Check out what the Kinsey Institute is up to www.neilsattin.com/oxytocin Visit to download the show guide, or text “PASSION” to 33444 and follow the instructions to download the show guide. Our Relationship Alive Community on Facebook Amazing intro/outro music graciously provided courtesy of: The Railsplitters - Check them Out!

Janae Cummings speaks with Kinsey Institute Director Sue Carter and to Kinsey sexuality researcher Justin Garcia.

Dr. Drew opens the show this week taking calls from listeners on topics ranging from trying to get a family member to accept help with substance abuse as well as Drew's opinion on staying in a relationship that is lacking in sexual attraction. Drew then welcomes Dr. Sue Carter who was recently appointed director of The Kinsey Institute to talk about the goals she has to continue the good work going on there as well as expand the focus to be even more inclusive.

Sue Carter of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill examines the hypothesis that Homo sapiens, with their high level of dependence on social behavior and cognition, could not have evolved without the neuropeptide, oxytocin. Oxytocin pathways – which include oxytocin, the related peptide vasopressin, and their receptors – are at the center of physiological and genetic systems that permitted the evolution of the human nervous system and allowed the expression of contemporary human sociality. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 28032]

Sue Carter of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill examines the hypothesis that Homo sapiens, with their high level of dependence on social behavior and cognition, could not have evolved without the neuropeptide, oxytocin. Oxytocin pathways – which include oxytocin, the related peptide vasopressin, and their receptors – are at the center of physiological and genetic systems that permitted the evolution of the human nervous system and allowed the expression of contemporary human sociality. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 28032]

From the moment of birth, human infants require an inordinate amount of care and, unlike our nearest living relatives, remain dependent on a variety of caretakers during an unusually long maturation period followed by extraordinary adult longevity. How did such a distinctive pattern of development evolve and what other human features are linked to it? Katie Hinde (Harvard Univ) begins with a discussion about Breast Milk and Breastfeeding, followed by Sue Carter (Univ of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) on Oxytocin Pathways and Human Evolution, and Melvin Konner (Emory Univ) on Hunter-Gatherer Childhood and Human Evolution. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 28017]

From the moment of birth, human infants require an inordinate amount of care and, unlike our nearest living relatives, remain dependent on a variety of caretakers during an unusually long maturation period followed by extraordinary adult longevity. How did such a distinctive pattern of development evolve and what other human features are linked to it? Katie Hinde (Harvard Univ) begins with a discussion about Breast Milk and Breastfeeding, followed by Sue Carter (Univ of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) on Oxytocin Pathways and Human Evolution, and Melvin Konner (Emory Univ) on Hunter-Gatherer Childhood and Human Evolution. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 28017]

BBC Radio 1 Breakfast's Laura-May Coope, managing director of Somethin' Else Steve Ackerman and Jack FM Oxfordshire's Sue Carter offer their views on how to innovate in radio. The panel discuss how social media has been a game changer, and with tools like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr now enabling greater audience engagement, having a conversation with your audience is clearly important. Even YouTube has a role to play and may now be the new hunting ground for talent – the likes of Dan and Phil and Charlie Sloth attest to that – so taking creative risks remains key to how successful your innovation will be. Being local with a small budget is no bar to innovation either, as stations like Jack FM have shown, making the most of their branding and budget and reaching their key audiences in an immediate and relevant way.