Episode 35: December 21, 2016
Orgasms, Oxytocin, Obscenity Laws
Recorded 12/6/16
Notes for my sections on Oxytocin and Obscenity Laws
Oxytocin
Hormones
Oxytocin and God
Obscenity Laws
Next show: Condoms, Chronic Illness, Cats
Recorded 12/6/16
Notes for my sections on Oxytocin and Obscenity Laws
Oxytocin
- 1st learned about it at Esther Perel’s training
- Helen Fisher, evolutionary biologist: love, lust, attachment
- Unlike Dopamine which stimulates desire and reward, or vasopressin or serotonin
- Oxytocin is known as the cuddle hormone, a powerful hormone released in women and men during an orgasm
- Bonding or love hormone
- Deepens feelings of attachment
- Feel closer after an orgasm
- Also helps bond between mother and baby
- Released during childbirth
- Assists in letdown of mother’s breastmilk at sight or sound of baby
- Stimulates genital blood flow for when sexual arousal takes place
Hormones
- Another type of messenger, chemicals produced by glands of the endocrine system, secreted into the blood and act SLOWLY and have long lasting effects. There are two types of hormones: steroid and nonsteroid.
- Are lipids made from cholesterol (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol, aldosterone, etc.
- Secreted by the endocrine system
- They work in very straightforward way: They pass through the cell membrane of the target cell and bind to a receptor site in the cytoplasm. The receptor molecule now with the steroid hormone attached moves together into the nucleus and stimulates new protein synthesis (or new cell growth).
- Are amino acids and proteins (dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonin, vasopressin, oxytocin, etc.
- And are also secreted by the endocrine system.
- They work in a not so straightforward way: First they join with a receptor on a target cell’s outer membrane. Then the hormone is taken into the cell via “active transport” with expenditure of energy molecule ATP. Once the hormone is inside the target cell, a second chemical facilitator, cyclic AMP is stimulated, causing the target cell to produce necessary substances.
Oxytocin and God
- New research by Dr. Patty Van Cappellan, a Duke University social psychologist, suggests oxytocin may support spirituality
- Does oxytocin decline with aging (like estrogen)? I asked her and she said it hasn’t been tested yet
- Need for more research
- Research indicates that with touch, even to the nongenital areas, oxytocin may be released, with or without orgasm
Obscenity Laws
- Anti-Obscenity Laws of 1872 were the most far-reaching in US history
- Associated with Anthony Comstock
- 1842: 1st ones enacted as part of the Tariff Act – elected officials assumed indecent materials in the US were the cause of Satan’s country of birth, France (as Paul Joannides put it), couldn’t be homegrown, must have followed those immigrant aliens coming to our shores
- 1865: new printing presses, more “dirty” book reaching our shelves, was ok for a soldier from NY to kill a soldier from NC, but morally unacceptable to keep a photo of a naked woman by his rifle.
- 1872: YMCA helped to pass the most far-reaching anti-obscenity law yet. Not only was there no quorum in the House that day and no record in the Senate, but the bill was passed in both houses as a brainchild of the conservative powers (YMCA). Bill was quite deceptive
- Called an Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use
- It also had, buried within, “any article whatever for the prevention of conception, or for causing unlawful abortion”
- Made it a crime to send contraceptive devices or birth control information via mail
- Led to state laws that prohibited an MD from even discussing birth control with patients
- Edwin Meese, remember the Meese Commission in the 80’s, watching porn to decide if it was porn or not?
- Mike Pence, anti woman, anti abortion, anti LGBTQ
Next show: Condoms, Chronic Illness, Cats