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Smelling a Single Component of Male Sweat Alters Levels of Cortisol in Women


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Smelling a Single Component of Male Sweat Alters Levels of Cortisol in Women

 

Claire Wyart,1 Wallace W. Webster,2 Jonathan H. Chen,1 Sarah R. Wilson,1 Andrew McClary,1 Rehan M. Khan,1 and Noam Sobel1,3

 

1Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, 2Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Oakland, California 94611, and 3Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel

 

Correspondence should be addressed to Claire Wyart at the above address. Email: clairon@berkeley.edu

 

Rodents use chemosignals to alter endocrine balance in conspecifics. Although responses to human sweat suggest a similar mechanism in humans, no particular component of human sweat capable of altering endocrine balance in conspecifics has yet been isolated and identified. Here, we measured salivary levels of the hormone cortisol in women after smelling pure androstadienone (4,16-androstadien-3-one), a molecule present in the sweat of men that has been suggested as a chemosignal in humans. We found that merely smelling androstadienone maintained significantly higher levels of the hormone cortisol in women. These results suggest that, like rodents, humans can influence the hormonal balance of conspecifics through chemosignals. Critically, this study identified a single component of sweat, androstadienone, as capable of exerting such influence. This result points to a potential role for synthetic human chemosignals in clinical applications.

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Ya know, I was about to wrap the Dr. Phil thread in here....but now way I would ever want to smell his stank-@$$ self!!! (sorry, I'm giving myself giggle fits over here)

 

Seriously, this is interesting information. Wonder what the smell of male sweat does to female testosterone....? (Hearing, "Let's Get It On" in my mind...)

 

Yep, I'm feeling better today! :)

 

Kate

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........so men are rodents and they are stressing us out and making us fat? Did I summize that correctly? :wub:

 

 

a_rolling.gif

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....my favorite show is CBS News Sunday Morning. Just filled with little bits of wordly wisdom.

 

...this morning they had a segment on this subject. It was very interesting.......they actually showed the labs, the exercise rooms with men sweating, ........and they had women smelling different bottles to see how they reacted. ...........it was really fun to watch after having read your article Robin. So they are now going to collect mens sweat to market !!!..........they didnt say it raised cortisol specifically but were on that track........they thought it was an aphrodesiac (sp?) and some women reacted differently to some men, etc etc. etc.

 

...okay Robin, track down that segment as only you can do ............

 

xoxo judy xoxox

 

p.s. you know, i do think there is truth to the matter though just from my own experience (wtmi)

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You see, and some men say that women gain weight in a relationship out of "laziness" and mysteriously LOSE weight when they break up because they get their dignity back. :o

 

Wrong-O!

 

Men just make us fat. Not our fault... LOL

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Robin, and all the other 'Buffalo Gals' out there!!!!

 

This is very scientifically interesting, as a female scientist, however as a female person... this is too funny!

 

I have been 'house hunting' and I hate to enter a home full of MAN-SMELL

 

I never found a boyfriend's 'mansmell' offensive, but boy do I hate an anonymous guy's mansmell! I think that is part of the reason I never took to basketball... too much man-smell being wafted my way!!! No offense to those wonderful athletes out there!!!! Just a quirk of mine :blink:

 

I wonder if this is where the pheromones come in??? :angry2::blush:

 

Maggie!!

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