Word: altmans
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...complicated. Arousal, by contrast, is pretty straightforward: fill the penile arteries with blood or divert blood to the vagina and clitoris, and you're there. "Once the brain gets turned on--however it gets turned on--it's a relatively simple concept to increase blood flow," says Dr. Alan Altman, a specialist in menopause and sexuality at Harvard Medical School. In men, a chemical that facilitates the flow is vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, a hormone that also directs the expansion and contraction of smooth muscles in the gastrointestinal tract...
Women too seem to have problems getting interested in sex when their testosterone levels are too low, which is why Procter & Gamble is experimenting with testosterone patches. Says Altman: "When women are having normal menstrual cycles in their prime reproductive ages, their ovaries make two times more testosterone than estrogen." A few days before ovulation, triggered by surging levels of testosterone--along with other hormones including progesterone and estrogen--sexual desire peaks, according to new research by Martha McClintock of the University of Chicago that dispels a long-held theory that fertility precedes desire...
Because menstrual cycles and sexuality are part of an overall system, it's possible that pheromones could trigger desire. Perfumemakers that market pheromone-based scents have latched onto this notion. It's plausible, says Altman, "but I don't think the science is very good on it." Pfaus agrees: "I hope it's true. Totally on faith, I believe it. The problem is that the scientist in me says, 'O.K., but what are these pheromones, and who has shown...
...cash register at the quick-stop store, MSH is tough to investigate because of the placebo effect. As Procter & Gamble discovered with its testosterone-patch study, arousal and desire are so entangled with one's state of mind that it's tough to figure out cause and effect. Says Altman: "If you're in a tribal society and taught that something is an aphrodisiac, it probably will be. But someone in Los Angeles taking the same thing probably won't get the same effect...
...when idiosyncratic directors were able to persuade the moneymen to bankroll dark, even cynical, movies like MASH and Network for a mass audience. It's a familiar thesis--see Peter Biskind's 1998 book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls--but well fleshed out with interviews with big names (Scorsese, Coppola, Altman) who rise to the always daunting challenge of explaining why their work was so darn brilliant. The best insights come from actress Julie Christie, who distills the theme of '70s movies--"the quest for freedom"--while pointing out that said quest meant a lot of angry testosterone, making...