Sober on love

If you refer to the “Encyclopaedia Pop Musika” you will find varied and often conflicting reports on the effect of love. On the one hand you will find yourself informed that “love is a many splendoured thing”, “love is the reason for living”, and “love is all you need” while other entries claim that “love hurts”, “love sure is hard enough”, and “love is the razor in my soufflé” (this last not an actual song lyric but could easily have been written by any one of a host of maudlin songsters). So what is the true nature of love; panacea or curse? Well, that question may be too big for this column today, but we can report that a new study has shown one thing about love: it will keep you sober.

The new study involved rats who were given alcohol and also injections of oxytocin, the hormone that you secrete when you are around the one you love, as well as when you orgasm. Oxytocin is famously known as the cuddle hormone and plays a significant role in human binding.

In the study all rats were given alcohol while only some were given oxytocin. All of the rats were then given a sobriety test. Those given oxytocin passed the test, meaning they could behave in the rat equivalent of a sober way, while other rats failed as they were effectively drunk.

What the researchers found was that oxytocin stops alcohol from binding to GABA-A receptors in the brain and so blocks its intoxicating effects. That means that the impaired co-ordination and lack of fine motor control that alcohol causes can be inhibited by oxytocin.

Two things need to be said about that. First, whether these effects will be replicated in humans who are just secreting oxytocin in response to feelings of love remains to be seen. Secondly, don’t think that being with your loved one will protect you against a high blood alcohol reading; the oxytocin is just blocking the effects of alcohol in your brain but the alcohol is still in your bloodstream.

Still, there is enough in this study for us to suggest that instead of saying someone is “dunk on love” we should really be saying they are “sober on love”.