Sweet Sweat Gets Girls Going
By Catherine Scullion
A new study has shown that just a sniff of a chemical that’s a major component of male sweat is enough to get a girl’s heart racing.
The physiological responses of heterosexual women to the scent of androstadienone include elevated blood pressure, heart rate and mood, sexual arousal and an increase in the hormone cortisol – more commonly associated with the ‘fight or flight’ response. The effects are sustained for up to an hour.
The control, a whiff of baker’s yeast, showed none of these effects. The results represent the first implication of a specific chemical scent dictating hormone levels, however it is unclear whether a better mood stimulated cortisol release or vice versa.
Though a marketing nightmare for Lynx, the results do have some medicinal benefit. Cortisol is used as a treatment for a number of diseases but can have unpleasant side effects if taken in pill form. This represents an alternative route, though prescriptions for ‘sweaty men’ are unlikely.
Catherine's other articles are wonderful. Read them here.
The physiological responses of heterosexual women to the scent of androstadienone include elevated blood pressure, heart rate and mood, sexual arousal and an increase in the hormone cortisol – more commonly associated with the ‘fight or flight’ response. The effects are sustained for up to an hour.
The control, a whiff of baker’s yeast, showed none of these effects. The results represent the first implication of a specific chemical scent dictating hormone levels, however it is unclear whether a better mood stimulated cortisol release or vice versa.
Though a marketing nightmare for Lynx, the results do have some medicinal benefit. Cortisol is used as a treatment for a number of diseases but can have unpleasant side effects if taken in pill form. This represents an alternative route, though prescriptions for ‘sweaty men’ are unlikely.
Catherine's other articles are wonderful. Read them here.
Image: CA
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