A is for Aphrodisiac - a podcast by Dr. Lori Beth Bisbey - A to Z of Sex

A is for Aphrodisiac
Hi everyone! Welcome to the A to Z of Sex. I’m Dr Lori Beth and I am your host. We are working our way through the erotic alphabet one letter at a time. Just a reminder this podcast deals with adult content, so if you don’t have total privacy, you might want to put on your headphones. Today the letter is A and A is for Aphrodisiac.

Aphrodisiacs are substances that are meant to increase sexual desire and they have been used throughout history. The name comes from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love.

At 16, I spent the summer studying Russian language at Harvard University. I was young and free and without much supervision in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I had the time to explore and the atmosphere was magical. Bill was a tall sexy guy from Puerto Rico living in the same dorm. I really wanted to seduce him and I wasn’t confident enough to believe he would want me without a complex seduction. A friend told me that the best aid to seduction is a good aphrodisiac so I invited Bill for drinks and nibbles on Friday evening and headed to the library to plan the menu. That Friday I served raw oysters, chocolate and champagne and the seduction was successful.

Did my food choices really act as aphrodisiacs? Is there anything to them or is it just magical thinking? The research is conflicting as context appears to have a large impact on whether a substance increases libido. A lot of research suggests that aphrodisiacs work because we believe they will work. That is the placebo effect – where it is our own expectations that make the treatment work. However, there is research that highlights a variety of compounds that seem to regularly work as aphrodisiacs in certain situations.

I’m going to start my tour of aphrodisiacs with the science – the compounds that science demonstrates work as aphrodisiacs. For people with low testosterone levels, extra testosterone will increase libido. This is true for both men and women. It is unclear, however, whether this works with people who have testosterone levels in the normal range. Transgender people who take testosterone report an increase in sex drive. There are some people who take it recreationally to increase libido as well.

Phenethylamines are present in food and naturally in the body. These act as an aphrodisiac but are quickly neutralised by the enzyme MAO-B in food. The only way to keep the effect is to take an MAO inhibitor.

Amphetamine and methamphetamine are derivatives of phenethylamines and are well known as aphrodisiacs. The intensity of aphrodisiac effects vary from person to person. Cocaine and methylphenidate can also act as aphrodisiacs but cocaine in particular can cause erectile dysfunction. This can be extremely frustrating for the guy who has given cocaine to his date in the hopes that he will get her into bed that night and then finds he can’t perform. There are other drugs that have increased libido as a side effect but come with such negative consequences that they are never prescribed to help with problems with desire.

Natural aphrodisiacs have always been more interesting to me. Are the oysters I chose to feed my date really aphrodisiacs and why? Casanova was an 18th century player famous for his conquests. In his memoirs, he told of seducing over 122 women. Rumour has it that he ate 50 oysters for breakfast every day. Dr Fisher, a professor of chemistry from Miami, Florida and his team of researchers discovered that oysters truly do produce amino acids that trigger hormone production which increases libido. Oysters must be eaten raw to be most effective and the spring is the best time to eat them.

Chili peppers work in a different way. These stimulate endorphin production which make you feel good but they also increase heart rate, and make you sweat which is what happens during arousal. It isn’t as direct an effect as oysters.

What about chocolate?...

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