Dr Alverston Bailey, Contributor
Is your love life just merely plodding along? Has sexual boredom set in? Then perhaps you need to spice up your sex life with sensual scents.
It is accepted as a truism that various aromas are sexually enticing, and some common aromas believed to enhance desire are:
Banana nut bread, cola, cucumber, doughnuts, cinnamon frankincense, jasmine, lavender, liquorice, musk, peppermint, pumpkin pie, vanilla, strawberries, cherries, oranges, cranberries, popcorn, colognes and perfumes.
But no scientific documentation was conducted to prove their effectiveness until 1998 when Dr Alan Hirsch, the founder and neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, and colleague Dr Jason Gruss initiated a study to investigate the relationship between sexual arousal and smell by exposing research subjects to a variety of different scents, while measuring sexual arousal (via penile blood flow in men, and vaginal blood flow in women).
These studies appeared in the January/February 1998 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine; in the May 27, 1998 issue of Biological Psychiatry; and in the June 3, 1998 issue of Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality.
Hirsch selected 24 different odours for the study. In addition, six combinations of two of the most well-liked of these were also chosen. The effects of the 30 odours on penile blood flow and vaginal blood flow were assessed.
The results are noted in Figure 1.
Baked cinnamon buns had more effects than all the perfumes together.
Men also responded strongly to the smell of cheese pizza and older men were quite enamoured with vanilla. Men who had frequent sexual intercourse were also quite responsive to the scent of strawberries.
Women
In the study with female subjects, the aromas also caused an increased in vaginal blood flow as shown in Figure 2.
What turned the women off were things usually associated with masculinity such as men's colognes and the scent of barbecued meat and cherries.
To spice up your love life try this recipe:
Bake a cinnamon cake or a pumpkin pie for your lover. The rich aroma could be a potent aphrodisiac. Dab on a vanilla scent or perfume. Smear aromatic oils like jasmine or lavender on a low-wattage bulb to diffuse the scent. Offer your partner a cup of peppermint, vanilla, liquorice or jasmine tea as a prelude to intimacy. Perfume the air with jasmine or peppermint air freshener. Eat doughnuts, liquorice candy, chocolate, strawberries or popcorns as a snack to energise you during foreplay. Bathe with a cucumber-scented soap or use lotions, oils or shampoo containing aromatic oils.Aromatic scents can be titillating and seductive and have been shown to be great stress relievers. Why not try them today to spice up your love life?
Source: Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation Ltd, www.smellandtaste.org/sexbook.htm
Dr Alverston Bailey is a medical doctor and immediate past president of the Medical Association of Jamaica. Send comments and questions to saturdaylife@gleanerjm.com or fax 922-6223.
