Have you ever seen a couple that seems to be so opposite that you wondered what attracted them to each other in the first place? Well many times pheromones play a huge part in what attracts one person to another. Of course there is the appeal of what one might like in the physical makeup of a person, but sometimes that goes completely out the window and the person becomes attracted to someone for a reason they don't really understand. They just know they want to get to know the other person better.

Like a cloud pheromones surround each of us. They travel freely through the air and when our "cloud" bumps into another cloud we either get the feeling we want to get together with that person and make a bigger and better cloud or we just continue on our way.

Although, pheromones are picked up by our senses, they are not something we smell. It is more or less subliminal, which makes it all the more fascinating and mysterious. This may be the reason we sometimes can't understand why someone has an attraction to someone else, or why even though we find someone beautiful, we are simply not attracted to that person.

At times, the pheromone attraction can be subtle and at others it can be quite overwhelming. And, as unappealing as this may sound, studies have shown that the sexiest part of a man's body may very well be his armpits. With the amount of pheromone producing glands they have, the armpits play a key role in love, sex and lust. It is even believed that male pheromones can have an effect on a woman's menstrual cycle. Dr. Winifred Cutler the founder of the Athena Institute for Women's Wellness, Inc. conducted a study that demonstrated that when women with irregular menstrual cycles were exposed to male underarm sweat the cycles became more regular.

Another interesting study had several women smell a series of t-shirts that had been worn by men and contained their scent and pheromones. It was discovered that the scent most appealing to each woman was that of a man who had immune system genes that were the opposite to those of the woman being tested. It was concluded that a woman will naturally seek out a mate who has an immune makeup that, when mixed with their own in the reproduction cycle, will produce the optimum immune system in their offspring.

Although it has been discovered that pheromones play a big role in attraction, it is not the only chemical reaction that takes place when you meet that special someone. The whole body can go into overdrive and produce other hormones and neurochemicals. When we fall in love or lust, our brains begin to manufacture increased quantities of phenyl ethylamine (PEA), the feel good endorphin, creating a sort of buzz that increases the blood pressure and heart rate. PEA is truly a human love drug, making the sensation of meeting someone new exciting, and euphoric.

All this science is interesting to know, however it is not quite as romantic as believing that the tingly feeling you get from meeting the hunk at the bowling alley or the babe at the pub, is because he might be your soul mate. Who is to say, maybe the body's instincts are wired so that the pheromone cloud, in its search for a bigger and better cloud, is also finding the perfect soul mate

© Melt Magazine 2003