Smelling your partner can actually relieve stress

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Well here’s some quirky news for your day…Sniffing your mans t-shirt before a big test will help you feel A LOT less stressed.

It turns out that for women, you don’t even need to see or hear from your partner for them to help you feel less nervous or anxious as their manly musk is strong enough to reduce stress…who knew?

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You learn something new every day…

It all sounds rather primitive, but new psychology research from the University of British Columbia found 96 opposite sex couples to test the effects of the male scent on women. The study found that our natural body odour has some incredibly helpful side effects.

In this study men were given a clean shirt which they were to wear for 24 hours. The men testers had to avoid anything that might affect their natural scent such as deodorant, smoking and certain kinds of foods.

The shirts were then frozen so as to preserve the scent.

The women were then put under two of the most stressful situations I can think of; a mock job interview and a maths test. Before the stressful situations they were assigned random t-shirts to smell that may or may not have been worn by their partner.

Another fun fact, it was the women who acted as the ‘smellers’ because we have a better sense of smell…I am learning so much today.

The study tested cortisol levels in the women’s saliva, which is the main indicator of stress, before and after the test. The women who had to smell a stranger’s scent before the stress inducing situation, all had higher cortisol levels.

The women who lucked out and smelt their partners shirt, and not a randoms, had lower cortisol levels before and after the stress inducing test.

Of those women, the one’s who correctly identified their partners smell from the random t-shirt smell, tested for even lower cortisol levels, meaning that when women know they are smelling their lover they will be at their most calm. But, it also means that you don’t even have to realise it is your partner that you’re smelling, the smell of your partner alone is so unique to you that it can still reduce stress.

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If you’re single? Never fear, maybe just buy the lynx deodorant he used to wear and give it a little spray, probs will have the same effect.

Milly Haddrick

Contributor

Milly is passionate about the issues and concerns of women navigating their way through the world of sex, dating and relationships, with a side passion for brie, dark chocolate and red wine.

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