March 12, 2009 • 21 mins
For thousands of years humankind has pursued the enhancement of sexual pleasure and performance through a plethora of medicines and practices -- but how many aphrodisiacs actually work? Listen and find out in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Chuck Bryant. Welcome yourself, buddy.
(00:20):
Welcome Josh, Thank you, Chuck. Sure that felt pretty good? Actually,
did it? Just try it? Try it? Welcome yourself. Welcome Chuck.
How do you feel relaxed? Good? Good? Yeah, it has
a nice effect. It does you know what it doesn't
have a nice effect. It depends on what you're talking about. Okay,
well I'll just tell you. Okay, Spanish fly. But it
(00:41):
turns out I did a little research on this. Um
I found out that Spanish flight is not even a fly.
It's a type of beetle, true and the active ingredient
it's actually crushed up, dried and crushed up beatles powdered
correct powder. And the reason they powder the beatles is
because they're trying to get to this um, this acid
(01:02):
that the beatle emits when it's um scared, when it's
it's threatened. And this acid, actually, you know, has long
been thought to create amorousness in people. But that's bunk. Correct.
I can tell you the reason they they they thought
they were aroused. They're actually confusing euro genital tract irritation.
(01:24):
This stuff actually burns from the inside out. Yeah, and
it can actually cause kidney damage and I think convulsions
and death. No, Spanish fly, you should never take this
for any reason. No, so, of course, you know, as
as you know I I'd like to do lots of research.
It's like my thing is right, Um, I started researching
(01:45):
aphrodisiacs in general, and here we are at this podcast
intro there, thank you. I believe the word comes from
the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. Is that right? Yeah,
that's what I hear. And an aphrodisiac, by definition, is
an element that evokes or stimulates, uh, sexual desire. Yeah,
we should probably make the distinction because I think a
(02:05):
lot of people think aphrodisiacs um are are performance sexual
performance enhancing compound or whatever, right, and not true at all,
Like a viagra would definitely not be considered an aphrodisiac. No, no,
so uh, nor would Spanish fly right. Correct. Well, let's
talk about sexual arousal chuck, Okay, all right, let's just
keep it cool, Chuck, if I had a dime for
(02:25):
every time he told me that I would keep it cooler.
Let's talk about sexual arousal keeping cool, okay, gotcha? Um? So,
medically speaking, sexual arousal um begins when we take in
something through one of our senses, um, that that we
find sexually stimulating, right, yes, And then all of a sudden,
the limbic lobe kicks in. Right, That's where it all starts.
(02:49):
This is part of the brain's reward center, and it's activated,
and uh, it says, hey, I am sexually stimulated. So
I'm gonna send a neurological signal through the nervous system
down to the blood vessels in the pelvic area, and
it says open, sesame, and the blood vessels open and
all this blood comes rushing in. And even better, because
(03:10):
this wouldn't do a whole lot, the blood vessels close
behind this this influx of blood, so the door shuts,
essentially keeping the blood well not trapped. But well, yeah,
I say, trapped is fun? Okay, I guess that just
has a negative implication, right. Well, whether whether it's trapped
or not, what you got is an erect penis and
(03:31):
an erection in women as well. Yeah. I was surprised
to find this as well. The clearter is actually goes
undergoes a very similar process. And there you have it.
So all of a sudden you are turned on and
basically ready for sex. But that's not it. There's there's
other physiological responses going on when you're when you're sexually aroused, right,
that's what I'm told. Can you fill me in on those?
(03:52):
I certainly can. Well, your heart rate increases, UM, and
pleasure producing chemicals like nora, epinephron and dopamine are released
into the brain and it's it's go time, that's right. Yeah,
So that that's sexual arousal and UM. For an aphrodisiac
to work, it would have to produce sexual arousal, right,
(04:15):
And it could do this in one of two ways, correct,
through the mind, like basically recreating that or stimulating that
right absolutely. For instance, something that might increase blood flow
to your sex organs. It might simulate feelings of intercourse,
so that has the effect of creating desire, right, okay,
or it can also just go straight to the horse's mouth,
(04:36):
right so to speak. Go ahead, Well it can it
can create increased circulation, increased circulatory flow in the genitals,
and that's actually chemical physical reaction that takes place. Right.
The problem is is UM as far as our beloved
f d A UM Food and Drug Administration. Sure, yeah,
(04:56):
thank you, thank you for that. I was trying to
come up with a peanut butter salmon elogy but couldn't
maybe too soon. Actually, UM, they they they don't recognize
any compound, any UM, any chemical at all as an aphrodisiac, right,
I mean, they've done studies over the years, plenty of them,
but they can't absolutely say with certainty that one thing
(05:18):
is an aphrodisiac or not because the libido is a
hard to define and be even harder to study. Well,
I was also interested to find out, UM, we're not
entirely certain how testosterone and estrogen factor into this. UM.
It turns out that, you know, we know that testosterone
has an impact on sexual arousal because men who UM
(05:41):
have trouble getting sexual or men who have low testosterone
production have trouble getting sexually aroute. So we know it
factors that just don't quite know where UM and testosterone,
you know, usually associate estrogen with women. UM. But testosterone
has an effect on their sexual arousal as well. Women
who participated in a two thousand study at the University
(06:03):
of you trecked Um. They gave them a testosterone sublingually
and they found that um genital arousal um increased dramatically
really in women with low libido. Yeah. Interesting, So they
didn't they didn't report an increase in sexual arousal. But
you know, by extension, you could say, you know, right, well,
I do know that testosterone therapy is something that men
(06:25):
undergo that have a low libido, whether it's a cream
or I think they have injections, or if they like
to get in bar fights, that's why they do that too. Okay,
so the FDA doesn't recognize anything, but there's still plenty
of people out there who think certain foods, certain extracts,
plants um are aphrodisiacs. And this is this is definitely new.
(06:48):
Like some of these these ideas go really far back.
How far back? Well, it turns out that the Persians
were fairly randy folks um and and we're talking ancient
Persia Um. I believe pre Karma Sutra, which came out
in uh oh, I don't know I'm just gonna go
ahead and invite some viewer mail and say the sixth
century a d. Right, So the Persians were they had
(07:12):
one belief that honey it was an aphrodisiac. Yeah, and
apparently it has no uh no active ingredient in it
whatsoever that could produce an aphrodisiac effect. Um. But there
is an interesting little tidbit in there, isn't there. I
think you're about the honeymoon. Yes. Yes, they would drink
honey for a month after they got married, and that
(07:37):
was called the honeymoonth which later became honeymoon. Is that right?
And if you go by the lunar calendars the ancient
Persians did, then a moon from full moon to full
moon is a month. So yeah, honeymoon and even further
back I think, um, ancient Rome. Yeah, well that's not
further back, that's about the same time. Yeah, they were
big into aphrodisiacs. Um. I think one of their favorites
(08:00):
is oysters, right, Yeah, Oysters usually tops the list. When
people are going to make a top ten list of aphrodisiacs,
people always put oysters at the top. And one of
the reasons those a few reasons, Um, one of the
reasons this is loaded with zinc and zinc. If you
don't have enough zinc is a man, then your sperm
count and your fertility are affected. And it also has
(08:21):
a bunch of iron, and an iron deficiency could lead
you to be too tired, which doesn't usually lend itself
to uh to love making as it were. And a
final reason, and I think this might segue over to
something else, is that a lot of aphrodisiacs are phallus's,
that is, they resemble a sex organ. Well, an oyster
(08:43):
is has been said that it resembles the female sex organs.
And I know another one on the list was avocados
or supposedly an aprodesias because they in fact, I think
that's known as the testicle tree in ancient Rome because
they resemble the man's testicle aztecs aztecs. Yeah, okay, yeah,
they grow in pairs in their wrinkly and that people
(09:06):
considered avocados um aphrodisiacs, right, And that's a common theme,
I know, you know, um it's something that just resembles
a sex organ. Uh, you know, carrots, cucumbers, bananas, bananas,
um figs. Figs are said to resemble the female genitalia. Interesting.
Um so, yeah, all these things have long been considered
(09:28):
across cultures sometimes to be aphrodisiacs. Right, It's hard for
me to think that our ancient brothers and sisters were
very smart when you hear about things like this. No,
they were fairly superstitious folcus. Yeah, I mean it just
sounds silly at this point. You know, avocados look like testicle,
so if I eat them, that will make me viril.
Well even even more direct than that, like not they
(09:51):
they would also eat things that didn't just remind them
of sex organs. They would actually eat sex organs of
other animals. Yeah, that's the one I was a little
blown away by. So, like, it makes you wonder, like
how many countless um And usually it was an animal
that was known for its prolific um uh copulation, maybe
um orrility or strength. So yeah, it makes you wonder
(10:12):
how many um countless tiger and rabbit and bull penises
were eaten over the years, you know. Uh, and still
it goes on today. Um, there's actually again non FDA
approved drugs outside of the US that still grind up
these things. I don't think anybody's dining on them any longer.
But yeah, I was one of your favorites, right yeah,
(10:33):
um there, I guess we should say that there are
some things out there that could conceivably be afrons acts.
They could produce sexual arousal right right, they actually affect
affect you chemically, they had. Yeah, if it's enough to
actually I think that's where the gray area is exactly
like it's there. But could it really have any you know,
(10:53):
noticeable effect? Um? And one of those is jen Sing
And there was a study that they they they I
don't remember who conducted it, but they tested men, they
gave them Jensing and then they tested them, uh using
the mean International Index of erectile function, and uh it
(11:16):
was shown to increased scores. So enough said, Jensing works.
Have Yeah, it's all I saw mood booster two right, Yeah,
I think it's an energy booster. Well stuff which is
actually pretty tasty. Is it a lot of the afrodisiacs.
They say it may not be a direct like chemical
correlation to your you know, pulvic region, but it'll do
(11:36):
things like give you energy and a sort of a
two B two. See, if it gives you energy, then
you're more likely to be aroused and in the mood
for intercourse, whereas to something SAPs your energy, you're going
to be you know, like if you eat a a
lasagna by yourself, it's probably not gonna inspire you to
unless you're Henring the eighth or something. I guess right, Well, yeah,
and you make a valid point. Um, it's just that
(11:58):
science hates it when you jump from A to C exactly.
You know, even if there is a direct correlation or
causation that they really like to get that be in
place first, you know. Um, but yeah, so and Jensing
is not the only one. There's there's other Like you said,
oysters are full of zinc and iron and other stuff. Um.
And chocolate actually, which is always associated with love and romance.
(12:22):
Um that it actually has final ethel mean and uh serotonin.
So these things are actually an abundance supply. And we
can't ingest these things. Our body produces these naturally, but um,
we can ingest them and react to them conceivably. It
makes you wonder how much chocolate you'd have to eat
to really get off, like perhaps like several goblets full. Josh,
(12:43):
I think you're talking about Mona Zuma, who was the
Aztec ruler who reportedly it would drink like fifty goblets
of chocolate a day to increase his sexual desire. I
cannot believe he died from being murdered and beheaded right
then exploding. Definitely chocolate. Oh, Jake, Should we talk about smell?
(13:04):
I think we should because I gotta tell you, if
I put stock into any um afrodisiac, it would have
to be it would have to have something to do
with smell. Yeah, it's not always food, it's not always taste.
I know they say that like music and exercise can
be afrodisiacs. Sure, well, yeah, I can tell you, um
that swimming just the release of endorphins. Actually is it
(13:24):
definitely increases um interest. Interesting is that Steri? It is
very very well done there, josh uh. If we're talking smell,
um Dr Hirsch, Dr Alan Hirsch of the Smell and
Taste Treatment and Research Center in Chicago. Yeah, that's a
good center. Um. He did a study that looked at
different smells, and as we were talking about the other day,
(13:47):
you like to say he he spent a career wafting
smells under men's noses to see what stimulated them and
measuring their penises and right at the same time, and
he found some interesting things. Um, cheese pizza, for instance,
increased blood flow to the penis by five percent, buttered
popcorn by nine and then the one that really shocked me, lavender,
(14:10):
and then pumpkin pie actually increased blood flow by which
that's pretty big. You could overcome a lot of sluggishness
with with that much blood infusion, right, But that kind
of to me. And Thanksgiving was when you pumpkin pile
lot times. That flies right in the face of eating
turkey and watching football and stuff in your belly. And actually,
(14:30):
pumpkin pie didn't just have an effect on men, had
a big effect on women. But the top or the biggest,
the biggest one actually is a combination of sense that
aroused women is a combination of the horrid and discussing
black licorice flavored good and plenty candies mixed with cucumber smell.
(14:53):
It drives the women, Patty. So look, story short, I
keep those things in my glove compartment a cucumber garden,
and you're yard, Yes, actually it's growing in my back seat. Wow,
that's I have nothing else to say. I don't think
there's anything else. Take but I do, actually I do
have more to say. Let's hit pheromones up real quick.
Oh yeah, this is you're all over this. So pheromones
basically have long been identified as like a way that
(15:17):
maybe we attract one another. Remember that awesome study you
told me about. I can't remember what podcast it was,
but they they had women um wearing shirts for like
a week and then they had guys smell the shirts
to determine their level of attraction by smell. Right, yeah,
and it was right on the money. Yeah. Well, if
if it was right on the money, then they really
(15:37):
looked out because you need a m a a an
extrasensory organ that not all of us humans have a
memoroe nasal organ. Never heard of it? Okay, Well, basically
it's like it's like an addition to our to our
old factory nerve or noses basically, and we can pick
out packets of information from arimones. Uh I don't know
(16:02):
if we can necessarily, that's never been proven, but in
the animal kingdom it's very prevalent. Uh so. And they
pheromones are produced and emitted through urine, right, So if
your dog e spray somewhere and then another dog comes
along and just can't stop sniffing. What the other dogs
doing is actually determining the health of the uh, the
(16:22):
urinating dogs um immune system and also determining if it
would be a good match to produce offspring, because apparently,
ultimately what you want when you mate with another persons
as far as animalistically speaking, um, you are looking for
somebody with a compatible but opposite immune system so that
(16:45):
the offspring you produce has the resistance to the most
disease as possible. Well, and the same in humans. That's
what the original smell study from the other podcast, right, Um,
but yeah, the problem is not all of us have
that vemarone nasal organ um. But there was a study
that that what we emit pheromones in our sweat, by
the way, are urine, which is good for us, because yeah,
(17:08):
it'd be we'd have a different society if if that
were the case. Well, there was a study. It was
a kind of an informal study. Um, and uh, these
guys sprayed um pheromones on one member of a set
of twin girls and popped the two of them side
by side at a bar on a Saturday night, right,
and waited to see if there was a difference in
(17:30):
which one was hit on more. The one that got
the boost of pheromones was picked up three times more
than our identical, yet untreated twin sister. So the girl
that was laced with pheromones very cool. So pheromones aphrodisiacs.
I feel like I've gotten a lot off my chest, right.
I know they a lot of people believe in ephrodesiacs,
(17:53):
but the scientific community, the FDA, as you said, does
not support it. And the scientific community thinks there's also
likely that it just could be a placebo. If you
if you think you eat an oyster and you're gonna
feel a little more inspired, uh sexually, then you're gonna
eat the oyster and feel inspired. And hey, you know
what if that if, even if you're just fooling yourself whatever,
I say that and justifies the means in that case
(18:15):
placebo's work. Yeah, well good so, Chuck, thanks for doing
that with me. Um. I think it's listener mail time.
Hold your horses, Josh, it's not quite time yet. We
have to give a little shout out to our blog.
We have a new blog on the website. As you know,
how self works Dot com and our blog is called
stuff you Should Know appropriately and you and I each
(18:37):
post once to once a day. We we try and
scour the news world for interesting tidbits that aren't quite
up to par for an entire show episode. And we
want to get fans interacting and kind of chatting about
these things. Yeah, you can. You can access that through
the home page at how stuff works dot com. Right, yeah,
leave comments, And anybody who wants to see Chuck in
his famous cool guy flat cap is a fine fine
(19:00):
photograph of him on every post. Actually, and yours as well.
Thank you, Chull. That's a good photo of you. Well,
thanks a lot of appreciated. So the goofy one that
was written so now okay now is a listener male time. Yes,
let's get on with it, Josh, I think we're gonna
pull the train into Limerick junction. Yeah, I liked. I
(19:23):
like this trend. We went from Haikus the limericks, I
don't know what's next, I don't know and uh an
epic poem maybe. No, we're gonna get the iliad from
fim listening now, just a couple of limericks here. Ryan
of Victoria, British Columbia, fine Canadian friend. Have you ever
been there? No, that's one of my favorite cities on
(19:45):
the planet. I've heard it's awesome. It is awesome. It's
very cool. Everybody's very friendly. It's like a tiny city
with like mini skyscrapers and everything, and it's just awesome.
It's prettish Columbia too, So sure nice, all right. Ryan
has this to say, as I wore an uncomfortable sweater,
I sat down and wrote you this letter. Josh and
Chuck love Hi Kus, but Hiku's make me snooze because
(20:07):
we all know that limericks are better. Yes, that's a
good one, Ryan, And the final limerick today is from
Brendan Franklin of Tucson, Arizona, another cool town college town.
The podcasting host Josh and Chuck and the cast that
they host or don't suck. They tell me how stuff
works and as one of the perks, I'm no longer
(20:28):
an ignorant schmucke and Brendan, we agree, you're not an
ignoran schmuck. You're you also may be the first person
on the plant ever you schmuck in Limerick. Oh no
way huge and Limerick clan is it I'm not very
familiar with him. I guess I should say I'm surprised
that we haven't gotten any dirty limericks yet, though, although
now I think we could probably expect true. I'm just
(20:49):
happy my name rhymes with schmuck. Yeah, well we knew
that already. Yes, So, if you want to send Chuck
and I a limerick not a high kup um, or
if you just want to say hi, or if you'd
like to just congratulate us on making it through how
averrodcacs work without humiliating ourselves by cracking up um, you
can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how
(21:14):
stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com.
HM brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Chuck Bryant. Welcome yourself, buddy.
(00:20):
Welcome Josh, Thank you, Chuck. Sure that felt pretty good? Actually,
did it? Just try it? Try it? Welcome yourself. Welcome Chuck.
How do you feel relaxed? Good? Good? Yeah, it has
a nice effect. It does you know what it doesn't
have a nice effect. It depends on what you're talking about. Okay,
well I'll just tell you. Okay, Spanish fly. But it
(00:41):
turns out I did a little research on this. Um
I found out that Spanish flight is not even a fly.
It's a type of beetle, true and the active ingredient
it's actually crushed up, dried and crushed up beatles powdered
correct powder. And the reason they powder the beatles is
because they're trying to get to this um, this acid
(01:02):
that the beatle emits when it's um scared, when it's
it's threatened. And this acid, actually, you know, has long
been thought to create amorousness in people. But that's bunk. Correct.
I can tell you the reason they they they thought
they were aroused. They're actually confusing euro genital tract irritation.
(01:24):
This stuff actually burns from the inside out. Yeah, and
it can actually cause kidney damage and I think convulsions
and death. No, Spanish fly, you should never take this
for any reason. No, so, of course, you know, as
as you know I I'd like to do lots of research.
It's like my thing is right, Um, I started researching
(01:45):
aphrodisiacs in general, and here we are at this podcast
intro there, thank you. I believe the word comes from
the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. Is that right? Yeah,
that's what I hear. And an aphrodisiac, by definition, is
an element that evokes or stimulates, uh, sexual desire. Yeah,
we should probably make the distinction because I think a
(02:05):
lot of people think aphrodisiacs um are are performance sexual
performance enhancing compound or whatever, right, and not true at all,
Like a viagra would definitely not be considered an aphrodisiac. No, no,
so uh, nor would Spanish fly right. Correct. Well, let's
talk about sexual arousal chuck, Okay, all right, let's just
keep it cool, Chuck, if I had a dime for
(02:25):
every time he told me that I would keep it cooler.
Let's talk about sexual arousal keeping cool, okay, gotcha? Um? So,
medically speaking, sexual arousal um begins when we take in
something through one of our senses, um, that that we
find sexually stimulating, right, yes, And then all of a sudden,
the limbic lobe kicks in. Right, That's where it all starts.
(02:49):
This is part of the brain's reward center, and it's activated,
and uh, it says, hey, I am sexually stimulated. So
I'm gonna send a neurological signal through the nervous system
down to the blood vessels in the pelvic area, and
it says open, sesame, and the blood vessels open and
all this blood comes rushing in. And even better, because
(03:10):
this wouldn't do a whole lot, the blood vessels close
behind this this influx of blood, so the door shuts,
essentially keeping the blood well not trapped. But well, yeah,
I say, trapped is fun? Okay, I guess that just
has a negative implication, right. Well, whether whether it's trapped
or not, what you got is an erect penis and
(03:31):
an erection in women as well. Yeah. I was surprised
to find this as well. The clearter is actually goes
undergoes a very similar process. And there you have it.
So all of a sudden you are turned on and
basically ready for sex. But that's not it. There's there's
other physiological responses going on when you're when you're sexually aroused, right,
that's what I'm told. Can you fill me in on those?
(03:52):
I certainly can. Well, your heart rate increases, UM, and
pleasure producing chemicals like nora, epinephron and dopamine are released
into the brain and it's it's go time, that's right. Yeah,
So that that's sexual arousal and UM. For an aphrodisiac
to work, it would have to produce sexual arousal, right,
(04:15):
And it could do this in one of two ways, correct,
through the mind, like basically recreating that or stimulating that
right absolutely. For instance, something that might increase blood flow
to your sex organs. It might simulate feelings of intercourse,
so that has the effect of creating desire, right, okay,
or it can also just go straight to the horse's mouth,
(04:36):
right so to speak. Go ahead, Well it can it
can create increased circulation, increased circulatory flow in the genitals,
and that's actually chemical physical reaction that takes place. Right.
The problem is is UM as far as our beloved
f d A UM Food and Drug Administration. Sure, yeah,
(04:56):
thank you, thank you for that. I was trying to
come up with a peanut butter salmon elogy but couldn't
maybe too soon. Actually, UM, they they they don't recognize
any compound, any UM, any chemical at all as an aphrodisiac, right,
I mean, they've done studies over the years, plenty of them,
but they can't absolutely say with certainty that one thing
(05:18):
is an aphrodisiac or not because the libido is a
hard to define and be even harder to study. Well,
I was also interested to find out, UM, we're not
entirely certain how testosterone and estrogen factor into this. UM.
It turns out that, you know, we know that testosterone
has an impact on sexual arousal because men who UM
(05:41):
have trouble getting sexual or men who have low testosterone
production have trouble getting sexually aroute. So we know it
factors that just don't quite know where UM and testosterone,
you know, usually associate estrogen with women. UM. But testosterone
has an effect on their sexual arousal as well. Women
who participated in a two thousand study at the University
(06:03):
of you trecked Um. They gave them a testosterone sublingually
and they found that um genital arousal um increased dramatically
really in women with low libido. Yeah. Interesting, So they
didn't they didn't report an increase in sexual arousal. But
you know, by extension, you could say, you know, right, well,
I do know that testosterone therapy is something that men
(06:25):
undergo that have a low libido, whether it's a cream
or I think they have injections, or if they like
to get in bar fights, that's why they do that too. Okay,
so the FDA doesn't recognize anything, but there's still plenty
of people out there who think certain foods, certain extracts,
plants um are aphrodisiacs. And this is this is definitely new.
(06:48):
Like some of these these ideas go really far back.
How far back? Well, it turns out that the Persians
were fairly randy folks um and and we're talking ancient
Persia Um. I believe pre Karma Sutra, which came out
in uh oh, I don't know I'm just gonna go
ahead and invite some viewer mail and say the sixth
century a d. Right, So the Persians were they had
(07:12):
one belief that honey it was an aphrodisiac. Yeah, and
apparently it has no uh no active ingredient in it
whatsoever that could produce an aphrodisiac effect. Um. But there
is an interesting little tidbit in there, isn't there. I
think you're about the honeymoon. Yes. Yes, they would drink
honey for a month after they got married, and that
(07:37):
was called the honeymoonth which later became honeymoon. Is that right?
And if you go by the lunar calendars the ancient
Persians did, then a moon from full moon to full
moon is a month. So yeah, honeymoon and even further
back I think, um, ancient Rome. Yeah, well that's not
further back, that's about the same time. Yeah, they were
big into aphrodisiacs. Um. I think one of their favorites
(08:00):
is oysters, right, Yeah, Oysters usually tops the list. When
people are going to make a top ten list of aphrodisiacs,
people always put oysters at the top. And one of
the reasons those a few reasons, Um, one of the
reasons this is loaded with zinc and zinc. If you
don't have enough zinc is a man, then your sperm
count and your fertility are affected. And it also has
(08:21):
a bunch of iron, and an iron deficiency could lead
you to be too tired, which doesn't usually lend itself
to uh to love making as it were. And a
final reason, and I think this might segue over to
something else, is that a lot of aphrodisiacs are phallus's,
that is, they resemble a sex organ. Well, an oyster
(08:43):
is has been said that it resembles the female sex organs.
And I know another one on the list was avocados
or supposedly an aprodesias because they in fact, I think
that's known as the testicle tree in ancient Rome because
they resemble the man's testicle aztecs aztecs. Yeah, okay, yeah,
they grow in pairs in their wrinkly and that people
(09:06):
considered avocados um aphrodisiacs, right, And that's a common theme,
I know, you know, um it's something that just resembles
a sex organ. Uh, you know, carrots, cucumbers, bananas, bananas,
um figs. Figs are said to resemble the female genitalia. Interesting.
Um so, yeah, all these things have long been considered
(09:28):
across cultures sometimes to be aphrodisiacs. Right, It's hard for
me to think that our ancient brothers and sisters were
very smart when you hear about things like this. No,
they were fairly superstitious folcus. Yeah, I mean it just
sounds silly at this point. You know, avocados look like testicle,
so if I eat them, that will make me viril.
Well even even more direct than that, like not they
(09:51):
they would also eat things that didn't just remind them
of sex organs. They would actually eat sex organs of
other animals. Yeah, that's the one I was a little
blown away by. So, like, it makes you wonder, like
how many countless um And usually it was an animal
that was known for its prolific um uh copulation, maybe
um orrility or strength. So yeah, it makes you wonder
(10:12):
how many um countless tiger and rabbit and bull penises
were eaten over the years, you know. Uh, and still
it goes on today. Um, there's actually again non FDA
approved drugs outside of the US that still grind up
these things. I don't think anybody's dining on them any longer.
But yeah, I was one of your favorites, right yeah,
(10:33):
um there, I guess we should say that there are
some things out there that could conceivably be afrons acts.
They could produce sexual arousal right right, they actually affect
affect you chemically, they had. Yeah, if it's enough to
actually I think that's where the gray area is exactly
like it's there. But could it really have any you know,
(10:53):
noticeable effect? Um? And one of those is jen Sing
And there was a study that they they they I
don't remember who conducted it, but they tested men, they
gave them Jensing and then they tested them, uh using
the mean International Index of erectile function, and uh it
(11:16):
was shown to increased scores. So enough said, Jensing works.
Have Yeah, it's all I saw mood booster two right, Yeah,
I think it's an energy booster. Well stuff which is
actually pretty tasty. Is it a lot of the afrodisiacs.
They say it may not be a direct like chemical
correlation to your you know, pulvic region, but it'll do
(11:36):
things like give you energy and a sort of a
two B two. See, if it gives you energy, then
you're more likely to be aroused and in the mood
for intercourse, whereas to something SAPs your energy, you're going
to be you know, like if you eat a a
lasagna by yourself, it's probably not gonna inspire you to
unless you're Henring the eighth or something. I guess right, Well, yeah,
and you make a valid point. Um, it's just that
(11:58):
science hates it when you jump from A to C exactly.
You know, even if there is a direct correlation or
causation that they really like to get that be in
place first, you know. Um, but yeah, so and Jensing
is not the only one. There's there's other Like you said,
oysters are full of zinc and iron and other stuff. Um.
And chocolate actually, which is always associated with love and romance.
(12:22):
Um that it actually has final ethel mean and uh serotonin.
So these things are actually an abundance supply. And we
can't ingest these things. Our body produces these naturally, but um,
we can ingest them and react to them conceivably. It
makes you wonder how much chocolate you'd have to eat
to really get off, like perhaps like several goblets full. Josh,
(12:43):
I think you're talking about Mona Zuma, who was the
Aztec ruler who reportedly it would drink like fifty goblets
of chocolate a day to increase his sexual desire. I
cannot believe he died from being murdered and beheaded right
then exploding. Definitely chocolate. Oh, Jake, Should we talk about smell?
(13:04):
I think we should because I gotta tell you, if
I put stock into any um afrodisiac, it would have
to be it would have to have something to do
with smell. Yeah, it's not always food, it's not always taste.
I know they say that like music and exercise can
be afrodisiacs. Sure, well, yeah, I can tell you, um
that swimming just the release of endorphins. Actually is it
(13:24):
definitely increases um interest. Interesting is that Steri? It is
very very well done there, josh uh. If we're talking smell,
um Dr Hirsch, Dr Alan Hirsch of the Smell and
Taste Treatment and Research Center in Chicago. Yeah, that's a
good center. Um. He did a study that looked at
different smells, and as we were talking about the other day,
(13:47):
you like to say he he spent a career wafting
smells under men's noses to see what stimulated them and
measuring their penises and right at the same time, and
he found some interesting things. Um, cheese pizza, for instance,
increased blood flow to the penis by five percent, buttered
popcorn by nine and then the one that really shocked me, lavender,
(14:10):
and then pumpkin pie actually increased blood flow by which
that's pretty big. You could overcome a lot of sluggishness
with with that much blood infusion, right, But that kind
of to me. And Thanksgiving was when you pumpkin pile
lot times. That flies right in the face of eating
turkey and watching football and stuff in your belly. And actually,
(14:30):
pumpkin pie didn't just have an effect on men, had
a big effect on women. But the top or the biggest,
the biggest one actually is a combination of sense that
aroused women is a combination of the horrid and discussing
black licorice flavored good and plenty candies mixed with cucumber smell.
(14:53):
It drives the women, Patty. So look, story short, I
keep those things in my glove compartment a cucumber garden,
and you're yard, Yes, actually it's growing in my back seat. Wow,
that's I have nothing else to say. I don't think
there's anything else. Take but I do, actually I do
have more to say. Let's hit pheromones up real quick.
Oh yeah, this is you're all over this. So pheromones
basically have long been identified as like a way that
(15:17):
maybe we attract one another. Remember that awesome study you
told me about. I can't remember what podcast it was,
but they they had women um wearing shirts for like
a week and then they had guys smell the shirts
to determine their level of attraction by smell. Right, yeah,
and it was right on the money. Yeah. Well, if
if it was right on the money, then they really
(15:37):
looked out because you need a m a a an
extrasensory organ that not all of us humans have a
memoroe nasal organ. Never heard of it? Okay, Well, basically
it's like it's like an addition to our to our
old factory nerve or noses basically, and we can pick
out packets of information from arimones. Uh I don't know
(16:02):
if we can necessarily, that's never been proven, but in
the animal kingdom it's very prevalent. Uh so. And they
pheromones are produced and emitted through urine, right, So if
your dog e spray somewhere and then another dog comes
along and just can't stop sniffing. What the other dogs
doing is actually determining the health of the uh, the
(16:22):
urinating dogs um immune system and also determining if it
would be a good match to produce offspring, because apparently,
ultimately what you want when you mate with another persons
as far as animalistically speaking, um, you are looking for
somebody with a compatible but opposite immune system so that
(16:45):
the offspring you produce has the resistance to the most
disease as possible. Well, and the same in humans. That's
what the original smell study from the other podcast, right, Um,
but yeah, the problem is not all of us have
that vemarone nasal organ um. But there was a study
that that what we emit pheromones in our sweat, by
the way, are urine, which is good for us, because yeah,
(17:08):
it'd be we'd have a different society if if that
were the case. Well, there was a study. It was
a kind of an informal study. Um, and uh, these
guys sprayed um pheromones on one member of a set
of twin girls and popped the two of them side
by side at a bar on a Saturday night, right,
and waited to see if there was a difference in
(17:30):
which one was hit on more. The one that got
the boost of pheromones was picked up three times more
than our identical, yet untreated twin sister. So the girl
that was laced with pheromones very cool. So pheromones aphrodisiacs.
I feel like I've gotten a lot off my chest, right.
I know they a lot of people believe in ephrodesiacs,
(17:53):
but the scientific community, the FDA, as you said, does
not support it. And the scientific community thinks there's also
likely that it just could be a placebo. If you
if you think you eat an oyster and you're gonna
feel a little more inspired, uh sexually, then you're gonna
eat the oyster and feel inspired. And hey, you know
what if that if, even if you're just fooling yourself whatever,
I say that and justifies the means in that case
(18:15):
placebo's work. Yeah, well good so, Chuck, thanks for doing
that with me. Um. I think it's listener mail time.
Hold your horses, Josh, it's not quite time yet. We
have to give a little shout out to our blog.
We have a new blog on the website. As you know,
how self works Dot com and our blog is called
stuff you Should Know appropriately and you and I each
(18:37):
post once to once a day. We we try and
scour the news world for interesting tidbits that aren't quite
up to par for an entire show episode. And we
want to get fans interacting and kind of chatting about
these things. Yeah, you can. You can access that through
the home page at how stuff works dot com. Right, yeah,
leave comments, And anybody who wants to see Chuck in
his famous cool guy flat cap is a fine fine
(19:00):
photograph of him on every post. Actually, and yours as well.
Thank you, Chull. That's a good photo of you. Well,
thanks a lot of appreciated. So the goofy one that
was written so now okay now is a listener male time. Yes,
let's get on with it, Josh, I think we're gonna
pull the train into Limerick junction. Yeah, I liked. I
(19:23):
like this trend. We went from Haikus the limericks, I
don't know what's next, I don't know and uh an
epic poem maybe. No, we're gonna get the iliad from
fim listening now, just a couple of limericks here. Ryan
of Victoria, British Columbia, fine Canadian friend. Have you ever
been there? No, that's one of my favorite cities on
(19:45):
the planet. I've heard it's awesome. It is awesome. It's
very cool. Everybody's very friendly. It's like a tiny city
with like mini skyscrapers and everything, and it's just awesome.
It's prettish Columbia too, So sure nice, all right. Ryan
has this to say, as I wore an uncomfortable sweater,
I sat down and wrote you this letter. Josh and
Chuck love Hi Kus, but Hiku's make me snooze because
(20:07):
we all know that limericks are better. Yes, that's a
good one, Ryan, And the final limerick today is from
Brendan Franklin of Tucson, Arizona, another cool town college town.
The podcasting host Josh and Chuck and the cast that
they host or don't suck. They tell me how stuff
works and as one of the perks, I'm no longer
(20:28):
an ignorant schmucke and Brendan, we agree, you're not an
ignoran schmuck. You're you also may be the first person
on the plant ever you schmuck in Limerick. Oh no
way huge and Limerick clan is it I'm not very
familiar with him. I guess I should say I'm surprised
that we haven't gotten any dirty limericks yet, though, although
now I think we could probably expect true. I'm just
(20:49):
happy my name rhymes with schmuck. Yeah, well we knew
that already. Yes, So, if you want to send Chuck
and I a limerick not a high kup um, or
if you just want to say hi, or if you'd
like to just congratulate us on making it through how
averrodcacs work without humiliating ourselves by cracking up um, you
can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how
(21:14):
stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com.
HM brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
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