Not Now, Im Pheromon-ing
Image Courtesy: @phlur / Instagram
Is love in the air? Or just your olfactory system’s response to pheromones?
Of all the senses, we rely on smell the least and most subconsciously. If it does transcend our consciousness, it is usually leading us to the closest bakery or cafe. Studies suggest that it may also lead us to our mates.
Pheromones have been widely recognized within the animal kingdom, but as the apple doesn't fall far, humans aren’t exempt from ‘pheromoning’. They affect us similarly as they do animals, but as humans are more mentally and socially complex, the pure awareness of their effect on us goes for the majority, unnoticed. There may be substantial insights into our selection process if we knew more. Our olfactory (smell) system is sorely underdeveloped compared to that of an animal. As previously mentioned, we don't rely on it to lead us to survival the same way a predator does to its prey. That doesn’t mean it is implicitly dormant. Pheromones help to "...communicate information and elicit behavioral or hormonal response from others,” National Health Institute.
So what would happen if we woke them from their slumber? What would awaken inside of us subsequently?
They’re particularly detected through sweat and other more explicit bodily fluids. Have you ever wondered why your partner’s morning breath doesn't bother you? You almost like it? Or why do you become addicted to their smell? It’s not for nothing I'll tell you that. Smell is a sense that ties us very closely to visceral memory, and pheromones are a chemical manifestation of that. Pheromones create a subliminal coding for us to communicate with one another. They tell us things like ‘this mate is safe, this mate isn’t’– which could all be indebted to breath or sweat. So, clean up, fella’s. Or don’t.
Androstadienone is a pheromone found more prominently in men that positively affects a woman’s mood, focus, arousal, and potential selection for her lover. The presence of it can also increase the perceived attraction in male faces (ScienceDirect.com).
Some men really do wear their heart on their sleeve… or their sweat?
Pheromones found in female tears possess the ability to lower testosterone in males. Almost so that crying signals to a man that he must be softer in order to be stronger. It's a sampling of reverse psychology, but as I've said, irony proves to be life’s favored vice.
Alas, this is all being communicated on a subliminal level. Extensive research is yet to be performed on humans, but when wondering if your mind, heart, or eyes are leading you astray, ask yourself how it smells. It might just help lead you to your Mr. Right. Or, at the very least, take you to the best coffee in a few-mile radius. Regardless, a sharpened olfactory system won’t let you down.
Sometimes, when words render us speechless, pheromones will still be there to do the talking. So please, not now, I'm pheromoning.
Strike Out,
Rosemary Aziz
Boca Raton
Rosemary Aziz is the Editorial Director for Strike Magazine Boca. A health and wellness junkie who finds leisure in writing, all things coffee, and observing the human condition– but people-watching is better with friends. Or in her next article. You can reach her by email at r.m.aziz0204@gmail.com or on Instagram @rosemary.aziz.
