Aphrodisiacs: Fact Or Fiction?

Aphrodisiacs: are they a gimmick contrived by the same money-mongering folks who blew Valentine’s Day up into a multi-million dollar business? Or is it a natural and inevitable instigator, in the form of the all-famous oyster, bringing on inspired sensuality as powerful and potent as the Spanish Fly which some use for farm animals. It causes irritation and swelling to the urinary organs in the guise of sexual stimulation. For humans, don’t even think about it – it causes painful swelling, bleeding and kidney damage.

Your guess is as good as the opinions of the experts. Some will attest to the aphrodisiac properties in chocolate, given that it stimulates certain hormones, such as dopamine, in the hypothalamus of the human brain. Others will swear that natural herbs and roots such as Yohimbe (or Yohimbine) work to remedy problems such as erectile dysfunction. And still others ascribe to decidedly sexually potent animal parts, foods which have visually allusive shapes, or plants, foodstuffs, or mythically charged animal parts that have been rumored as aphrodisiacs to stimulate sexual arousal.

But as with any tradition, belief, or value that has the potential for changing over time and through various translations. For example, an aphrodisiac in ancient times and tribes was a tool for reproduction. Another aphrodisiac was an implement for assuaging fears of infertility. Still another was a way of ensuring performance.

So chocolate, rhino horn, tiger’s penis, the oyster, the potato, and the tomato may be the love fruit, but may not, in fact, be an aphrodisiac. At the same time, the derivatives of the above continue to be produced, manufactured, advertised, supplied, and believed in. According to a writer at Wikipedia.com, the first actual aphrodisiac (with physically and emotionally impacting properties, that is) has been synthesized. It’s labeled PT-141, and is said to actually “stimulate sexual desire in men as well as women,” though it is still in the clinical trial phases for future treatments of such disorders as sexual arousal disorder and erectile dysfunction.

I think that it all boils down to what you believe in. Its the power of suggestion; if you believe something is an aphrodisiac, it will work as an aphrodisiac – nothing complicated about that.