Can 'old man's taste' judge the degree of aging of the elderly?

Anyone who has an elderly person at home will know that although the elderly at home often take baths, they will still smell a smell when living with the elderly, and this smell is different from other smells.

How did this old-fashioned smell come about?

geriatric internal factors

The American "Public Library of Science Comprehensive Volume" once published a paper, in which scientists pointed out that scientists once divided young people aged 20-30, middle-aged people aged 45-55 and elderly people aged 75-95 into Three groups, tested their taste, and found that

Older people do carry a special body odor, which we call "old man's scent".

Although some elderly people also like to be clean and often bathe and change clothes, the 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 on the one hand, we rarely find our own smell, 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 as to how the smell of old people came about. Japanese dermatologists provide a statement that the concentration of 2-nonenal in the human body is higher.

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 that tastes somewhat like a mixture of aged beer and buckwheat, and is one of the main sources of old-fashioned taste.

Studies have shown that smoking can increase the secretion of 2-nonenal, which is metabolized in the body but spreads through the 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.

exogenous taste of the elderly

In addition, there are many microbial groups on the surface of the human skin, such as: Staphylococcus aureus, which accumulates on the skin of the human body. When the human body excretes sweat, some oil will be decomposed by bacteria, etc., and

The residue after bacterial decomposition contains some odors

. 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 metabolism of the elderly, it is easy to cause dead skin on the surface of the skin, and the lipid molecules in the sweat allow microorganisms to multiply here and produce odors.

In addition, there is another situation that will produce odor, that is: food with a 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 gaps in the skin tissue from the blood, and volatilize through the sweat glands. At this time, there will also be an odor.

In addition to alcohol, irritating foods can also produce this odor, such as cheese, curry, etc., so many people in foreign countries have a heavy odor, but Asians have a lighter diet, so they have almost no body odor.

If you want to reduce body odor in the elderly, it is best to eat less meat, because meat will oxidize body fat and increase body odor.

To sum up, the origin of the body odor on the elderly may be because the molecules secreted by the body carry odors, and because the frequency of bathing is low and the metabolism is slow, dirt accumulates on the skin.

. Some elderly people like drinking, smoking, etc., which can lead to the production of odor.

For the elderly, frequent bathing and ventilation can relieve the body odor to a certain extent, but it cannot completely solve it.

In addition, many elderly people cannot take a bath every day due to physical inconvenience or illness, so they can only change clothes frequently, ventilate frequently, and change bed sheets and quilt covers 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 on the elderly.

Can the smell of old people judge the degree of aging of the elderly?

Although the older you are, the heavier the odor on your body, but we are still unable to judge the aging degree of the elderly from the smell, and it is impossible to judge the lifespan 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, life factors, etc. that affect our individual. 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 odor, pay attention to the maintenance of the body from a young age, and use perfume to cover up the odor, so the odor on their body is lighter and can be within the acceptable range.

In addition, scientists have found that the production of odor is related to gender and obesity. That is to say, men generally have heavier body odor than women, and obese people generally have heavier body odor than thin older people.

Due to the large differences between individuals, it is impossible to judge the aging degree of the elderly based on smell alone. However, if the smell suddenly worsens on the elderly, it is best to go to the hospital to check, perhaps there is a disease in a certain part of the body, causing the smell to suddenly worsen.