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Does this mean we gals should stop wearing deodorant if we want to attract attention in a favorable way? And.... errrrr.... does taking Sinemet negate the benefits mentioned in the article? Sooooo... to find out the answers to these important questions, does there have to be a 2 or 3 year study, involving mice (presumably a scientist wipes a a coupla hundred mice across a buncha elderly ladies armpits? (or perhaps they use P:IGGIES instead of mice?) <A SACRILEGE!> <smirk> Hmmm.... I wonder if the NIH will get funding to carry out this experiment, or will Parkies everywhere hafta start yet another grassroots movement in order to raise the needed bucks themselves?. Did _ I _ really write the above? OYE! I've obviously gone without sleep too long! ANONYMOUS <giggle> -----Original Message----- From: janet paterson <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wednesday, June 30, 1999 1:32 PM Subject: NEWS: OLFACTORY: Elderly armpits can lift your spirits >Elderly armpits can lift your spirits > >Wednesday, June 30, 1999 Published at 18:04 GMT 19:04 UK - The armpit >smells of old ladies are the latest mood-enhancing substances to be >uncovered by scientists - but they warn that those of young men may have >the reverse effect. > >The Pennsylvania-based team believe that the effect may be due to the human >ability to detect the presence or absence of hormones in sweat which signal >aggression, reports "New Scientist" magazine. > >Denise Chen, at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia recruited >30 volunteers in six different age categories - young girls and boys, young >adult men and women, and men and women in their 70s. > >Perfume and deodorant ban > >The volunteers were banned from using perfumes or deodorants, or eating >strong smelling food for four days, although they were allowed to take >showers using unscented soap. > >Throughout this period, a gauze pad strapped under the arm absorbed any >odour they produced. > >Then more than 300 university students sampled smells taken at random, >filling in before and after questionnaires designed to test their mood. > >People who had inhaled the samples taken from the armpits of old ladies >responded significantly more positively. > >Ms Chen said: "Old women had an uplifting effect". > >But results showed the smell of young men had a noticeably "depressive >effect", an outcome which might have been anticipated by any parent of a >teenage boy. > >In between these extremes, the smell of older people generally improved >mood, as did the smell of females. > >Hormonal signal > >Jeannette Haviland, who also worked on the research, suggested that >hormones in the body odour of the young might act as a signal of aggression. > >She pointed to a recent study which showed that people can distinguish >between the odours of both happy and frightened people. > >Hormonal changes in old age, she said, were likely to make the odour of the >elderly, particularly women, signal approachability. > > >BBC News Online: Health >http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/health/newsid_382000/382167.stm > >janet paterson >52 now / 41 dx / 37 onset >PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario K0A 1A0 Canada >a new voice http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Village/6263/ >[log in to unmask] >