It's official, older people smell different- from age 40 upwards!

[Princessfluffy]

Article in today's Times details how people over 40 smell different due to the presence of a chemical called 2-nonenal. The older you get the more you smell of this chemical.

Seemingly eating mushrooms can keep this smell at bay.

OMFG. I am 56. A daily mushroom it is then.

Why on earth would you wash your clothes after one wear? Unless they were work clothes and you had a particularly filthy job.

I think it's the declining liver and kidney scent along with washing less and urinary incontinence.
Maybe using old scents like lavender, youth dew, talc powders.
I didn't like the smell in Japan, too much soy sauce and fish smell. Apparently they notice sour milk smell on Western dairy consumers.
Health and diet leave a smell distinct to any soap and perfume.

My mum does not have this smell (90), nor did my grandmother.

At a certain point it becomes about house keeping and personal hygiene - airing the place, changing sheets, keeping clothing fresh, hair and body washing, etc.

I actually know the smell very well. As a young person I worked as a volunteer in an old aged persons home (reading to them). I can actually smell it as I type now!

😂

Come on then - what is the perfume??

Not exactly news, as the role of 2-nonenal in the slightly different BO of older people has been known since at least 2001 when the paper describing this was published.

I don't see why it's unbelievable, we do have our own scent, even when generally clean and tidy. We produce all sorts of body fluids and chemicals that will have a scent, all our lives. Stands to reason those change as the body changes.

Doesn't mean it is inevitable that that is the scent people will notice though - my Grandma ponged of fags and medicated talc (not that I realised this until my sister came in and gave me Cuticura talc she'd picked up for me.. I put it on, and the combo of fag smell off sister and talc off me was overwhelmingly 'Grandma'!) - I had thought that was 'old lady smell' but it isn't... its 'old lady who smokes 60 a day and uses Cuticura' smell of course!

I would think a lot of the things people think are 'old lady smell' are nothing of the sort, and most folk don't actually know what this particular chemical really smells like anyway!

I agree but I always thought it was not going out much so the door wasnt opening and letting in lots of fresh air
My MILs had an odd musty smell but my parents who were constantly on the go and she cleaned every day never did. Until my dm died and dad didn’t clean so much and didn’t go out either. Suddenly it smelt like MILs

I think part of it must be dehydration
It's only recently we all started drinking more water

It could be the general scent of anti wrinkle cream 😀

I'm 54 and over the past few years have taken a liking to anything lavender scented. (note, not the toilet spray).

I have a teen dd. I will ask her how I smell 😂. We all know they are brutally honest.

None of my grandparents are alive now, but what I do remember is the excessive amount of tea always drank. So I am not sure they could ever have come close to being dehydrated.

People have always drunk water.

I can believe that there are pheromones produced to attract the opposite sex when you are fertile but I find it hard to believe in a universal “I’m old” smell being so noticeable. Especially as it seems to be suggested it’s starting very young.

Human being are living changing animals with biochemical changes. Fucking breaking news. Another marketing kosh that will be engaged to beat us over the head with.

@BeverForget you are a twat

@Nanny0gg Yes they are clean tidy hygienic people, this isn't BO and unwashed clothes smell. It's just in their skin. Google it, it's a thing. Something breaking down in the body differently
Just like how newborns have their own smell.

I also work with people 70+ and they are very clean but have this smell. It's comforting

Hermès Ambre Narguile now. Saint Laurent Rive Gauche then.

I don't buy into this.

Sorry.

There may be some science behind it but I doubt it's enough to make a difference at 40!

I think sometimes very old people have a stale smell about them (the charity shops full of clothes tend to have the same musty smell.)

Unfortunately, the smell of much older people can be due to lack of hygiene sometimes.

I think what you eat and drink can make a difference and they used to believe that vegetarians had a different smell to meat eaters.

I know I can smell a garlic lover at 50 paces!

Who cares?
There's now't all we can do about it if it's a natural product of aging.
So why even post this, unless it's completely ageist?

I had a crush on a guy when he was in his 30s, just his skin smelt so good to me and met him later when he was late 40s and he still smelt just as good.
Because of work we don't wear scented products and can get pretty close to each other and I never picked up a bad or old smell on him. He is very fit and healthy.
40 just seems too young for old nursing home smell...

I have a sensitive nose and this scent is very real. It’s nothing to do with hygiene or old books. It’s a distinctive smell secreted by the person. Not everyone has it-like not everyone who eats garlic smells of it. Am praying I don’t get it as I find it quite unpleasant.

We all smell different and ageing can affect the chemical make up of the body, although it is probably not noticeable to most people, as a sense of smell can often be compromised. What is far worse is poor hygiene and wearing multiple scents, leeching alcohol or other stimulants and I could go on. I can certainly smell when my DH is about to have a Migraine and it is proven that some medical conditions have a distinctive scent, with animals now being trained to diagnose cancers etc. Certainly not in the market for another pharma or cosmetic profit product, for nothing other than avoiding an issue that's not bothered us to date, so shouldn't now.

The ghastly smell of scented incontinence wear! Also the reluctance that some older people have for ever opening a window. I'm over 60 but throw open my windows and doors at every opportunity, but I have noticed a lot of people around my age want to be hermetically sealed into their houses with the heating cranked up to maximum.

Ooo I wear this Hermes too, love it.

So true! My MIL has heating cranked up to 27. I can’t stay there anymore as even open windows at night don’t stop you gasping. She’s lovely but I have to bite my lip when she keeps asking me am I cold!