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Sweat: An Aphrodisiac?


You may have heard the phrase, "Never let them see you sweat." Well, there is new evidence that smelling sweat, yes smelling sweat, may be your ticket to gettin' the ladies. What am I talking about?

In this week's issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are studying how humans use chemosignals to attract one another. Rats, moths, and butterflies are all known to send chemosignals to secure mates. (Scientific American online). The researchers used androstadienone, a constituent of sweat, and studied the effects of how smelling this would affect the women subjects.

The researchers exposed 21 subjects to 30 milligrams of androstadienone and to yeast, which is not in sweat but has a similar olfactory sensation. The participants took 20 sniffs of each in two separate trials.

The researchers measured physiological vital signs like body temperature, skin conductance, ear pulse, blood pressure, respiratory function and cardiac rate throughout the experiment.

The results: smelling the androstadienone increased positive mood, total physiological arousal and sexual arousal, which grew with longer exposure.

I wondered why all those guys I see at the gym all the time have an active social life. It couldn't be because they're fit and trim and muscular and I'm fat and inactive and flabby. Nah! It's all in the sweat, dude!

So, guys, as an early Valentine's Day tip from Dr. A, it's not about jewelry. It's not about roses. It's not about chocolate. And, it's not about a romantic candle light dinner.

Wanna date? Then, go to the gym and workout so much that the ladies will be all over you. Probably, they'll be calling an ambulance or your mommy because you'll over do it on the treadmill (see picture above). But, at least, you'll be sweating, and that's all that matters. Happy Valentine's Day! HA!