Old person Smell

The truth of the matter is that all people smell, but what we smell of changes over the years.

I notice sometimes when I wee that I smell of "old lady". It is the smell I encounteredif I went to the toilet right after my grandma when I was a child.

I find it is worse if I have eaten certain foods - more meat than usual or certain spices.

I find I can minimise the smell by washing with a cloth and cold water between my legs even if I have only weed.

Part of the musty smell of old people is due to all the things already mentioned about airing the house properly, washing and washing clothes frequently, but I don't know if we can entirely avoid it.

I work with lots of elderly people and can honestly say none of them smell of anything.
But I was in my local Sainsburys and a elderly chap walked passed me and he reeked of urine and I actually wanted to be sick.
I see him regularly and avoid him like the plague.

Gilly1952 - Now it’s time for my annual bath
....hope that's in Tea or Malbec!!
?

This is not a hygiene thing.
It is chemical changes in the body.
It starts at about 40, BlueSky apparently increasing with age.

Obviously only some of us notice it.
It is NOT body odour as we know it though.
It is an entirely different smell and quite distinct.

I have noticed this odd smell since being young but only since I read about it here have I bothered to look it up.
Now I understand what it is and where it comes from.

Loobyloo12 - glad you approved of my post! Yes, ageing hippie is a good way to go! This has been a great thread - interesting, worrying but also quite amusing! Now it’s time for my annual bath (only joking).

Gilly1952 thanks for reminding me about Patchouli. I like that smell and it is quite strong and would mingle nicely with nonenal ...perfect ,I will now smell aging hippy and be happy!

Gilly, some of my pensioner students, one in particular, seemed to think it was quite OK to fart loudly in class. We even had a staff chat about it.

I said 'Well, she does have hearing aids - so maybe she doesn't know she does it?' My manager said 'For God's sake, has she lost all feeling too? She must feel it!' A colleague said 'Old people are like that, they don't care!'

I hope I don't get to the 'don't care' stage!

I’ve recently turned 67 so must be approaching the “old person smell” stage (if not there already!!) - thank goodness my partner and I both love the smell of Patchouli. Evidentially that’s what hippies used back in the day to cover up various smells!! There’s a cliche that old people smell of “cabbage and p**s” - I think it’s a cruel thing to say and hope neither myself nor my home smells that way. When I used to work at a college, some of the students smelt terrible - the girls often worse then the lads!! Farting seems to be my biggest problem nowadays - I better buy a dog!!

Soaps, I mean, but will start drinking green tea too as it is duly to have health benefits

I think we wash more now generally, clothes included. The generation of old people today probably wouldn’t have had that ethic when younger. I remember my mum putting my dad’s clean underwear out for the week after his weekly bath on a Sunday evening!! I know that was fifty years ago, but it probably carried on for a few more years.

Just ordered a 2 pack of persimmon/green tea from Amazon, just in case...?..not expensive but delivery from Japan may take up until 4th February. All holding our noses until then!

I go along with the fusty clothes theory.
Another smell I can't stand is from washing powders with a strong perfume.
Husband sweats a lot and is always putting his pillowcases into the wash.

So at what age can we expect this smell? What age is old? Who's going to tell you if your partner is as old as you and you have no family nearby or close friends?

shropshirelass and lucywinter can't smell it so don't believe it exists. Maybe they think the Earth is flat too? Ginny42, I had a new cotton jumper that smelled wrong (like your nightdress) despite several repeat washes. Even the cat rejected it as a basket liner - so I binned it.

shropshirelass sorry but your mum was wrong! As I said before this is due to chemical changes within the body which may happen as a person ages. The lipids it produces are not easy to wash off. Even perfect hygiene does not prevent it as it is not caused by bad hygiene! It’s a very distressing thing for the person involved who would do anything to be rid of it. It might be seen as unkind to blame a sufferer for lacking good hygiene when they do not.

My Mom lives in a care home with 16 other residents aged 90 to 103. There is no smell at all. I agree with previous posts that it is the inability to cope with personal hygiene and washing clothes. My Mom always said that when you get old don't get grumpy and don't smell!

Working in a charity shop we get customers of all ages and smells of all types Yesterday there was a man, middle aged who absolutely reeked of dried urine The shop stank We do get some horrendous heavy BO smellers usually younger and often men in so we always have the sprays handy when they go out and the other customers left in usually start breathing again We also get younger people stinking of cannabis
Some bags of clothes we have to throw out as the stale cigarette smells just jumps at you as you open the bag just doesn’t fade

Im so glad to have read this thread and learned the science behind OP smell which my dad had, and my husband has started to have (age 64). Im not sure the yellow pillow stains are the same issue though. Almost as soon as we married my husbands pillows started going yellow and shirt collars became really hard to clean. I was advised to get him to use Nizoral shampoo twice a week. It works but always comes back after a few weeks if you stop. Its a form of dermatitis apparently.

I have been obsessed about being smelly since I was a child. We had no bath and an outside toilet and clothes were only washed weekly. I was aware that there was a smell on me that I hated and as an adult I bath and wash hair daily and also have clean clothes every day. I always buy good perfume in sales and use that before I go out. I have asked DS to tell me if I start to smell and he says he has never known it. I hate the smell on my clothes (and hair) if I have been cooking, though family say they don't notice it.

I think there are different smells at different ages. Young children, especially when sleeping, teenage boys, men of any age, and women all have distinctly different odours even when they are clean. I have noticed this in the swimming pool too, even past the smell of chlorine. Am I extra sensitive or are other people aware of it too?

ExD1938 The soap is made using persimmon.

notspaghetti Thanks for the links
lucywinter it certainly is not rubbish but lucky you as you have never had to live with it.
pinkquartz washing daily etc. as you say is of course needed but it is not lack of cleaning that causes it. How can you be so dogmatic when you have never had to deal with it?

The smell is real and not everyone gets it. It is more often old men who develop it so it’s more of an old man smell. As has been said the smell is from “nonenol” and is due to chemical changes in the body as it ages. It has nothing to do with cleanliness or mustiness it is something in the body that makes a persons natural body odour change. It also causes yellow staining on bedsheets and pillowcases. The person can shower every day and wash their hair daily but this doesn’t entirely eliminate it.
The persimmon soaps do help somewhat but they are rather expensive. The person who develops this doesn’t notice it but those who live with them do.

I've been reading this thread with particular interest as today I had decided to get rid of a nightdress which never smells nice. The label says 100% cotton, but it doesn't feel like it. Even as I took it out of the washing machine I could smell it and immediately put it to soak in the sink with a wash tab. Then I put it in the machine again on a normal wash. It still smells. It has to go. I do wonder if some fabrics come with a smell and retain smells even after washing.

I found this online a voice of reason perhaps before sales of a certain soap go up....

"*Keep in mind that experts are still trying to fully understand how body odor changes with age. While 2-noneal seems like a probable cause, there’s still a chance it doesn’t play much of a role.

Instead, it may just be the result of interactions between skin gland secretions and bacteria living on your skin. The type of bacteria that live on your skin are different in various life stages. Likewise, the chemicals and compounds in your body can change with time, too."*

Well as I know many old people who do not smell I am going to be wary about this theory.
I reckon it exists but is not a problem unless it build up for all the reasons listed in PP's above.
If it was as bad as implied we would all know about it.