A new study released in time for Valentine's Day reveals that a chemical in male sweat can boost mood, brain activity, and sexual arousal in heterosexual women.

 

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley note that their findings – published this week in The Journal of Neuroscience – claim that the study offers the first direct evidence that humans secrete scents that affect the physiology of the opposite sex.

The study conducted last year involved 48 undergraduate women. The ladies took 20 sniffs from a bottle containing andostadienone, a compound found in male perspiration and other bodily secretions.

The researchers then measured the women's levels of the stress hormone cortisol and compared them to the women's responses to the control odor. Cortisol levels in women rose within 15 minutes of inhaling the androstadienone scent and remained elevated for more than an hour. Moreover, researchers also found that blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing increased, mood improved, and sexual arousal was boosted.

 

As good as this sounds for all you folks who are too cheap to invest in anti-perspirant, study leader, Claire Wyart notes that while study results show that the compound can make women feel more positive and sexually aroused, it is still  unclear how it affects their behavior. She says, "You cannot expect them (the ladies) to have stereotypical responses like rodents."

Women may get all hot and bothered by your stench, but they may still find you gross.