An Introduction to Pheromones
You may have heard of the silk moth that can detect
a female's presence from miles away. This is possible
because the moth, like most animals, has the ability
to detect pheromones, which are chemicals produced
by other animals.Technically speaking, a pheromone
is an odorous chemical produced by an animal that
affects the behavior of another animal. Some of
the many behaviors affected by animal pheromones
include, attracting or finding a mate, reproduction
cycles, marking territory, warning of danger,
and showing the way to food.
Because pheromones can be influential on other
living being they are probably one of the most
ancient forms of communication.Not unlike the
hormones we produce in our own body that act as
chemical messengers from one cell to another,
pheromones work outside the body to send messages
to other animals. From microorganisms to insects
to mammals, almost all animals seem to have the
ability to produce and detect these chemical messengers.
In mammals, detection of pheromones is the job
of the vomeronasal organ, which is two small tubes
behind the nostril.Most, but not all, pheromones
are species-specific, meaning that you don't detect
horse pheromones and they don't react to human
pheromones.
Though we detect pheromones through the olfactory
organs, we do not "smell" them because in humans
at least, most pheromones are odorless.Though
not proven highly effective at alluring the opposite
sex as some products claim, experiments have shown
that pheromones do affect human behavior as well.
There is evidence that females may synchronize
their menstrual cycles based on the presence of
pheromones in other females' sweat. It has also
been shown that female humans react to the continual
presence of a male by an increase in fertile cycles,
higher levels of estrogen and delayed menopause.
This suggests that women react to male pheromones.Pheromones
Info provides detailed information about human
pheromones, pheromone oil, cologne, and concentrate.
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