Sniffing sweat helps treat anxiety

And other stories from the stranger side of life

Rafael Nadal sweat
(Image credit: Matthew Stockman)

Sniffing other people’s sweat may be able to help treat social anxiety, according to a new study. Researchers took armpit perspiration from volunteers who watched either happy or scary film clips. The sweaty samples were then used alongside more traditional mindfulness therapy to treat social anxiety. The study found that mindfulness was more effective when combined with sniffing the body odour. Lead researcher Elisa Vigna, from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said the team was “a little surprised”, reported Sky News.

Penis festival livid with costume

The organisers of a penis festival in Japan are “throbbing with anger” over an unofficial giant member mascot that has been mistaken for a genuine one, said Metro. The annual Kanamara Mitsuri, also known as the Festival of the Steel Phallus, is held in Kawasaki near Tokyo. However, said the paper, one regular attendee has been “drawing the wrong sort of attention” for their costume, which “could politely be described as ‘excessively detailed”’. Organisers said they “do not officially recognise” the mascot.

Study predicts longer lifespans

A man born in Britain in 1970 may live past the age of 140, a study has forecast. Dr David McCarthy, from the University of Georgia, created a model that projects how the maximum human lifespan will extend in the future. He said it is likely there is one person born in Britain in the 1940s who will live beyond the 122 years of age. Human lifespan has been increasing over recent decades and is expected to “swell again” following a setback caused by the Covid pandemic, said The Telegraph.

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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.