Are You Gross or Yummy? Your Personal Bacteria Will Be The Judge of That!
Finally, a scientific thread connecting bacteria and romantic love.
Bacteria, especially probiotic (good) bacteria is our passion here at Team Prōtëkt but, it will always only stand in the shadow of our passion for love.
Today is the day you discover that the two work together. These microscopic cupids or deal-breakers may be what’s turning you on or off.
“We’ve found that microbes actually drive the majority of our how our bodies work, from general health to mental health to romantic health,” says Jason Tetro, microbiologist, and author of The Germ Code.
Everyone is producing an aroma or chemical (pheromone) all day long and we respond to each other via our immune system. This interaction is very similar to how the body responds to the gut brain and it is likewise very controlling of our emotions. The gut is referred to as the second brain.
For example, your immune system immediately responds to foreign microbes during a kiss. A transfer of 80 million bacteria can occur during a 10 second kiss.
That kiss can either be euphoric if your kissing partners microbes are in sync with yours or a turn-off if they are not. Regardless of whether they seem perfect on the outside or not, how their chemistry aligns with yours is a huge part in the grand scheme of your romantic attraction to them.
“The immune response is almost immediate. It’s like how if you expose someone with a peanut allergy to peanuts—they go into shock pretty quickly,” says Tetro.
This would explain why it’s so important to get that first kiss out of the way. Our autoimmune system is essentially assessing whether the person is a keeper or not. Was I repulsed or were there fireworks?
However, science suggests that probiotics can change your internal and/or external microbiome to match each other.
Have you ever caught a whiff of someone as they walked by and it made you crave that person, like REALLY-REALLY crave them? Tetro says, “If you like the bacteria on someone’s body, you’ll like how they smell. But, if you experience that quasi-allergic reaction to their scent, it’s a sign your bacteria aren’t harmonizing.”
There are complex conversations going on between the microbes that populate our body and the cells that make up our body. And, it doesn’t end there, our brain and gut are all interconnected to our sensory outlets such as smell and taste which is exactly how we sample other people’s microbiomes.
Bacteria are not the only things we are sensing which most are odorless anyway. We are mostly sensing materials that bacteria excrete or more simply put, stinky molecules.
For example, Staphylococcus hominis love to live in the armpit and consume protein excretions found in sweat produced by your apocrine glands. S. hominis then discharge that protein into a sulfurous molecule called a thioalcohol (Thy-oh-AL-koh-hol). It’s a sulfurous combination with alcohol which means it’s stinky and fast to evaporate into the atmosphere.
We are a walking talking smell-making petri dishes since our bodies are covered in odor-creating bacteria and the body itself excretes odorous pheromones. A pheromone is a chemical that takes to the atmosphere from the skin that a mammal produces which alters the behavior of other mammals generally of the same species. Some describe pheromones as behavior-altering agents.
This could be the secret behind the popular debates of: Is it possible to fall in love at first sight, or whether soulmates truly exist.
- Can external probiotics make you irresistible?
- Can external probiotics give you an irresistible edge?
Until someone funds a very large and elaborate case study on the matter I will leave you with this thought. If the bacteria inside and outside of us can have so much power in our external lives, perhaps it’s time to take control of your own personal case study and see where your passions take you.