I swear I can spot an older person a mile away. I can smell them. I should know. I have spent a whole lotta time at the hospital where the youngest person on my FIL's floor was over 80. I remember being way younger (yes I can still remember those days) and thinking that old people have a very peculiar odor....something like a combination of mothballs, fried foods, sweat that is a few days old, urine, talcum powder, and just plain dirt. In those younger days I used to think that while it was not entirely unpleasant, it was still something I swore I was never going to have happen to either my parents or myself. Ahhh.....the innocence of youth.
After spending an entire week with old people, I decided to investigate why they carry that specific odor.
Urban dictionary states that old people smell is the smell of mold, mildew, and perfume. Usually found on people 65+.
So here are a few things I came up with:
1. The sense of smell changes as we age. While most old people have a good nose, it is a medical fact that one smells things the best when they are a child, hits a plateau from the teens to the 50's and starts decreasing after 60 and keeps going downhill from there. An 80+ year old therefore is only able to smell things half as well as a 20 year old. OK....I can understand that. Makes sense. They can't smell themselves. Maybe my nose is more sensitive and instead of my nose aging, it is getting younger....okay I can go with this explanation.
2. Another explanation I found was that it was all about pheromones. Scientists have proven that humans emit pheromones, like pretty much any animal does. And these pheromones attract people to each other. In the case of old people, something has gone wrong with their pheromones. It's possible that their pheromones aged and simply went bad, kind of like milk does. So, this would mean that the old person smell is a result of the elderly emitting rotten pheromones. Makes sense. Makes more sense when you see older people attracting other older people. Doesn't explain cougars though. How do they get past the smell? Maybe they are attracted to old pheromones.
3. Okay, you can blame Ben Gay for some old people smells. There seems to be an increase in the number of people who use the product. Maybe they put a chemical in the product that attracts old people - like a pheromone or something. They have a patent on the ingredient that makes people not resist Ben Gay. Yeah don't think so.
4. Blame it on the Obama or Bush or the media or politicians or CEO's or anything else your heart desires. After all the popular thing to do these days is to blame anyone and everyone else for everything that's wrong. Interesting theory - could be true.
5. Another theory I found while googling was that not all old people smell. Okay, maybe it was just that hospital, my inlaw's home, and just the people on the floor my FIL was on. Nah....don't think so.
6. There was another theory that they get the smell from the medications they have to take, or from their decaying teeth, or maybe they just plain don't bathe enough or wash their clothes enough, nor clean their house enough. After all they are slowing down and not able to do as much as they could even a decade ago. Most can't even reach around and wipe themselves. So now there is a medication smell, decaying teeth, sweat and body odors from not bathing or washing their clothes, or wiping themselves good enough. This could be it.
I. Smell. Old. People.
The odor just does not go away. It seems to have penetrated my pores. I have washed and rewashed and rinsed my sinuses and bathed and I still smell old people. Why is that even an overwhelming odor such as sauteing garlic and onions in olive oil seems to go away after a few minutes but old people smell lingers? Our system is supposed to adapt - that is why garlic and onion smells go away. Our system adapted.
So even after all my investigation, I still can't figure out what makes old people smell so strong and last so long.
Any clues?
