A new study has found that a single dose of nasal spray consisting synthetic Oxytocin can reduce calories and fatty foods consumption among healthy weight and overweight men. Oxytocin is an important hormone that plays its part during several activities and is used to induce labor as well.

Elizabeth Lawson, MD, MMSc, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and lead investigator, said, “Our results are really exciting. Further study is needed, but I think oxytocin is a promising treatment for obesity and its metabolic complications”.

For the study, the investigators conducted tests on 25 participants, men aging around 27 in average. Out of them, 13 were fit while the rest of the 12 were either obese or overweight.

The participants were randomly and unknowingly assigned to self-dispense just one dose of the spray consisting 24 international units of either the oxytocin-based spray or a placebo.

One hour after the intake, they went to have their breakfast and ordered from a menu of meals which contained only double portions.

The researchers replicated the experiment in a different visit. They reversed the treatments in order to ensure that the ones consumed the placebo in the previous experiment receive the oxytocin this time around.

The participants informed the researchers about their food consumption in three days prior to the experiment. As per the researchers, they consumed almost the same amounts of food before both the experiments.

They compared participants’ intake at the two breakfasts and found that the oxytocin spray in their system led to a reduction of an average 122 calories from their consumption level, with a decline in fat intake by 9 grams.

The researchers revealed that under the influence of oxytocin, the men’s body fat played the part of fuel for energizing them. But how it impacted caloric consumption is still not clear as the men informed no changes in their appetite.

Moreover, the researchers found no changes between the placebo and oxytocin spray in the blood tests conducted for hormones in charge of controlling appetite. This nasal spray has the approval in Europe but is not approved in the US.