What's more the studio is hot--about 100 degress F--so sweat pours off your body. Once you get used to it, being drenched feels really cleansing.
The mysterious thing for me has been that my experience of yoga varies depending on whether are not there are men in the class, and whether they are in proximity. Generally, male instructors attract more male students; those classes feel much more euphoric to me and..I'm not quite sure how to say this--they feel quite sensual and pleasurable.
Before long, it became clear that the feeling of well-being persisted beyond the class. There was a drawback, though, in that I also felt more, er, interested in men. I felt lonely and empty afterwards. And I had no appropriate means of alleviating that feeling.
So I was torn: sweat and feel great; but get whipped up and feel lonely in the process? It occurred to me to borrow a used T-shirt from a male friend, and see if sleeping with it on my pillow helped assuage the sense of longing. None of the guys in my life--at least not the one I felt comfortable asking-- were willing to help me out.
In that context, I came across this article in today's New York Times. As always in matters of biopersonal experience, I am grateful to science for telling me that my experiences are in fact true. Snarkiness aside, does this mean I'm happier with men around? I think so!
By Nicholas Bakalar
Smelling a compound in men’s sweat called androstadienone raises levels of the hormone cortisol in heterosexual women, a small study has found, suggesting for the first time that human pheromones might be useful in clinical medicine.
Smelling androstadienone has previously been shown to improve mood and increase sexual arousal in women, but this is the first time that an olfactory stimulus from a specific molecule has been found to lead to a change in hormone levels. The study appears in the Feb. 7 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
Researchers gave 21 women 20 sniffs from a bottle containing 30 milligrams of androstadienone, and then, on a different day, had them sniff an identical bottle that contained baker’s yeast, a similar-smelling substance. Neither the researchers nor the subjects knew which bottle was being presented.
The researchers then took saliva samples to track changes in levels of cortisol, a hormone that increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels, among other effects. Sniffing androstadienone significantly improved the women’s mood and increased their sexual arousal, according to the women’s own descriptions, and raised their cortisol levels as measured by saliva tests.
The authors acknowledge that they cannot unequivocally determine whether androstadienone influenced cortisol, which then influenced mood, or whether a change in mood caused by another mechanism led to a change in cortisol.
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