Maybe it’s the influence of Madison Avenue. Whatever the reason, modern society simply does not tolerate sweaty arm pits. Since 1888, when Mum deodorant was first invented, many new and increasingly effective weapons have been called up to duty in the daily battle against body odor.

Women are especially sensitive about body odor and the personal care product manufacturers know this. There are specialized deodorants for nearly everything. Body odor of any kind is socially unacceptable; one reason that a less fastidious male partner usually endures a good deal of encouragement in personal hygiene habits from the woman in his life.

Strangely, and in contrast to this obsession, research says that women’s moods are improved when they are exposed to male sweat. UC Berkeley researchers, Noam Sobel and Claire Wyart conducted experiments in which women sniffed bottles containing androstadienone, a component in male sweat.

Compared to their response when sniffing a control odor (yeast), the women who sniffed androstadienone reported an improved mood and significantly higher sexual arousal, while their physiological response, including blood pressure, heart rate and breathing, also increased. This was consistent with previous studies.

Of course, the women were not told they were sniffing male sweat. There is such a taboo on bodily odors that one wonders how differently the women would have responded to the scent had they been told its origin.

Read the details of the study:
Male sweat boosts women’s hormone levels

A study of more than 65,000 women aged 50 to 79 concludes that women who live in areas with high levels of air pollution run a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

The women lived in 36 cities across the US and were followed for 9 years to see who would have a heart attack or stroke, require coronary bypass surgery or die from cardiovascular causes. Those living in the areas with the highest pollution were much more likely to have cardiovascular disease of some type.

The researchers link the amount of fine dust and soot particles in the air to the risk of heart disease. They are not sure of the mechanism but theorize that breathing in these particles, which can carry pollutant gases into the lungs, may cause hardening of the arteries, a precursor of heart disease.

The University of Washington study is published in the Feb 1 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Women In Polluted Areas At Higher Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease

A study published in the January issue of the Journal of Marketing tells us what all women already knew: when people are sad they tend to turn to “comfort” foods more often than when they are happy. Any woman who has spent her life experiencing the hormonal mood swings of PMS and menopause understands this very well.

Several studies compared the amount of buttered popcorn or grapes consumed by two groups, one that watched sad movies and read sad stories and another that watched an upbeat movie and read happy stories. Not surprisingly, those exposed to the sad movie and stories ate much more of the less healthy snack.

Okay, so we know that when we are down, we look for a quick shot of euphoria in junky but tasty snacks. The possibility of always remaining happy and upbeat is not a viable solution, there are times when everyone will experience some sadness or disappointment. So, what do we do about our tendency to self-medicate with unhealthy snacks?

Read the nutrition label, say the researchers. Those in the sad group that were exposed to the nutritional facts about the unhealthy snack curbed their consumption. Interestingly, those in the happy group didn’t eat less after reading nutritional information. They were already regulating their consumption by mood.

Personally, when I reach for the chocolate cake or greasy bacon cheeseburger, the last thing I want to think about is how unhealthy it is and how much I will suffer for it later. But the research indicates that when we do inform ourselves of the nutritional facts and consider the consequences, we can make better decisions - even when we are down in the dumps.

I am now going to reorganize my cupboards. I am going to turn all the food packages around so I see the nutrition labels first, rather than the tasty illustrations of the food inside.

Mood-Food Connection: We Eat More And Less-Healthy Comfort Foods When We Feel Down, Study Finds

In a brilliant stroke of fascism, Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow has suggested that larger size clothing ought to have obesity helpline numbers sewn into them. He even wants these warnings in children’s clothing!

Professor Sattar wants the government to intervene to stop fat people from being fat, on the premise that it costs too much money for healthcare for obese people.

No one would argue that being overweight can contribute to some health issues, but being singled out for punitive treatment because of weight could lead to much more serious mental health issues.

It used to be that in this politically correct society you had to show tolerance for everyone (except smokers, you can excoriate them all you like, it’s PC). Now it seems that fat people have been reduced to second-class citizenship and it’s righteous and good to be rude to them.

In other health news, a study being published in the British Medical Journal states that vegetarians have higher IQs than those who eat meat. The researchers say that the vegetarians were also more likely to have college degrees and high-powered jobs.

But is this cause or effect? Another point to consider is that “vegans” - vegetarians who also avoid dairy products - had lower IQ scores, proving that some animal protein must be good for you. There was no difference in IQ between vegetarians who shunned all meat and those who, although calling themselves vegetarian, still ate poultry and fish.

There were no plans to put labels in size 0 clothing encouraging the underweight wearer to visit a McDonald’s drive-thru soon, nor is anyone going to tell those intelligent people that if they eat fish and chicken they aren’t vegetarians at all.