A new study has investigated oxytocin's effects on the brain regions that help control eating behavior to explore the possibility of using this hormone as a treatment for obesity.

Oxytocin is a hormone that plays an essential role in social interaction, trust, anxiety, sexual reproduction, childbirth, and mother-infant bonding. As such, people sometimes refer to it as the "love hormone." This hormone increases the contraction of the uterus during labor and stimulates milk production. Most discussions about oxytocin focus on its role during childbirth, but it also affects other aspects of bodily functioning, including our relationship with food. This hormone weakens the brain's reward signals for food, and it affects our eating behavior and metabolism. According to recent research, which the team presented on Monday at ENDO 2019, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in New Orleans, LA, oxytocin alters how people with obesity process images of high-ca