Although you can be "drunk with love", the so-called "love hormone" oxytocin could reduce the effects of drunkenness, say researchers from the universities of Sydney (Australia) and Regensburg (Germany) . But - let's say it right now:not the blood alcohol level.
Yes, in their publication published on February 23, 2015 in the journal PNAS, the scientists explain that intoxicated rats, in which they had injected oxytocin into the brain, did not experience the lack of coordination caused by alcohol and continued to walk straight:
Indeed, as seen in this video, three groups of rats were subjected to a sobriety test adapted to rodents. "The first consisted of sober individuals, the second of alcoholic rats while in the third group, the animals had received high doses of oxytocin before being drunk", explains the site Sciences et Avenir.
The result ? The rats of the third group proved to be as lively as the sober rodents of the first group. "Oxytocin has a protective effect that makes it impossible to determine from their behavior whether the mice are drunk or not," says Dr Michael Bowen of the University of Sydney.
Now, researchers plan to study the effects of this hormone in humans. "If we can get enough of this hormone into their brains, we believe it will also counteract the alcoholic effects on the ability to speak and think clearly after consuming large amounts of alcohol," Dr. .Michael Bowen.
But be careful:explaining to the police that "you've had a little too much to drink but that's okay, you're very very very in love, phew", it won't work. On the one hand, because unless you have been a guinea pig for researchers, your brain will never have enough oxytocin to resist alcohol. And on the other hand, because even if it did, and this hormone did reduce the effects of drunkenness in you, it could not change your blood alcohol level, ”warn the doctors.
