cborgman said:

!!!!!

I wish they had included men in the study, and asked people about sexual orientation. Would be interesting to know if gay vs straight women have different reactions, as well as gay vs straight men.

We don't really understand the biology of sexuality very well.

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.

NDRU said:

Same goes for the taste

Shanti1 said:

Probably so. I was just hanging out with a serious alcoholic over the weekend, and he stank so badly. I knew it had to be his toxic sweat. The drugs & alcohol & cigarettes & KFC come out all over your body.

NDRU said:

Same goes for the taste

Shanti1 said:

Vegans taste good.

sextonseven said:

Shanti1 said:

Vegans taste good.

NDRU said:

Shanti1 said:

I always know just what to say

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.

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.

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.

what about sweaty ladies? does it work the other way too?