@pone11:
re: L. reuteri, if you read the reuteri thread here, it is suggested that its purported benefits are due to calming down of inflammation -- which sorta sounds right.
Now the question is whether higher oxytocin levels correlate with lower inflammation -- I mean, who knows what's the cause here, what's the effect and what is just a correlation. What if by simply lowering inflammation in someone who has it high would result in higher endogenous oxytocin levels -? If so, where would it leave L. reuteri? Maybe some other anti-inflammatory would work even better for oxytocin? ANyone knows?
re: supposed ineffectiveness of weekly treatments for mice -- these critters have such a high metabolic rate that a day for them lasts about as long as a week for us. This is true in regard to many different metabolic parameters, though of course not all. So I would not yet discount once-weekly treatment for humans only because they did not work in mice.
But more importantly, I am a strong believer in cyclic, short-duration therapies that have a long lasting effect. An effective therapy should result in cellular/tissue repairs -- which should be like rewinding the biological clock. The idea is similar to daily cycle of sleep or, say, once a year vacation. After good night sleep complexion is radiant, lotsa energy, wrinkles fade away; the clock is rewound -- well certainly back to the previous morning level. A successful rejuvenation therapy should bring one biologically 5-10 years back. And so re oxytocin, I would try a few once weekly treatments -- or maybe once daily for a week -- no more. If it works this should be enough and have a visible, lasting effect within a few short weeks. Only an experiment will tell.
so let us experiment and share