Belgian researchers watched videos of women walking and were able to tell whether they regularly had orgasms from intercourse.
At the Universiti Catholique de Louvain, Institut d’itudes de la famille et de la sexualiti, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, experts set about proving the theory right.
The researchers took women with known histories of either vaginal orgasm or inability to orgasm from sex and videotaped them walking on the street, and their orgasmic status was judged by sexologists blind to their history.
“In the sample of healthy young Belgian women, half of whom were vaginally orgasmic, history of vaginal orgasm that was triggered solely by penile-vaginal intercourse, was diagnosable at far better than chance.”
Belgian researchers watched videos of women walking and were able to tell whether they regularly had orgasms from intercourse
The researchers think that, as well as having an effect on people’s mental health, orgasms can “loosen” muscle groups.
They wrote: “Research has demonstrated the association between vaginal orgasm and better mental health. Some theories of psychotherapy assert a link between muscle blocks and disturbances of both character and sexual function. In Functional-Sexological therapy, one focus of treatment is amelioration of voluntary movement.
“The present study examines the association of general everyday body movement with history of vaginal orgasm.”
The team said the objective was to determine if appropriately trained sexologists could infer women’s history of vaginal orgasm from observing only their gait.
“Clitoral orgasm history was unrelated to both ratings and to vaginal orgasm history. Exploratory analyses suggest that greater pelvic and vertebral rotation and stride length might be characteristic of the gait of women who have experienced vaginal orgasm.
“The discerning observer may infer women’s experience of vaginal orgasm from a gait that comprises fluidity, energy, sensuality, freedom, and absence of both flaccid and locked muscles.
“Results are discussed with regard to previous research on gait, the effect of the musculature on sexual function, the special nature of vaginal orgasm, and implications for sexual therapy.”
Belgian researchers have found a way to beat sleeping sickness using a bacterium against the tsetse fly host that spreads the disease to humans.
In the same way that we have friendly bacteria in our intestines, the tsetse fly harbors bacteria in its midgut, muscle and salivary glands.
Scientists have genetically modified these “good bugs” so they attack the culprit parasite carried by the fly.
But work is needed to hone the process.
The latest findings are published in the open access journal Microbial Cell Factories.
Belgian researchers have found a way to beat sleeping sickness using a bacterium against the tsetse fly host that spreads the disease to humans
Sleeping sickness, or human African trypanosomiasis, is a potentially fatal disease that plagues many regions of Africa.
Although the number of people being infected with the disease has been going down thanks to better diagnosis and treatment, there were still more than 7,000 new cases recorded in 2010.
The parasite causing sleeping sickness is transmitted to humans through the bite of the infected tsetse fly.
This causes fever, headaches, aching joints and itching. Then, follows the second stage of disease, as the parasites cross the blood-brain barrier to infect the central nervous system.
The person then becomes confused, poorly coordinated and experiences the sleep disturbances which give the disease its name.
Without treatment, sleeping sickness is fatal.
But current therapies often have unpleasant side-effects.
The drug most commonly used to treat the condition is a derivative of arsenic developed more than 50 years ago. And the treatment can be excruciatingly painful and potentially fatal. Often described by patients as “fire in the veins,” between 5% and 20% of those treated die of complications from the injected drug.
And so scientists are seeking alternatives.
The Belgium team at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp have focused on finding a way to destroy the sleeping sickness parasite – trypanosome – that the tsetse fly carries.
They found bacteria called Sodalis glossinidius, which naturally live in the fly and can be used to mount an attack from the inside.
Altering the genes of the bacteria led it to release fragments of antibodies known as nanobodies against the parasite.
With more work, the researchers hope to be able to produce targeted nanobodies which could kill or block the development of trypanosome.
