mehreenkasana:

Humans exhibit seasonal variation in hormone levels, behaviour, and perception. Herewe show that men’s assessments of women’s attractiveness change also seasonally. In five seasons (from winter 2004 to winter 2005) 114 heterosexual men were asked to assess the attractiveness of the same stimuli: photos of a female with three different waist-to-hip ratios; photos of female breasts, and photos of average-looking faces of young women. For each season, the scores given to the stimuli of the same category (body shape, breast, and face) were combined. Friedman’s test revealed significant changes for body shape and breast attractiveness assessments across the seasons, but no changes for face ratings. The highest scores for attractiveness were given in winter and the lowest in summer. We suggest that the observed seasonality is related to the well-known `contrast effect’. More frequent exposure to women’s bodies in warmer seasons might increase men’s attractiveness criteria for women’s body shape and breasts.

Interesting.

Fascinating. Huh.

The average woman over-packs her holiday suitcase with 26 items which will never see the light of day, it has been found.

A detailed study of holiday habits found typically a woman needs 34 separate items for a week-long break — but packs 60 “just in case”.

This means almost HALF of the contents of her suitcase will remain untouched for the entirety of their sunshine break.

Over-packing like this could explain why 58% women say they find it almost impossible to stay within their designated weight limit when going on holiday.

However, 77% of those polled say they like to pack extra items in case they can’t decide what to wear… meanwhile most men just take one pair of shorts and a couple of T-shirts.
The results show the average female will pack 19 tops for her holiday – including t-shirts, cardigans, blouses and evening tops – but will only wear 10.

She will also cram the case with 16 ‘bottoms’ – such as trousers, shorts and leggings – but will come home with eight unworn.

A further five accessories such as hats, sarongs, pashminas and sunglasses will return home unused, after women pack a total of nine.

Female holidaymakers will also return home with one pair of shoes which never made it out of the suitcase, a spare bikini and a couple of pieces of underwear.

A spokesperson for Gocompare.com, which commissioned the study, said: “Women are notoriously bad for making decisions on what to wear day to day, let alone for a seven day break.

“And women like to prepare for every eventuality – which means packing for all weathers, the possibility of day trips, evenings out, sports and activities, you name it.

“Whereas the average man would probably pack no more than a couple of pairs of shorts for a sunny holiday, women like to have several choices of outfits for both day time and evening.”

Ovulation is a really useful biological function. Not only does it facilitate pregnancy — though sperm are in no short supply, the ephemeral egg appears just once a month — but new research finds that it also helps a woman select potential partners by enhancing her “gaydar.” 

All this complex sexual decision-making is going on behind the scenes, according to a study published online this week in the journal Psychological Science that found that straight women at their peak period of fertility are far more accurate than non-ovulaters at sussing out who’s gay and who’s not just by looking at a man’s face.

“We consistently find that people have no idea they are able to do this,” says Nicholas Rule, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and the study’s lead author. “They come out of the experiment completely frustrated and say, This is so hard, no one can do this, and then we look at the data and they’re doing amazingly well.”

Rule and colleagues at Tufts University put 40 Tufts undergraduate women — all of whom were heterosexual and ovulating — through three experiments designed to test their hypothesis that women pay more attention to men’s sexual orientation when they’re extremely fertile.

First, the participants were asked to look at 80 images of men’s faces; half the photos — which were similar in terms of expression and attractiveness — belonged to gay men, while the other half featured straight men. A participant’s ability to determine the sexual orientation of the men in the photos was closely associated with how close she was to peak ovulation.

“The closer you get to peak ovulation, accuracy goes up, up, up, peaks at ovulation, then starts to go back down again,” says Rule. “There is a linear effect.”

Then, researchers substituted 100 female faces — half straight, half lesbian — and performed the experiment again. This time, they found no association between fertility and so-called gaydar, an informal term referring to the ability to intuit a person’s sexual orientation.

“It’s not just that women are more attentive to nonverbal cues around ovulation,” says Rule. “It’s really something specific about paying attention to men’s sexual orientation.”

Finally, researchers went a step further, asking half the female subjects to read a sexy story in order to “induce reproductive thinking” before repeating the previous two experiments with both groups. The women who’d read the tale — a hokey-sounding beach romance about meeting a handsome guy on an island — were even more successful at predicting sexual orientation than the control group, an outcome that Rule says proves that women’s brains are evolutionarily primed for mating during ovulation.

This is hardly the first time that ovulation has been shown to alter women’s behavior. Previous research has found that women are quicker to identify a man’s face than a woman’s face near ovulation; subsequent analysis divined that the opposite held true for lesbians: they were faster to pick out a woman’s face. Last year, another study in Psychological Sciencefound that ovulating women are half as likely to call their dads. Why? Because incestuous relationships are more likely to produce problematic offspring, women are unconsciously shunning pop at their most fertile time of the month.

Taken as a whole, the entire body of research suggests that when women have the greatest chance of getting pregnant, they are unconsciously making judgments and perceptions that maximize that possibility.

“Around ovulation, the mind is reallocating its resources in ways that are relevant evolutionarily,” says Rule. “It shows us that the link between body and mind is greater than we often think.”

almaswithinalmas:

Preliminary research has shown the correlation between vitamin D deficiencies (D3) and Muslim women who completely cover and/or who spend the majority of their days indoors.  There are two types of vitamin D: D2, which is plant-based, and D3, which is found in other sources and primarily via sunlight.  The most common cause of the deficiency is in fact lack of sunlight exposure.  Vitamin D, which is stored in the liver, can be found in certain foods, but unless one is already consuming a healthy diet, chances are slim that we are attaining the required amounts of vitamin D.  Further, daily dosage requirements increase with age.

Research has also shown the correlation between vitamin D deficiency and hyper-parathyroidism.  The parathyroid glands are small endocrine glands in the neck that produce parathyroid hormone. Humans have four parathyroid glands, which are usually located behind the thyroid gland, and, in rare cases, within the thyroid gland or in the chest. Parathyroid glands control the amount of calcium in the blood and within the bones.

The best way to find out if you are vitamin D deficient is a simple blood test. Recommended daily intake can range between 400IU and 5000IU.

Sunlight is best, and the fresh air will do your body good, too!

Check out the link for more information on Vitamin D.

Additional References:

Middle Eastern women may have vitamin D deficiency. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, June 2007.

High bone turnover in Muslim women with vitamin D deficiency Diamond, T. H.; Levy, S.; Smith, A.; Day, P.;
The Medical journal of Australia

This is why whenever I’m at home in my t-shirts, I sit beside the window directly in the sunlight. And I eat vitamin D pills.