Can 'elderly smell' judge the aging degree of the elderly?
Anyone with an elderly family will know that although the elderly in the family often take a bath, they will still smell a smell when living with the elderly, and this smell is different from other smells.
How did this old man smell come from?
old man smell
The United States "Public Library of Science Comprehensive Volume" once published a paper, which pointed out that scientists once divided young people aged 20-30, middle-aged people aged 45-55 and old people aged 75-95 into Three groups, tested the taste on them, and found that
Old people do carry a special body odor, which we call "old man smell".
Although some elderly people also like to be clean and often take a bath and change clothes, this smell will still come out, but the elderly cannot smell it by themselves. In this regard, the doctor said
The reason why the elderly can't smell their own body is because we seldom find our own smell on the one hand, and on the other hand, because many elderly people have a less sensitive sense of smell when they are old and cannot smell their own body.
There are different opinions about how the old man's smell came from. Japanese dermatologists provided a statement that the concentration of 2-nonenal in the human body is relatively high.
2-nonenal begins to be secreted in the human body around the age of 40, but the concentration of 2-nonenal increases with age.
This substance is an unsaturated aldehyde, which tastes a bit like a mixture of aged beer and buckwheat, and is one of the main sources of old man's smell.
Studies have shown that smoking can increase the secretion of 2-nonenal, and 2-nonenal is in the process of human metabolism, but it will be transmitted through sweat glands. Moreover, most elderly people cannot take a bath every day due to physical reasons, so the smell will accumulate, making the body odor worse.
old man smell
In addition, there are many microbial groups on the surface of human skin, such as: Staphylococcus aureus, which will accumulate on the skin of the human body. When the human body excretes sweat, some oil will be decomposed by bacteria, etc.
The residue after bacterial decomposition contains some peculiar smell
. The most typical is that after playing basketball, there will be a smell of sweat on the body. In fact, the sweat excreted from the human body has no smell, and the smell is volatilized by other impurities.
However, due to the low frequency of bathing and the slow metabolic rate of the elderly, it is easy to cause dead skin on the surface of the skin. In addition, the lipid molecules in the sweat make it possible for microorganisms to multiply here and produce odors.
In addition, there is another situation that will produce peculiar smell, that is: food with pungent smell, such as: wine. When the human body ingests alcohol, the alcohol will be decomposed into acetaldehyde by the liver, and the acetaldehyde will enter the blood, and then enter the crevices of skin tissue from the blood, and volatilize through the sweat glands. At this time, there will also be a peculiar smell.
In addition to alcohol, irritating foods can also produce this odor, such as cheese, curry, etc., so many people abroad have a strong odor, but Asians have a relatively light diet, so they have almost no body odor.
If you want to reduce the body odor of the elderly, it is best to eat less meat, because meat will oxidize body fat and aggravate body odor.
To sum up, the origin of the body odor of the elderly may be that the molecules secreted by the body carry peculiar smell, and because the frequency of bathing is low and the metabolism is slow, dirt accumulates on the skin
. Some old people like to drink alcohol, smoke, etc., which will lead to the generation of peculiar smell.
For the elderly, frequent bathing and frequent ventilation can alleviate the body odor to a certain extent, but it cannot completely solve it.
Moreover, many elderly people are unable to take a bath every day due to physical inconvenience or disease, so they can only change clothes frequently, ventilate frequently, and change sheets and quilts frequently to relieve odor. If conditions permit, you can do a good job of moisturizing and replenishing water for the elderly, which can reduce the odor of the elderly.
Can the smell of the elderly judge the aging degree of the elderly?
Although the older you are, the heavier the body odor, but we still can't judge the aging degree of the elderly from the smell, let alone judge the life span of the elderly by the smell.
This is because everyone's smell is actually different. We know that in addition to genes, there are environmental factors and life factors that affect us personally. Due to the special genes in the body, some elderly people secrete less 2-nonenal, or do not secrete this substance, so they will have no body odor.
There are also some elderly people who pay attention to the influence of smell. They have paid attention to body maintenance since they were young, and they will use perfume to cover up the smell, so the smell on their bodies is lighter and within the acceptable range.
In addition, according to scientists' research, the production of smell is related to gender and obesity. In other words, men generally have heavier body odor than women, and obese people generally have heavier body odor than thinner elderly people.
Due to the large differences between individuals, it is impossible to judge the aging degree of the elderly only by smell. However, if the old man's body smell suddenly worsens, it is best to go to the hospital for an examination. Maybe there is a disease in a certain part of the body, which leads to the sudden worsening of the smell.