Girl talk raises oxytocin and improves health
Researchers have discovered that girlie talk raises oxytocin and lowers stress levels in young women. A team working at the University of Michigan, examined progesterone levels in the saliva of 160 college students in order to indirectly measure their oxytocin levels (oxytocin can only be measured by spinal fluid or brain scans). The students were then asked to work in pairs at a task that was either emotionally neutral or a task that required emotional closeness. Those given the latter tasks were found to have raised progesterone (an by inference, oxytocin) and reduced cortisal levels (a stress hormone).