Ideagen Radio
Ideagen Radio
2025 Global Leadership Summit: Dr. Nicole Hayre on the Revolutionary Link Between Love, Oxytocin, and Skin Health
Discover the unexpected connection between love and skin health as we welcome the brilliant Dr. Nicole Hayre, a pioneering voice in dermatology and founder of the innovative skincare line, Cutocin. Dr. Hayre takes us on a fascinating journey from her groundbreaking role in the Human Genome Project to her eye-opening research on oxytocin, the "love hormone," and its profound impact on skin quality. Unveiling her pioneering pilot study, Dr. Hayre highlights how oxytocin reduces inflammation and enhances skin's resilience, offering new hope for both dermatological care and holistic wellness.
In our conversation, we share actionable insights on how to boost your well-being and skin health with simple, everyday practices. Dr. Hayre emphasizes the power of genuine human connection—spending time with loved ones, engaging in physical activity, or even snuggling with a pet—to naturally elevate oxytocin levels and foster mental wellness. We also dive into the benefits of incorporating Cutocin into your skincare routine for optimal results. Join us as we explore the science and soul of skin health, leaving you inspired to nurture both your outer glow and inner joy.
#Cutocin #Ideagen #GLS2025
Dr. Harye's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnicolehayre/
Learn more about Cutocin here: https://cutocin.com/
View the entire 2024 Global Leadership Summit here: https://www.ideagenglobal.com/2025globalleadershipsummit
Welcome to the IdeaGen Global Leadership Summit. I'm here today with Dr Nicole Hare for a special presentation interview. I'm excited to be here with Dr Hare, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here with Dr Aaron, thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Of course, our pleasure. I want to briefly just start this interview by letting you kind of explain what you're doing right now with Qtosyn, with the Cosmetic Dermatology Center. You know I'm well aware, but for our audience I think it'd be great to let us know what's new, what's new with you.
Speaker 2:Sure, a little bit of the background. I'm a board-certified dermatologist. I went to MIT, so I have a strong research background. I worked at one point at Merck Pharmaceuticals. I've worked in the Human Genome Project, so I love research, and during my time running my center, I noticed a change in my patient's skin which correlated believe it or not to their love life, and so that prompted me, being the researcher that I am, to look into oxytocin, and that's how I developed Qtosyn, my skincare line.
Speaker 1:Awesome, thank you, and I kind of want to dive into that human genome project you discussed. How did those kind of experiences that you had influence? You know your approach to skincare research and the trajectory you've taken founding your own brand.
Speaker 2:Well, I've always been very proud of my work that I've done in research and I look back on those times fondly, my work over at Merck Pharmaceuticals. The lead on the project actually won the Nobel Prize and there is a commercial that runs a lot that you'll see for Super Beats. I mapped the gene that they're always talking about. So my husband's always joking that I should be on the commercial and the Human Genome Project. I mean it was an honor. I worked under Francis Collins and it just, you know, it's always inspired me to keep striving forward with my research, no matter where that takes me. Yeah, we've had a couple of people in here, you know it. It's always inspired me to keep striving forward with my research, no matter where that takes me yeah, we've had a couple people in here, you know, for advertising.
Speaker 1:We got to make that happen, get you there, you go right yeah um and so talk about. Could you talk about your pilot study that you that you did, that you know, uncover the direct link between between oxytocin levels and the impact on your skin? You know, I know you would discuss kind of a connection with your patients, but but how did that kind of come to fruition?
Speaker 2:sure so it's. It's a very interesting story because I've been in practice for over 20 years 21 years now and some of my patients have been coming to me the entire time, and from time to time someone will come in and I haven't seen them in a little while, and I could see something different in their skin, and it wasn't that I could see that they were happy or sad. I saw a difference in quality of their skin, and then we would get to chit-chatting and I would realize that it correlated with their love life, and so you know that typical love glow that especially women like to talk about was true. I was observing that in my office, and vice versa, though. I've had times when a patient came in and I could tell something bad had happened and the husband had died or had left her, and you could see it in the skin. The skin quality had changed, and so I said to myself well, I'm observing these changes. It's not just in my head, I know I am. How could this be happening?
Speaker 2:And so I started to dig in to my theory of oxytocin.
Speaker 2:So oxytocin is the love hormone, and in the past we've always kind of put it into this little box of you know it's involved in sex, birthing and nursing and that's it, and we never really looked at oxytocin.
Speaker 2:But when I dug around in the medical research literature, I found that there's bench work showing that oxytocin is actually produced in the skin and it binds in the skin and it turns off an inflammatory pathway in the skin. So inflammation obviously is bad. We don't like that, and so the more that the inflammation is shut off, the more it's going to protect your skin, and so I decided to try to show this in my pilot study, and I was successful in showing that, and that was the first time that anybody had published clinical proof that oxytocin is protecting the skin in the human skin in real time. So so it was actually a huge thing. I heard from people I hadn't heard from in a long time. It was named one of the most important stories in dermatology at the time. You know this is revolutionary and we don't get that many new things in dermatology all the time.
Speaker 2:So I was super excited. But it goes beyond that. You know, this isn't just to make you attractive, it also makes you healthier. Because, you know, when I was writing up my paper I thought well, why would the body do this? The body's not going to waste energy just to make you more attractive, for reproduction, right? Someone might argue that, for evolutionary purposes. But let's face it, when we're younger we don't need as much of the oxytocin protection for our skin as when we're older.
Speaker 2:So I just had a hunch that this went deeper, and when I looked into the medical database, I was able to find preliminary research showing a positive effect in every system in the body. So your neurologic, endocrine, gi, pulmonary, every system. And that's when I had the epiphany that this is a system. So this is what I call the oxytocin social exchange system. The more social you are, the more interaction you have at a real human level right, sitting face to face, smiling at one another, laughing, talking the higher your oxytocin is and the healthier you are and the more attractive you are. And so it's a positive feedback loop.
Speaker 2:And you know people who have more oxytocin, they tend to be more vibrant and attract more attention, and it feeds on itself, and if you want to look back again at evolution, you could argue. Well, you know, this is to help you survive, right? Because who's going to survive? It's the people who are social people, who are working together and communicating and sticking together, and the loners, who probably didn't have as much oxytocin. Well, they probably didn't do as well. So you could see how this has been with us all along.
Speaker 1:That's fascinating. That's fascinating. Have you thought about maybe expanding the research that you've done in your pilot study with additional studies, larger sample sizes?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would love to. It's been a little rough to try to find carve out the time to do an expansive study, but I do know that people have looked at my paper and working on top of that. So because obviously it's published medical literature and then other people use that as a reference, so I'm just happy that at least I got it going somehow. I do believe that this is a story that we are all going to look back at and say, boy, how did we miss this one for so many years? It is just so critical to our health and well-being.
Speaker 2:We have a lot of problems in this society right now that are really because of the lack of oxytocin. You look at the youth of today. They are on their devices far too much. They get their little dopamine spikes from hitting buttons on that little glowing screen, but they're not spending time with one another, they are not interacting with one another in real time, and that makes a huge difference. And so when that is lacking, then they don't have oxytocin for their neurologic development, for the rest of their development, and they have a crazy amount of anxiety and depression.
Speaker 2:And so really we do need to put the darn phones down and pay attention to each other. There's even a study showing that if a mother calls a daughter you know old fashioned phone call, right Her oxytocin goes up and her cortisol level, which is her stress level, goes down. If the mother texts the daughter, her cortisol goes up and her oxytocin stays the same. So you know, it's not just communication, it's how you're communicating, it's the method of communication. It has to be real time. We're actually hearing the person's voice and interacting and not this broken up, you know, messages on a device that actually increases your stress increases your stress.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. I know it is frustrating sometimes. You know you just want to get someone on the phone. I know the person that they only text, you know we all have that one person that only texts. They never answer the phone but it's interesting to hear you know. Apologies if you kind of answered this in a previous question, but how does Qtosin maybe differentiate from other anti-aging or products of you know maybe similar other anti-aging?
Speaker 2:or products of you know, maybe similar Sure. So you know, when I made these discoveries and put this kind of all together, you know, being a dermatologist of course, I was like oh gosh, I want to bottle this right. This is amazing. You know, again, in dermatology we haven't had much new in so many years. But for skincare, you know, we've been working off of antioxidants and retinol and peptides and that kind of thing hyaluronic acid and you know everybody's got that in their lines and all of that. But this works differently. You know, if we can work off of the oxytocin system and help to shut down that inflammation, wouldn't that be great? So what I did was I found a botanical that's been used for centuries in midwifery and so it has been used for its oxytocin effects, and I was able to use that in formulation in my line, ketosin, and it's actually patented.
Speaker 2:So it took almost three and a half years to get the patent, thank you, but it is a unique skincare line that is patented. There's nothing else out there like it and I have to say people, they react so well to it. Their skin looks amazing. They get very invested if you you will into the brand. They love the brand and people just get hooked on it.
Speaker 1:Honestly, that's fantastic. I mean, it sounds great, so I understand why. So your research has been recognized at the UN. You've been published in leading dermatology publications. Could you talk about that experience and what those experiences have been like and how you see that affecting the future of skincare science?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I again. I'm just so proud to bring this topic to the forefront of not just dermatology but to society. I really think that this is something that we need to pay attention to. I am a huge proponent for people like spending time together and putting the darn phones down and looking at each other across the table. You know, when I see groups of people together, even in a restaurant, and they each have their phone in their hand and thinking you guys are missing the point.
Speaker 2:That doesn't work right. That's not how this works, and I think we need to get back to that kind of message. And that was like the primary message when I spoke at the United Nations, which was such an honor, and you know just getting that message out there and that I'm hoping that I get in some people's heads that they're like you know what. It's time for us to just put the phone down and pay attention to one another and have a chat, or just spend a little extra time with your loved one, or get an extra long hug from your loved one, or you know, do something like that because it's good for you and it's good for them and it boosts your oxytocin level. It makes you not just happier but healthier, and I think that our society has really been in this kind of honestly like oxytocin deficit at this point, and I love getting the word out about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean definitely in the shift. You know, post COVID remote just became such a standard, you know in all facets of life, so I can see what you mean by that. You're a scientist, researcher, entrepreneur. Could you maybe describe kind of where you see the future of dermatology heading, particularly in merging like neuroscience and skin care, overall well-being Kind of? Where do you see that track?
Speaker 2:I think it's a great question. I think that we're starting to understand the mind-body connection a lot more, not just in dermatology, but in all of medicine a lot more, not just in dermatology, but in all of medicine, even just looking at things like probiotics. And the gut-mind connection is so important, and that's something that's also related to dermatology, because the more inflammation you have in your body in general, the worse it is for your skin, hair, everything, and when the gut is healthy, you have less inflammation in your body overall. So I think that dermatology finally has some new and exciting things kind of going on. I think for a little while it was, you know, a lot of same old, same old, but um, you know it's, it's exciting and I I can't wait to see what happens in the future. Again, just total wellness and mind-body connection and even gut health, who knows?
Speaker 1:Who knows what someone will come up with next. Yeah, well, it seems to be all connected and I share in your excitement about what the future holds. Share in your excitement about what the future holds. I think you've described a few. You know ways that we can improve. You know our skincare through your research so far, but do you maybe have three takeaways that our audience could have? Things they could start doing today, they could do right now to improve their overall you know skin, or their you, or their health in general?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say that you need to make an effort every day to talk with a friend or a loved one. If you don't have a loved one at home, just make sure that you're actually speaking with them in real time, though not texting. Actually, it makes a big difference, as I was telling you before. So I want people to make an effort on a daily basis to connect with someone who they love, right, and then also they can do things that makes them happy and that will boost your oxytocin too. So exercise and singing can increase your oxytocin. If you like to sing, or snuggling with a pat will increase your oxytocin, so you need to do something like that too. And then I'd say, lastly, the best thing of obviously is to use ketocin, because it's incredible. So I was going to recommend that, just for everybody you know, you heard it here dr hair thank you very much.
Speaker 1:We appreciate you stopping by and uh you know, ketocin.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Hayer thank you very much. We appreciate you stopping by and you know tosing.
Speaker 1:Thank you Always a pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you.