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Are air pollutants harming your sex life? Is obesity linked to air pollution?

It is awhile since it was found out that the air we breath can disrupt the  bodies ability to function properly. The studies confirmed that traffic fumes and cigarette smokes are the main problems. Other tiny and irritating particulate matters in the air trigger widespread inflammation and disruption  to the body's ability to burn energy efficiently leading to undesired weight gain.  Without any other changes in lifestyles or diet, polluted air may cause piled up weights. Even if the short term effects are minimal, in the long run, these would be high enough to affect the human metabolism. Besides the respiratory illnesses, it can suppresses our immune system and leaves us more vulnerable to diseases,  and it disrupts the energy burning mechanism and exposes us to obesity, diabetes and even triggers blood pressure.
 In this regard, there has been studies conducted on mice, that would offer clues to the effects of air pollution  that may reach far beyond inflammation in the lungs. The motivation behind the study conducted by researchers is  the fact that  urban people are at higher risk of heart disease and obesity than the country men and women.  To get an overview of the severity of the air pollution problems on health, experiments were conducted on two groups of mice. The first  and control category were allowed to breath only filtered clean air, while the other subjects were given the kind of polluted, fume air that are available from the city centres. Then after a while the mice from both categories are  observed for any differences such as weighs and activities.  Sooner than 10 weeks, the differences were already visible to the researchers. Surprisingly, the mice group exposed to polluted air had shown greater volumes of body fat, both around the belly areas and around the internal organs; at the microscopic level, the fat cells themselves were around 20% larger in the mice inhaling a fine mist of pollutants than those that breathed clean air. Full details of the study can be found from here.

 However, until now, there has been no indications that the air we breath has association with our libido. The claim is that if air pollution affects and disrupts the normal functioning of human metabolism, it has consequences to suppressing and/or enhancing our sexual desires as well. So, next time you are not interested but your partner is, and you feel that it is not your routine, you should watch out for what you were breathing for days. This hormonal disruption due to small air particles may have high contribution for the increase in modern sexual dysfunction. However, there is no investigation that I am aware of relating sexual desires to air pollution directly. That doesn't mean that there is no association whatsoever.    The exact mechanism may be debatable but it was already found out that a cascade of reactions in the body due to air particles happens to disrupt the normal functioning of sex life.

Which types of pollutants are to blame? Air particles with 2.5 micrometers wide, are believed to be the culprits to the problem. One of the possible mechanisms is that the smallest particles, when we breath in, irritate the tiny air sacs that normally allow oxygen to  pass into the blood stream, the irritation sends a stress response that would render our nervous system into an overdrive, as if a virus or bacteria entered into the blood stream.  This would include the release or blocking of  hormones  such as Oxytocin that is useful for intimacy and social interaction. The tiny particles could also enter into the blood stream and unleash unnecessary invasion signal that would trigger the immune system to invade the normal tissues. This inflammation would interfere with the normal functioning of the hormones, the brain and the body. This therefore, would create unhealthy social interaction such as creating anger, disagreements and violence at elevated conditions. At this altered state sexual desire is either at its lowest or highest. This would create disagreements and may lead to break up. This simple yet tiny air particles can cause complex yet high social problems.

  

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