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.

What age are you talking about??
100+???

Surely it can both be true that it starts from around 40 and increases with age- so potentially not usually detectable in the middle aged, and that it is stronger in people who are less fastidious about personal and domestic hygiene.

I remember my Gran having this smell, and, later, my mother too. I don't want to have it on myself. 😕

80+ @Nanny0gg and obviously not all 80+ people.

So it's official 40 is old now, really??!🤔😔😲😱

Smell when someone has a migraine? I've heard it all now.

40 is probably right although at 52 I think I smell much as I always have.

It is the age at which many people start to show visible signs of being past their prime, grey hair, wrinkles, perimenopause, weight gain etc. Everyone I've ever asked about it says that once you reach your 50s you feel like you want to slow down, in a general sense, these are ordinary people with ordinary jobs and lives and no particular health problems. If we lived like wild animals without modern medicine and healthcare I guess a lot of people, if they survived childhood, would die in 50s or 60s at best, so in terms of mother nature 40s is quite old.

I'm 40 soon and have no wrinkles and grey hair. No signs of peri and I'm definitely not past my prime.

@NewJeans I've just started to find work pace challenging but I'm 63 and still throwing 55 hour weeks in a very senior role.

Can you provide more information about your sample size and its components please: general health, weight, social demographic, job roles and other responsibilities please. Without that level of quantitative and qualitative detail, your post is both offensive and discriminatory.

40 is still young. People should get to 80 before saying 40 is aging.. they'll feel very daft.

@Disturbia81 I'm not saying it's old. I was replying to someone who said it's past your prime.

Sorry yes I was agreeing with you, in reply to the one saying it's aging.

I never noticed this with my aunt who was 93 when she died.

You're an anomaly. Most people are past their prime by their 40s. You're not even 40 yet. Come back when you're 49 and say you've zero signs of aging either visible or that you can feel. It's basic biology, not a personal insult.

We'll have to disagree. 40 isn't young. It's middle aged, the aging process towards ever increasing failures of the body's systems has started. No you won't feel it as bad as in your 80s, you might not feel it at all. Doesn't mean it isn't happening.

40 is not young clearly. Not old either. It's the start of middle age, over the next decade fertility will be lost. It makes sense, dogs and some sensitive nosed people can smell things like diabetes, certain cancers, parkinsons, migraines.
It makes sense that from 40 aging can be smelt chemically as a result of changing biochemistry. I would assume biological age as measured by strength and fitness tests would correlate more strongly than chronological age so very active 60 years olds might not have the changes yet. Likely there are genetic variations in how we age on a cellular level as well as epigenetic meaning your choices will play a part.

@RosesAndHellebores thankyou I too find @NewJeans post ageist, generalist and discriminatory. I am in my 50s and certainly do not feel like slowing down. We do not need these ageist crap posts x

@NewJeans at age 40, women nowadays are expected to work for another 28 years.

May I respectfully suggest that when you have matured a little, and I purposefully do not say aged, you spend some time focusing on respect and courtesy.

In your post addressed to @bradpittsbathwater , you don't even use the simple word "please". Hopefully when you are past what you consider to be your prime, you will have learnt how to address people courteously.

Finally, at 40, I still made heads turn, hadn't gone grey or run to fat. Neither was I an anomaly - many of my children's mothers were the same. Women are fabulous at 40, nifty at 50 and sexy at 60. My mother was awesome at 80 and has been described clinically as physically robust and of sharp intellect at 87. She does not smell except of Van Cleef & Arpels. I would expect her to give you a hard Paddington stare in real life.

Aging is to be celebrated, not the bit where your body feels ancient but the fact that you've outlived so many others. Also love my wrinkles - always felt I looked blank when I was younger as character shows in the lines you get at you age. So much more attractive than the bovine injected blankness that people seem to value (stupidly).

@RosesAndHellebores your mum sounds magnificent. Mine aged 85 also is stylish and takes trips abroad independently multiple times a year! X

No you may not.

I'm not immature, I'm realistic. If you want respect you need to be prepared to give it. I'm entitled to my opinion and to post it, same as anyone else. You called me ageist, I'm not. Don't call me names if you don't want to see me defend myself. Perhaps when you've matured you'll have realised there's a thing called cause and effect.

I made a suggestion to someone. There's no need for "please". I wasn't asking them to do anything and I don't care if they ignore my suggestion.

I spoke the truth. Every living thing slowly declines and eventually dies. Human beings are living things. If you don't believe that's true or can't accept it, there's nothing more I can say. Your mistaken beliefs aren't reasons to call me predudiced.

I wouldn't notice her stare because I'm not interested in what deluded people think of me.

Oh and the age people are expected to work has got nothing to do with anything. That's just the government making up rules about what you can do depending on the number of years you've spent on a lump of spinning rock orbiting a sun. It's meaningless.

I’m simultaneously fascinated to know how old NewJeans is, and completely uninterested in ever hearing from them again.

I’m in my early 50’s. I still run most mornings, gym classes a couple of times a week and wear the same sized clothes as in my 20’s(size 12). Hair still only needs highlights and hasn’t lost any of its conditioning. DH and I are bringing our careers to any end and take very early retirement. The best is still to come!