The Takeaway: Older Men And Women Smell Better

Ever had a grandparent or older relative whose house had a certain inexplicable smell? It might have just been "old people odor" -- a new study found people 75 to 90 years old have a recognizable smell that can't be explained fully by diet, environment or anything else. It was distinctive enough that younger participants could identify an older person by body odor alone-- but not unpleasant, notes the Toronto Star.

"Our main aim was to find out if there is an old-people odor," Johan Lundström, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and lead author of the study, said. In fact, there was -- but contrary to the stereotype of older people smelling unpleasant, older men and women were rated less intense and less unpleasant smelling than middle-aged and younger counterparts.

In the study (published in the current PloS One) 41 men and women who fell into one of three age groups (20 to 30, 45 to 55 and 75 to 90) slept for five nights in a t-shirt containing special underarm pads. The pads were then cut into pieces, placed in glass jars and (glad I wasn't in this study) given to a different group of young adults to smell. The smell-testers had a hard time distinguishing between the young and middle-age groups, but much more success identifying samples from the oldest group.

Young and middle-aged men rated highest in body odor intensity and unpleasantness; young women had a 'moderately intense' but neutral smell; and middle-aged women had a moderately intense but relatively pleasant smell.

Why old people smell so neutral and less intense is part of a bigger project Lundström and colleagues are working on. "The older ones are the survivors, from an evolutionary perspective," he told the Star. "It could be good genes. Or it could be general sickness signals, a sign of more ailments. We don't know yet."

Wednesday Quick Hits:

• Pension change in California. In San Diego and San Jose, residents voted overwhelmingly for measures to cut benefits to government workers.

• Pension change at General Motors. The company may offer hourly staff the same pension change as salaried retirees.

• Retirement age change in France. The French government approved a measure that will restore the retirement age to 60 for some workers. It was raised to 62 by former president Nicolas Sarkozy as part of 2010 pension reforms.

• Older adults pick better passwords. A recent study found Internet users 55-plus picked passwords that were twice as strong as those under 25.

• And public transit use is soaring. Across the country, transit agencies had record or near-record ridership in the first three months of 2012, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Ridership on what's called heavy rail (subways and elevated trains) increased in 14 of the 15 systems that them; use of light rail (streetcars, trolleys) rose in 25 of the 27 cities that have it; and 34 of 37 large cities saw increases in bus ridership.

Photo: John Stillwell/PA Wire/AP