In Search of the Sixth Sense
The greatest sexual stimulator isn't where many might think, but rather in the nose, according to experts who define sex as an entity primarily governed by the sense of smell...
For most animals, the nasal organ is a crucial means of obtaining information from the world, vital for survival, as well as for sexual activity and attraction.
In humans, although the German surgeon Albert Ruysch discovered in 1703 that both nostrils have a tiny depression that extends through a tube about 2-7 millimeters long, it was later thought that this structure, present in the fetus, atrophied in adults.
The matter was forgotten by anatomists until 1990 when David Moran from the University of Colorado, after examining over 200 patients under a microscope, confirmed that they all had this duct, known as the VNO - Vomeronasal Organ.
Currently, the study of the VNO opens the door to a new perception, that of small molecules called "pheromones," which have governed and awakened passion in most males of the animal kingdom since time immemorial.
The call to mate, for example, is so powerful and irresistible precisely because of the pheromones emitted by the female in heat.
Some of these chemical messengers of love, like that of the Atlas moth, can be detected by the male from eight kilometers away.
Is there a similar mechanism in humans, or have we lost it with civilization, which leads us to relegate instincts to the background?
Scientists say that we probably still have remnants of this ancient faculty, which would be like the "sixth sense" of our species.
Several known facts are pointed out as indications of this thesis: When two or more women live under the same roof, there is a tendency for their menstrual dates to synchronize involuntarily.
Dr. Astrid Jutte from the Institute of Urban Ethology in Vienna states that testosterone levels rise when a man smells certain vaginal substances called "copulins," produced during ovulation.
According to David Berliner, another major scholar on the subject, chemical communication between people exists, although at much shorter distances than in animals, with an exchange of pheromones produced by the skin and carried into the environment through sweat.
Another expert on the matter, Dr. Charles Wysocki from the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, USA, managed to synchronize the menstrual cycle of several women who did not live together by exposing them to an extract of the sweat of others.
Animals like rats use up to 35 different types of pheromones, and although it is still unknown how many humans possess, it is estimated that they must have a greater number, with effects not only on sexual attraction but also on emotions, mood, and other human behavior traits.
Such theses support the ancient "aromatherapy" or oriental floral therapy, used by Asian doctors for millennia to heal with aromas, which is now finally being accepted by Western medicine.
This kind of sixth sense in humans may not have suffered natural atrophy but has been gradually diminished as the use of cosmetics, perfumes, and daily hygiene replace its trail with artificially acquired ones. However, scientists believe they can restore its full significance, which would provide a biological explanation for many enigmatic events like love at first sight and the first kiss, not to mention its therapeutic possibilities.
Research continues in various institutions across several continents, and who knows, in the future, a common compliment might be: "I love you with all my nose."
Author: Richard F. Potts Source: www.enplenitud.com