# Old person smell - its real **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 2, 2012, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999 "2012-07-02T14:16:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/21 "2012-07-06T03:26:35Z")
Yeah, my dad’s 84 now, and he only started to get the Old Person Smell in his room about three years ago, and that’s partly because he keeps his room completely closed up. About a year ago, he started smelling like Old Person. Very depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Old\_Seabee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d26b3c/32.png) [@Old\_Seabee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Old_Seabee)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/22 "2012-07-06T05:40:22Z")
Yea, I know that smell ! It’s the smell of death, The Grim reaper smell . The closer you get to death the stronger the smell !! It really gets bad though about 3 days after you die !!!:eek: Keep smiling !!! ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/23 "2012-07-09T15:09:22Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Wait, I am a bit confused here; you smell your pee? Well, since I have a nose and a standard issue toilet that doesn’t have some odor eliminating vacuum system…yes. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2012, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/24 "2012-07-10T01:54:01Z")
It’s not an old person smell; it’s a dying person smell. Possibly specifically cancerous. I noticed it last year on a friend’s sister who had cancer; she was very young, but she smelled like she was dying and it was exactly the same smell I noticed on many, but not all, old people when I was a little kid and spent an unusual amount of time on geriatric wards. The only reason we think it’s an old person smell is that old people are basically dying bit by bit. A lot of them will have cancers that either you don’t know about (either because you’re too young to be told or because the old dude at the bus stop is not going to tell you his medical history - you hope) or cancers that they and their doctors don’t know about or, like prostate cancer, especially in really old people whose lungs and hearts are due to give out anyway, cancers that they and their doctors know are present but aren’t being aggressively treated. Just because someone’s death cert says they died of a heart attack doesn’t mean they didn’t have cancer somewhere or other - it was just the heart attack that killed them first. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/25 "2012-07-12T01:59:48Z")
> [@laina\_f](#): > > What’s 20 feet long and smells like urine? > > Line dancing class at the nursing home. > > I apologize in advance. My late mom’s nursing home eliminated the inmates’ urine odor by including cranberry juice with every meal. Worked fine. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/26 "2012-07-12T11:47:32Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > To elaborate, if urine is a main component of body odor, just how much urine will there be on armpit pads? Is that a challenge? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/27 "2014-05-02T19:29:52Z")
Bumping this old thread because I just stumbled upon a current article that actually, y’know, says something about this. [What Causes Old-People Smell?](https://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/causes-old-people-smell-151800142.html). tl;dr: As people age, certain hormonal balances change, causing the sebaceous cells to secrete body oils with slightly different composition, causing changes in the way those oils are broken down by ambient bacteria, producing more of a lipid called “nonenal” which produces this odor, and is not water-soluble and thus a little harder to wash off, even with soap. (Note: Nonenal was briefly, but only tangentially, mentioned in one of the umpteen earlier threads on this subject, circa 2005 or so.) Minor spam alert: Article pushes a particular Japanese skin-care product that is purportedly formulated specifically to help with this, by the inclusion of persimmon extract in the formula. So maybe, just suggest to Granpa that he try bathing in persimmon juice. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/28 "2014-05-02T19:46:47Z")
> [@ioioio](#): > > What’s 20 feet long and smells like urine? > > Line dancing class at the nursing home. > > I apologize in advance. Know what gramma smells like? Depends. Had a garage sale a couple weeks ago. Got bored, so decided to connect a VCR to an old (OLD!) barely-color TV and watch a movie. Kept smelling old person house; took a couple hours to make the connection. Sure enough, within about 2’ of the TV it smelled like old people and aftershave. I’m sure some guy had it sitting right next to his easy chair for years. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/29 "2014-05-02T23:52:59Z")
I’m a contractor and go into “old” people’s homes all the time. I can tell you that some of them have it, but others don’t. Some have it really bad and I won’t even bid on the job. I call them back later and tell them that I’m just too busy with other work. Homes that look clean, sometimes have it and others that are less than neat, don’t have it. I think its the people, not the house. My theory is that the smelly houses are occupied by people who don’t bathe regularly. If they have a bathtub that they have to step over in order to take a shower, they are not going to bathe very often because they don’t want to fall. Doing laundry can also be a real chore, so some older people don’t change their clothes as often as they should (as in every day!) Older people pee in their clothes as well. “Leaking” as one gets older is quite common and if you aren’t changing your underwear daily, you are going to start to stink. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/30 "2014-05-03T00:33:29Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > It’s not an old person smell; it’s a dying person smell. Possibly specifically cancerous. > > I noticed it last year on a friend’s sister who had cancer; she was very young, but she smelled like she was dying and it was exactly the same smell I noticed on many, but not all, old people when I was a little kid and spent an unusual amount of time on geriatric wards. > > The only reason we think it’s an old person smell is that old people are basically dying bit by bit. A lot of them will have cancers that either you don’t know about (either because you’re too young to be told or because the old dude at the bus stop is not going to tell you his medical history - you hope) or cancers that they and their doctors don’t know about or, like prostate cancer, especially in really old people whose lungs and hearts are due to give out anyway, cancers that they and their doctors know are present but aren’t being aggressively treated. > > Just because someone’s death cert says they died of a heart attack doesn’t mean they didn’t have cancer somewhere or other - it was just the heart attack that killed them first. Side note: Lauren Bacall’s autobiography goes into some detail about how Humphrey Bogart smelled of dying… And he was, of course, of cancer. Always stuck with me ☹ ---
**Author:** ![toofs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@toofs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toofs)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/31 "2014-05-03T04:25:30Z")
I know this smell. Nursing homes have it. This is not cleaning products or other manufactured odors. It is coming from people. It is burned into my memories of my grandmother who was in a nursing home when I was a little boy. I liked seeing grandma on our visits, yet to this day that particular smell makes me uncomfortable and at unease. A year ago I hired a recommended guy to tune my wife’s piano. He was approximately 65 years old and brought with him many years of piano expertise…and that smell. It took two days of leaving all the windows open to get his ‘old person’ smell out of our house. His smell was not typical body odor or funk. He just reeked that unique smell that old people often have about them. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/32 "2014-05-03T04:38:18Z")
My Dad is 85 and in great health. He smells like an old man if he doesn’t shower every day. I tell him to shower damnit. He does, and doesn’t smell after that. My mother, 83, bathes every day and never smells like old lady. She is not in great health. People 100 years ago did not bathe every day. Hell, in the Middle Ages, they bathed a couple of times a year. No wonder they had so many wars. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/33 "2014-05-04T04:06:32Z")
I’m only in my late 50s, but first thing tomorrow I’m going to buy a giant-size bottle of Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Soap and a loofah. Maybe I’ll do it right now; Walgreens is open 24 hours. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/34 "2014-05-04T05:43:04Z")
It’s that younger people have pheromones. They stink. Once they’re gone, the normal, human scent comes throught! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/35 "2014-05-04T12:20:10Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Wait, I am a bit confused here; you smell your pee? Wait, I am a bit confused here; you don’t? How do you manage that? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/36 "2014-05-04T13:30:04Z")
> [@steveroo](#): > > I’m only in my late 50s, but first thing tomorrow I’m going to buy a giant-size bottle of Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Soap and a loofah. Maybe I’ll do it right now; Walgreens is open 24 hours. Don’t forget to ask for the senior discount. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/37 "2014-05-04T18:56:01Z")
Old person smell. It’s real, and it’s spectacular. Not. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/38 "2014-05-04T19:27:34Z")
Different life stages have different smells. Ever smell a clean, newborn baby? Dirty newborn babies also have a distinctive smell. Sometimes I wonder how the human race has survived when I smell that spit up and poopy pants smell. My mother said sixth grade was her least favorite grade to teach because of the smell of the students. I’m wondering, other than the disease issue, how much this has to do with not taking a bath. It’s difficult for the elderly to stay clean. Collectively a room full of thirty-year olds can smell pretty ripe after a few days of not bathing. Different smell but still not appealing. Acrid sweat, sebum and menstrual blood. Some posts teeter close to ageism, prejudice that’s still relatively safe. That’s a funny thing, in my opinion. We’re not all going to get fat, change our sexual preference or skin color but, if we’re lucky, we’re all going to get old. Laughing/sneering our fears away? ---
**Author:** ![SerafinaPekala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@SerafinaPekala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SerafinaPekala)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/39 "2014-05-05T00:49:51Z")
Its the degradation of fatty acids. A common sweetener found in health food stores called trehalose can counteract it: [http://www.amcan.fr/Documents/Documents/trehalose\_hayashibara.pdf](http://www.amcan.fr/Documents/Documents/trehalose_hayashibara.pdf) The smell I cannot stand is that of “crazy”: its an undefinable mixture of unwashed body, cigarette smoke, stale urine and gloom. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999/40 "2014-05-05T05:31:05Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Don’t forget to ask for the senior discount. You. Lawn. Off. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-person-smell-its-real/626999.md?page=3)