Feeling down? According to several new claims made by medical researchers, it seems you may be able to supplement with another hormone in the hopes of getting relief. Yes, yes, the phrase “supplement with a hormone” should, correctly, send chills down the spine of those familiar with the current “vitamin” D debacle. Nevertheless, let’s take a look at mainstream medicine’s latest take on what they’ve already labeled the “love drug.”

Produced naturally in the brain during social interactions, the hormone oxytocin promotes romantic feelings. It’s also the hormone that helps mothers bond with babies and, in general, makes people more sociable and less phobic. Oxytocin is released during orgasm and is also the key birthing hormone that enables the cervix to open and the contractions to work. In situations where labor has to be induced, it is often given to the mother intravenously to kick-start contractions.

Indeed several recent trials have confirmed oxytocin’s “feel good” effects. After testing the hormone on hundreds of patients, Paul Zak of California’s Claremont Graduate University has concluded that its main effect is to curb the instincts of wariness and suspicion that cause anxiety. “It is a hormone that facilitates social contact between people,” argues Zak.

Data collected from the Marshall Protocol study site, as well as information garnered from numerous other clinical studies strongly suggests that people with Th1 disease are often more prone to developing phobias, OCD-like tendencies, and anxiety in general. Of course, there’s a fine line separating such tendencies from the natural feelings that build as a person attempts to deal with the strain of chronic disease. Understandably, chronically ill individuals feel a certain level of depression, anxiety, fear, suspicion, etc. as they try to understand and manage illnesses for which mainstream medicine offers little insight into cause, cure, or means to prevent deterioration.

But as people accumulate an increasing load of the chronic, intraphagocytic metagenomic bacteria that cause inflammatory disease (also called the Th1 pathogens), mental compulsions are directly caused by infection rather than a healthy person’s natural reaction to challenging life events. Many patients on the Marshall Protocol have admitted that they simply didn’t realize the extent of their infection-induced phobias until the symptoms return temporarily as part of the immunopathological response (bacterial die-off reaction). Anxiety, fear, the perception that something is “wrong” when it isn’t, or the feeling that people are conspiring against oneself is often heightened by immunopathology. This suggests that to a large extent, the mental compulsions of people with Th1 disease are not due to circumstance but are instead the result of bacterial infection.

Based on this knowledge, one might hypothesize that levels of oxytocin are often low in patients with chronic disease. And the assumption would be correct. Low levels of oxytocin in the blood have been detected in patients with chronic diseases ranging from sarcoidosis to autism. For example, autistic patients given oxytocin as part of a study in New York found their ability to recognize emotions such as happiness or anger in a person’s tone of voice – reactions that usually elude their mental abilities – improved.

The results of such studies have caused most mainstream researchers to simply write off chronically ill patients as “oxytocin deficient,” with little thought to why the hormone might be low in the first place. But the Marshall Pathogenesis and recent data on the Vitamin D Receptor allow for a reasonable hypothesis that explains why oxytocin is often low in chronic disease.

“The genes that allow for the transcription of the oxytocin receptor are transcribed by the Vitamin D Receptor.”According to researchers at McGill University in Canada, who recently created a database of VDR-target genes, the genes that allow for the transcription of the oxytocin receptor are transcribed by the Vitamin D Receptor. “And very strongly too,” adds biomedical researcher Trevor Marshall.

And there you have it. A small nugget of information allows for a deeper understanding of the pathways that contribute to compulsions and phobias at the molecular level. The Th1 pathogens create substances that dysregulate the Vitamin D Receptor, slowing its activity in the process. The higher a person’s pathogenic load, the more disabled their VDRs become. So as people accumulate the Th1 pathogens, they lose the ability to activate the receptor that would otherwise transcribe the genes necessary for oxytocin production. As transcription of the hormone slows, patients suffer the negative consequences, including an inability to effectively control paranoia, fear, social awkwardness, feelings of exclusion, depression, disconnect with others, and certain manias.

“Another piece of the puzzle falls into place,” Marshall concurs.

In my opinion, such knowledge offers hope when it comes to the future of human relations. Although bacterial load differs greatly from person to person, at the moment, every member of the population harbors at least some of the Th1 pathogens. And in countries where vitamin D supplementation is the norm, nearly everyone has a level of 25-D that is too high. Since elevated 25-D and bacterial ligands block the VDR and subsequently the production of the genes it transcribes, it’s quite possible that nearly everyone in the world currently has lower than normal oxytocin levels. Does that mean that all of us, to different degrees, are a little more anxious, less trusting, a bit more depressed than we would be if we had fully functioning VDRs?

If this is the case, large-scale restoration of VDR homeostasis might allow for a world more willing to compromise and put long held disputes to rest. The possibility is supported by a recent study in which scientists gave doses of oxytocin and a placebo to participants, who were then asked to decide how to split a sum of cash with a stranger. Those given oxytocin offered 80 per cent more money than those given a placebo. And previous research into the hormone by Professor Zak suggests that generous people had higher than average levels of oxytocin in the brain, while “mean-spirited people” have lower than normal levels.

The knowledge that oxytocin levels are regulated by the VDR is an example of knowledge that should allow doctors and researchers to draw a much more accurate line between personality traits and mental tendencies caused by disease. Take extreme shyness. Is extreme shyness simply a result of personality or might it also have an infectious component? In recent trials, researchers at Zurich University in Switzerland managed to ease symptoms of extreme shyness in 120 patients by giving them oxytocin treatment half an hour before they encountered an awkward situation. Such results can only be explained by changes in chemical balance rather than changes in personality, suggesting that, like other chronic mental issues, extreme shyness could result at least partly from infection. It’s of interest that a recent poll found that sixty percent of Britons say they have suffered from shyness, and one in 10 say it impedes their daily life. That’s quite a high prevalence of shyness, suggesting that like almost all other inflammatory diseases, shyness might be on the rise due to vitamin D supplementation, the increased use of immunosuppressant drugs, our sun-loving culture and other circumstances that compromise the integrity of the immune system.

One could argue that in a world where compulsions can finally be treated, there may be circumstances in which a person would be upset if a mental trait they come to value disappears during recovery. Perhaps a person’s OCD-like tendencies allow them to train beyond the scope of others in order to win an athletic event. If such a person eliminates the pathogenic load in their head, will they still be able to train and compete with such fanaticism? Many would argue that the famous cyclist Graeme Obree, who set the hour record in cycling, was ironically driven to excellence by focusing on memories inspired by his severe depression. There may also be artists whose works are fueled by their phobias. If the MP had existed in the nineteenth century, Van Gogh might very well have become just another artist painting sanguine pictures. Yet when it comes to the majority of people struggling with social anxiety or battling mental compulsions, the ability of the MP to quell a variety of phobias is almost certainly appealing and liberating.

So far I’ve discussed scenarios in which, thanks to VDR activation, oxytocin is naturally able to return to a normal level – a process directed by the body’s own homeostatic mechanisms. Yet, as communicated in a recent article on oxytocin in the Evening Standard‘s website This is London, most researchers seem to have little interest keeping oxytocin levels in the range that would be maintained by a healthy body left to its own ways. Instead, driven by the standard “the more the better” mindset, they seem motivated by the prospects of high-dose oxytocin supplementation. It seems that just like the “experts” who weigh in on vitamin D supplementation, oxytocin proponents are giving little, if any, thought to the possible negative consequences of dousing ourselves with a hormone that under natural circumstances is tightly regulated by the body.

An oxytocin spray has just been successfully trialled at the University of New South Wales and experiments by Dr Eric Hollander at the city’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine found a single intravenous infusion of the chemical triggered improvements that lasted for two weeks. These studies, along with Zak’s work has researchers in the US, Europe and Australia racing to develop commercial forms of the hormone, including a nasal spray. Driven, no doubt in part by the monetary prospects involved in creating oxytocin-containing compounds, such scientists believe that oxytocin can be turned into a “wonder drug” capable of treating a range of personality disorders such as autism, depression and anxiety.

A wonder drug? Wow! I think I just heard the local newscaster regurgitate information about another so-called wonder drug… vitamin D! And whereas vitamin D is fondly coddled as the “sunshine vitamin,” oxytocin will soon be enthusiastically promoted as the “love drug.”

The comparison would be lovely, if only the view of vitamin D as a helpful “sunshine vitamin” were actually correct. Unfortunately, the majority of vitamin D “experts” have failed to realize that the palliation offered by vitamin D stems only from its ability to slow the innate immune response. So they are content to extol the virtues of the secosteroid’s short-term palliative effects with little regard to the long term immunosuppression – and subsequent rise in bacterial load – it causes when taken in excess.

Zak contends that oxytocin, “is a very safe product that does not have any side effects and is not addictive.” Quite frankly though, how can he pretend to know such information? Clinical studies alone can never reveal the mechanisms by which a compound actually works inside the body and generally do not detect long-term side effects. For example, based on the first generation of clinical and epidemiological studies alone, vitamin D supplementation seemed like an excellent idea. It wasn’t until Marshall used molecular modeling software to mathematically calculate the affinities of the various forms of the secosteroid/hormone for their target receptors that the deleterious effects of 25-D on innate immune function became apparent. So until a researcher succeeds in modelling the effects of the hormone at the molecular level, and proceeds to create a model of the metabolic pathways that regulate its production, it’s madness to think that supplementation with excess oxytocin can simply be assumed to have no negative effects.

Don’t get me wrong, I see possible uses for oxytocin if used in moderation. But the articles I’ve read on the hormone contain quotes from researchers exercising little, if any, caution. According to the Evening Standard‘s article, “The potential uses of oxytocin offer commercial possibilities well beyond individual patients.” Restaurants, for instance, could spray a thin mist over customers to put them at ease. Since researchers at Emory University in Atlanta recently released the results of a study which suggests that oxytocin made rodents more faithful to their partners, some believe that extra levels of oxytocin could be used to prevent extramarital affairs. Others have proposed that oxytocin supplementation could serve as a treatment for alcoholism. Still others argue that oxytocin could be used as a benign form of tear gas, quelling any violent feelings among groups of demonstrators. While it’s plausible that oxytocin spray might succeed in placating a rowdy crowd, does the government really want to disrupt the homeostatic hormonal feedback pathways of large groups of people? And remember the study mentioned above where people given oxytocin gave 80% more money to a stranger? While such generosity may be helpful under some circumstances, it’s possible that if people take too much oxytocin, they may lose their inhibitions to the point where they might give away things they really need. Even some mainstream researchers admit that oxytocin could have potential as a date-rape drug as it is involved in both trust and sexual arousal.

So how about returning to the first scenario discussed in this piece – the scenario in which the Marshall Protocol can be used to restore oxytocin levels to those set by nature. Not that a few extra puffs of oxytocin couldn’t be used under special circumstances, but like vitamin D, it seems to me that hormonal pathways function optimally when left alone.

Yet, I must share this parting thought: could oxytocin spray, if used very carefully, be used to counteract the symptoms of brain immunopathology during difficult times on the MP? While the goal of every MP patient is to allow their hormones to rebalance naturally, those patients who suffer from severe mental infection might be able to use oxytocin in moderation in order to relieve intolerable symptoms. One thing’s clear, when it comes to oxytocin, there remain more questions than answers.