Oxytocin  ɔk.sɪ.ˈtoʊ.sɪn (Greek, "quick birth") is both a hormone in the body and a neurotransmitter in the brain. Oxytocin is released during hugging, touching, and orgasm in both sexes. Oxytocin is also involved in social recognition and bonding, and may be involved in the formation of trust between people and generosity. Research has shown that people in committed relationships experience greater oxytocin swells in response to positive emotions than their single peers. Studies have also emphatically demonstrated that oxytocin is associated with our ability to mediate emotional experiences in close relationships and maintain healthy psychological boundaries.

How to raise oxytocin levels.
Being touched (anywhere on the body) causes a rise in oxytocin levels, initiating a series of events that lead to biological and psychological arousal, including a rush of endorphins (the body's natural pain relievers) as well as a spike in testosterone levels (the hormone that kick-starts sex drive). Oxytocin is naturally released in response to a variety of physical stimuli including skin-to-skin contact, uterine or cervical stimulation during sex, and nipple stimulation in lactating women. It stimulates milk ejection during lactation, uterine contraction during birth, and is released during sexual orgasm in both men and women.

• Oxytocin is produced as a result of touch
• Oxytocin causes feelings of intimacy and closeness
• Oxytocin triggers powerful orgasms

Men and women in committed relationships experience
enhanced oxytocin production.

 
Oxytocin is a peptide of nine amino acids; cysteine, tyrosine, isoleucine, glutamine, asparagine, cysteine, proline, leucine and glycine.  The behavioral effects of oxytocin are thought to reflect release from centrally projecting oxytocin neurons, different from those that project to the pituitary gland. Oxytocin receptors are expressed by neurons in many parts of the brain and spinal cord, including the amygdala, ventromedial hypothalamus, septum and brainstem.

Synthesis, Storage, and Release
Most of our oxytocin is made in the hypothalamus and is released into the blood from the pituitary gland though some is made by paraventricular nucleus that project to other parts of the brain and to the spinal cord. Secretion of oxytocin from the neurosecretory nerve endings is regulated by the electrical activity of the oxytocin cells in the hypothalamus. These cells generate action potentials that propagate down axons to the nerve endings in the pituitary; the endings contain large numbers of oxytocin-containing vesicles, which are released by exocytosis when the nerve terminals are depolarised.