Do older people have a different smell? • Hacker News Board

Re: Do older people have a different smell?

#31

Post by Andrex » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 6:05 PM UTC

lonelappde wrote: post #11

dredmorbius wrote: post #4

Babies smell. My friend, undergoing radiation therapy for cancer, had a distinct smell. As have those treated with specific chemotherapies. Athletes smell. Indoor and outdoor athletes differently. Pool swimmers of chlorine, open-water swimmers of the sea. Parkinsons and Alzheimers appear to have distinctive smells. Diabetes is characterised for its distinct smell (and taste). We are chemically-regulated, processing,…

Swimming seems a special case because that's a clearly foreign substance attached to the body. More interesting are cases where the lifestyle causes smellable long-term changes to body chemistry that can't be cleaned off.

Immersing yourself in chlorine for large stretches of time probably messes with your skin's biome, though I agree probably not to the extent that the change alone would produce a discernible smell.

Re: Do older people have a different smell?

#32

Post by iratewizard » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 6:07 PM UTC

cbanek wrote: post #28

Penn & Teller: Bullshit Season 8 Episode 8 did an experiment to try to verify this. They couldn't find that people could predict who is old and who isn't via a sniff test.

Penn & Teller would not have an interesting show if their experiment didn't support the claim they were making.

Re: Do older people have a different smell?

#33

Post by bregma » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 6:07 PM UTC

My gran has no nose.

How does she smell?

Terrible.

Re: Do older people have a different smell?

#34

Post by ylem » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

foxfired wrote: post #29

If scent is of interest to you, I suggest you read Perfume by Patrick Suskind. I couldn't help but notice the distinct smell of everything and everyone after reading this book.

We read this for my book club. I would never have read it by myself. The historical setting is also interesting.

Re: Do older people have a different smell?

#35

Post by snarfy » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

I started taking probiotics about three months ago and I definitely have a different stink than I used to.

Re: Do older people have a different smell?

#36

Post by ocdtrekkie » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #4

Babies smell. My friend, undergoing radiation therapy for cancer, had a distinct smell. As have those treated with specific chemotherapies. Athletes smell. Indoor and outdoor athletes differently. Pool swimmers of chlorine, open-water swimmers of the sea. Parkinsons and Alzheimers appear to have distinctive smells. Diabetes is characterised for its distinct smell (and taste). We are chemically-regulated, processing,…

> Another aspect of older people (and again: Parkinsons and Alzheimers in particular) is a loss of the sense of smell. Which may mean that odors otherwise noticeable and addressed aren't.

I highly suspect you hit the nail on the head here from personal experience: My grandma no longer has any sense of smell (or taste, actually) at all. I recall at one point discovering a particularly pungent smell was caused actually by a cleaning solution, I think it was like an old can of Lysol that had no substance designed to improve it's scent, that of course, she wasn't aware smelled worse than death.

My biggest fear was things such as her potentially not noticing a natural gas leak, because the default indicator depends on a sense of smell. (I found out you can buy "explosive gas detectors", which are different than carbon monoxide detectors, if you want an audible alert for this.)

Re: Do older people have a different smell?

#37

Post by akeck » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 6:11 PM UTC

bradly wrote: post #27

dredmorbius wrote: post #4

Babies smell. My friend, undergoing radiation therapy for cancer, had a distinct smell. As have those treated with specific chemotherapies. Athletes smell. Indoor and outdoor athletes differently. Pool swimmers of chlorine, open-water swimmers of the sea. Parkinsons and Alzheimers appear to have distinctive smells. Diabetes is characterised for its distinct smell (and taste). We are chemically-regulated, processing,…

Backpacking can cause an ammonia type smell from burning fat and muscle breakdown. It's a smell similar to the smell from homeless people that I always just assumed was because both backpackers and homeless bathe less often than others, but that is just a coincidence of both group's bodies breaking down muscle from not enough of protein/carbs/nutrients.

The author of "Where's the Next Shelter?" (Appalachian Trail through-hike memoir) talks about this condition. He had to get protein into his supplies ASAP to prevent further muscle loss.

Re: Do older people have a different smell?

#38

Post by akeck » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 6:13 PM UTC

beat wrote: post #21

jraph wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you notice you were seeing smells (and not everybody is)?

Synesthesia is very hard to explain. It's like explaining color to the blind. I have mild synesthesia myself - I hear flavors. I can say "I hear flavors", but that doesn't help to tell you what different flavors sound like, because sounds themselves are very hard to describe in words. The best way to experience something like synesthesia is under the influence of LSD or similar drugs. Not that I recommend it, but it…

For a friend of mine, different music has different colors. Some music has frightening colors. She can't listen to that music.

Re: Do older people have a different smell?

#39

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

jraph wrote: post #26

beat wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Synesthesia is very hard to explain. It's like explaining color to the blind. I have mild synesthesia myself - I hear flavors. I can say "I hear flavors", but that doesn't help to tell you what different flavors sound like, because sounds themselves are very hard to describe in words. The best way to experience something like synesthesia is under the influence of LSD or similar drugs. Not that I recommend it, but it…

Do noises prevent you from fully tasting food? (sorry if these questions are boring to you) I asked this question in my previous comment because I've read about people having synesthesia discovering quite late that no, to most people, smells or figures don't have any specific color or character (depending on the involved senses), during a conversation in which they take for granted that their interlocutor experiences…

[deleted]

Re: Do older people have a different smell?

#40

Post by snarfy » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 6:15 PM UTC

salawat wrote: post #16

r0ze-at-hn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smells for me are sphere like with usually one color, but occasionally a gradient between two or three. But the big difference is the texture or peaks and valleys on the shape.

Is it overlaid on your visual field, or more of a parallel mental construct? Also, are there any particularly noteworthy smells in terms of representation? I have to admit, the idea of a visual artifact for smells is amazing!

I have synesthesia and I 'see' sounds, but see is a misnomer. There is a visual component to audio but it's not a hallucination in my visual field. It's definitely in my mind's eye, but it is consistent which leads me to believe it's more than just imagination. Some sounds are definitely 'purple'.