Observational studies have suggested that with time, some diseases result in a characteristic odor emanating from different sources on the body of a sick individual. Evolutionarily, however, it would be more advantageous if the innate immune response were detectable by healthy individuals as a first line of defense against infection by various pathogens, to optimize avoidance of contagion. We activated the innate immune system in healthy individuals by injecting them with endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide). Within just a few hours, endotoxin-exposed individuals had a more aversive body odor relative to when they were exposed to a placebo. Moreover, this effect was statistically mediated by the individuals? level of immune activation. This chemosensory detection of the early innate immune response in humans represents the first experimental evidence that disease smells and supports the notion of a behavioral immune response that protects healthy individuals from sick ones by altering patterns of interpersonal contact.
Citation
Olsson, M.J.; Lundstrom, J.N; Kimball, B.A.; et al. (2014) The scent of disease: Human body odor contains an early chemosensory cue of sickness. Psychological Science, 20:1-7.
Really? That’s pretty fascinating - though I’m not sure if I’d personally want to be the subject of that test
I know that there are dogs that have been trained to detect changes in a person’s emotional health, so if they’re suffering from mental illness, the dogs can snap them back out of it. It seems to be a combination of smell and visual perception, since some of the dogs don’t need to face the owner to register emotional changes…
Patrick Suskind’s novel Perfume is about a serial murderer with no perceptible body odor, who got off on the perfume of death. Perfume (novel) - Wikipedia
@Dragon: LOL. Or did they just move to the developing world? Immortality? Pee is sterile and filled with B-Vitamins and Hormones! It’s the anti aging elixir of the next century!
@PChemistry: I think girlfriends are good for that. “Here, gal. Read this scary novel. I will be behind this rock…Waiting to protect you of course.” Supposedly the movie is very true to form! I haven’t seen it yet. I’ll make sure the girlfriend does first. Or… Sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety.
Trust me, the dutch are known for doing things “wrong”. Not sure if its in our nature or if it is just some sort of curiosity. I have that same tendency, sometimes OD’ing to try out new pheromones. When I say that the Dutch are pretty open in things that Americans find disgusting, then you know how we value research
Not sure if its in our nature or if it is just some sort of curiosity. I have that same tendency, sometimes OD’ing to try out new