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  • Over the course of about a month, this went from being vaguely detectable on my mom to very overpowering (to me). I have a particularly sensitive nose, but now I can be across the room and if she comes over to our house I can smell her by the time I enter the room, even if she's just been let in. It's been about 1 year now and it's just getting stronger.
    by ralusek
  • Interesting, I thought it's just individual perception. Never knew there is actually a chemical compound behind it that affects everyone.
    by sajithdilshan
  • I wonder if we work backward from this smell, from the chemical that causes the smell, would we find some fundamental cause of aging that we could try to develop medicines for?
    by epicureanideal
  • I'm allergic to bio washing powders with enzymes, and I typically wash everything at 30c so I've noticed this smell on some of my shirts over the last year or so (I'm 51)

    So far to conquer it I gather the shirts with the smell together and wash them with a bio washing powder at 40c, then wash them straight away at 30c with the non bio, I've noticed a huge reduction in the smell and it doesn't irritate my skin and cause eczema - double bonus!

    They say that persimmon soap is supposed to be good, or anything with tannins in, but I'll stick to my imperial leather.

    by ddmf
  • I guess there's going to be a perfume that breaks down 2-noneal on the market soon.

    Tangentially, in my 20s I was in an audience seating and sat next to an old person. And I smelled a new kind of odor. It was displeasing, but not like body odor. I quickly realized it's an old person smell. It really just makes you think "old person". I assume there's some biological wiring in there.

    by whacked_new
  • As a professional brewer by trade, I did not have it on my bingo card that the culprit behind 'old person smell' would be the same as the compound prevalent in stale beer.
    by nlanier
  • I think there's probably more going on than that one chemical. For example, if I don't go jogging for a week and then go for a run my shirt later after it dries smells like urine. I looked up why and it's because urea builds up in your skin and is excreted with sweat. Maybe this fact just made me paranoid but I swear that I can smell a urea smell on my skin when I don't exercise regularly.

    I imagine elderly people aren't out sweating regularly.

    by comrade1234
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-Nonenal

    >2-Nonenal Newly Found in Human Body Odor Tends to Increase with Aging [2001]

    From the paper's abstract: "2-Nonenal, an unsaturated aldehyde with an unpleasant greasy and grassy odor, was detected only in older subjects (40 y or older).

    https://www.jidonline.org/article/S0022-202X(15)41198-4/full...

    The fact that it's been 25 years since the causative chemical with a "unpleasant greasy and grassy odor" was discovered and yet there's still no counteracting substance available is very surprising.

    by bookofjoe

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