According to some scientist people, the smell of a man's sweat pushes certain sexual buttons in a woman's brain. So here I am, taking showers all the time and whatnot and what my wife would actually like is for me to walk around all sweaty and nasty. Good to know...



For women, nothing'slike the smell of men's sweat

By Will Dunham Thu Feb 8, 9:42 AM ET

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters Life!) - For women, apparently there's nothing like the smell of a man's sweat.

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley said women who sniffed a chemical found in male sweat experienced elevated levels of an important hormone, along with higher sexual arousal, faster heart rate and other effects.

They said the study, published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience, represents the first direct evidence that people secrete a scent that influences the hormones of the opposite sex.

The study focused on androstadienone, considered a male chemical signal. Previous research had established that a whiff of it affected women's mood, sexual and physiological arousal and brain activation. Its impact on hormones was less clear.

A derivative of testosterone, it is found in male sweat as well as in saliva and semen. It smells somewhat musky.

"It really tells us that a lot of things can be triggered by smelling sweat," Claire Wyart, who led the study, said in an interview on Wednesday.

The researchers measured levels of the hormone cortisol in the saliva of 48 female undergraduates at Berkeley, average age of about 21, after the women took 20 sniffs from a jar of androstadienone. Cortisol is secreted by the body to help maintain proper arousal and sense of well-being, respond to stress and other functions.

Cortisol levels in the women who smelled androstadienone shot up within roughly 15 minutes and stayed elevated for up to an hour. Consistent with previous research, the women also reported improved mood, higher sexual arousal, and had increased blood pressure, heart rate and breathing.

YEAST

For comparison's sake, women also smelled baking yeast, which did not trigger the same effects.

This was the first time that smelling a specific chemical secreted by people was shown to affect hormonal levels, the researchers said. The women had no skin contact with androstadienone.

The researchers used only heterosexual women in the study out of concern that homosexual women may respond differently to this male chemical.

Wyart said while this marked the first time a specific component of male sweat was demonstrated to influence women's hormones, other components of sweat may do similar things.

The study did not determine whether the increase in cortisol levels triggered mood or arousal changes or whether those changes themselves caused the cortisol elevation.

The researchers also said their findings suggest a better way to stimulate cortisol levels in patients who need it, such as those with Addison's disease. Instead of giving cortisol in pill form, which has side effects such as peptic ulcers, osteoporosis, weight gain and mood disorders, smelling a chemical like androstadienone could be used to affect cortisol levels, they suggested.

GottaLetitgo said:

The stench of neglect is one thing, but just natural sweat....nothing better! :SNIFF: :SNIFF: :SNIFF:

Sweaty but not smelly is sexy

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

The same glands produce all sweat so when is sweat not sweat?

GottaLetitgo said:

If you don't know that i am sure glad we ain't in the same room!

mdiver said:

I actually do not sweat because I manage to avoid virtually all types of physical activity.

GottaLetitgo said:

Including sex?

GottaLetitgo said:

oooo, flabby men.

mdiver said:

Damn that would explain why I'm not getting any.

fantasyislander said:

I'm not so much flabby as my abdominal muscles can't be bothered to take the appearance of the six pack that they know they are.

GottaLetitgo said:

GottaLetitgo said:

aw damn. and you were THIS close!

the smell of soap is NOT sexy.

The Captain is very very sweaty. No soap on the island I've been exiled to.

I gotta work out around the house more often.

ufoclub said:

Some of it is. I still remember very vividly the best smelling men I've known. My first boyfriend had the best smell and it was mostly clean sweat and laundry detergent. The other one, I'm not gonna talk about here.

I don't like the visual of sweat at all! But there's something about a clean personal body scent on a man. For sure.

fantasyislander said:

exactly

sweat can smell kind of sexy

Eww. Where there's sweat there's usually body odor. These women were given samples of a specific chemical, not the odors that come along with it.

I'll take a clean soapy smelling guy over man stench any day.

XxAxX said:

I saw a study where women were picking out the better looking guys based only on the smell of their sweat.

Healthier guy, healthier sweat is my theory.

i ask that all my partners shower with a rigid pumice soap full-body rubdown, then we don our haz-mat suits and go into the safe house where we roll around until one of us thinks we might have climaxed. to be honest, i can't ever smell anything other than my helmet's windex smell.

Anx said:

Anx said:

helmet windex? sounds kinda kinky

NDRU said:

TMPletz said:

I heard Arnold Schwarzenneger used to solicit women to "polish da helmet."
[Edited 2/8/07 12:31pm]

i'm working.

working up a gay sweat.

cborgman said:

!!!!!

NDRU said:

by "kinky" you don't mean "unclean", do you? because i've been thinking of putting a lead sheet between me and my partner next time, just for added protection.