Vital Signs

Vital Signs

How your smell can reveal if you’re sick

By Meera Senthilingam, for CNN
Updated 3:34 PM EST, Wed January 20, 2016
Subtle differences occur in body odor when someone is sick or infected, changing their odors from pleasant to aversive. When picked up by others, these differences can inform them to protect themselves and avoid becoming infected.
Subtle differences occur in body odor when someone is sick or infected, changing their odors from pleasant to aversive. When picked up by others, these differences can inform them to protect themselves and avoid becoming infected.
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The change in odor is thought to be caused by activation of the body's immune system in response to a new infection. Scientists at the Karolinska institute in Sweden injected volunteers with a compound mimicking the presence of bacteria, and changes in smell were detected.
The change in odor is thought to be caused by activation of the body's immune system in response to a new infection. Scientists at the Karolinska institute in Sweden injected volunteers with a compound mimicking the presence of bacteria, and changes in smell were detected.
MICHAEL KAPPELER/AFP/Getty Images
Everyone has their own "odorprint" made up of select compounds combining to release a unique odor. But this scent is based on various factors including age, gender and health.
Everyone has their own "odorprint" made up of select compounds combining to release a unique odor. But this scent is based on various factors including age, gender and health.
DON EMMERT/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Smelling sickness can help people avoid infection from others, but research has also revealed that sniffing an infection in others could initiate an immune reaction and prepare the body for attack.
Smelling sickness can help people avoid infection from others, but research has also revealed that sniffing an infection in others could initiate an immune reaction and prepare the body for attack.
Robert Cianflone/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
Several diseases have been discovered to have signature scents: People with typhoid fever are said to smell like baked bread, people with yellow fever smell like a butcher's shop, and those with the glandular disease scrofula smell like stale beer. Pictured, a patient with typhoid fever.
Several diseases have been discovered to have signature scents: People with typhoid fever are said to smell like baked bread, people with yellow fever smell like a butcher's shop, and those with the glandular disease scrofula smell like stale beer. Pictured, a patient with typhoid fever.
JAY DIRECTO/AFP/Getty Images
Odors are release not just from skin but also breath, blood and urine. Recent studies at the Karolinska Institute further revealed that the smell of urine is affected by inflammation processes within the body. Urine could therefore distinguish between the healthy and unhealthy.
Odors are release not just from skin but also breath, blood and urine. Recent studies at the Karolinska Institute further revealed that the smell of urine is affected by inflammation processes within the body. Urine could therefore distinguish between the healthy and unhealthy.
The team's next target is human breath, known to change when someone is sick, but this is harder to sample and for people to rate.
The team's next target is human breath, known to change when someone is sick, but this is harder to sample and for people to rate.
STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images
Cancer cells are thought to release compounds that differ from healthy cells, enabling the detection of a change in smell, potentially at early stages of development. At this level of subtlety, however, the human nose is ruled out. Dogs' greater sense of smell is being harnessed instead.
Cancer cells are thought to release compounds that differ from healthy cells, enabling the detection of a change in smell, potentially at early stages of development. At this level of subtlety, however, the human nose is ruled out. Dogs' greater sense of smell is being harnessed instead.
John Bonifield/CNN
How humans smell disease to stay healthy

Editor’s Note: Vital Signs is a monthly program bringing viewers health stories from around the world.

Story highlights

Smell can reveal when someone is sick due to changes in their immune activity

Body odor will vary depending on age, diet, sex, metabolism and health

A person's smell escapes not just from their skin but their breath, blood and urine

CNN  — 

Did you know you have an “odorprint”?

The smells pouring out from various parts of the body are unique to an individual, made up of select compounds that vary depending on age, diet, sex, metabolism … and health.

“Some diseases result in a characteristic odor emanating from different sources on the body of a sick individual,” said Mats Olsson, an experimental psychologist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

A person’s smell escapes not just from their skin but their breath, blood and urine and subtle differences reveal just how healthy they are.

“On average, people smell more aversive when they’re sick,” Olsson said.

Diabetes? Smells like rotten apples

Several diseases have been discovered to harbor signature scents on the body in recent studies, including people with typhoid fever reported to smell like baked bread, people with yellow fever smelling like a butcher’s shop and the glandular disease scrofula leaving people smelling like stale beer – subtle scents picked up most likely by a trained nose.

A more common disease with a trademark odor is diabetes, which is described as having notes of rotten apples, caused by low concentrations of acetone released on the breath. The change is subtle, however, and more easily picked up by a trained nose, such as that of George Preti, an organic chemist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center.

Preti has been studying body odor for more than 30 years.”I ride public transport a lot, and every now and then, I come across someone emanating a strong odor, and it’s obvious,” Preti said.

Olsson’s team set out on a more general challenge: to explore how odors can reveal when someone is sick, or recently infected. The process is thought to be evolutionary among humans who sense the change and steer clear – to stay healthy.

“People should be able to detect when someone is contagious,” said Olsson, who sniffed out the truth in a recent study.

Smelling the sick

The team injected human volunteers with lipopolysaccaharide, a compound known to activate the innate immune system and inflammatory responses in humans as if they were fighting bacteria.

By injecting eight volunteers with either the compound or a placebo, bodies were made to behave either as if they were sick or healthy. Body odors were then collected from the armpits of t-shirts worn by volunteers, ready for inspection by a panel of judges whose noses were trained for the occasion.

Ulric, a cross between a Labrador and a golden retriever, is a bit of a water baby. He loves to get into troughs of water that are left out for cattle and will retrieve his ball from the bottom a stream.
Ulric, a cross between a Labrador and a golden retriever, is a bit of a water baby. He loves to get into troughs of water that are left out for cattle and will retrieve his ball from the bottom a stream.
John Bonifield/CNN

Meet the dogs who can sniff out cancer better than some lab tests

The odors were sniffed by a panel of 40, who described their intensity and pleasantness. The odors stemming from bodies that had begun to behave as if they were sick were found to smell more aversive, proving that disease smells.

“This was the first experimental study to show that when you’re sick, you smell differently,” Olsson said.

In this instance, the change in smells didn’t distinguish between diseases but was instead a warning light – or smell – that someone was unwell as their immune system was active.

The benefits of disgust

Since the study in 2014, Olsson has been exploring the doses at which these odors can be picked up as well as the body’s response to unpleasant smells.

In more recent studies, he found that the disgust felt by people when smelling unpleasant odors activated a mild immune reaction of their own, to protect them further from disease.

Olsson tested immune reactions in people exposed to a range disgusting smells – including cheese, fermented fish and rotten yeast – and found slight increases immune activity. People’s bodies were gearing up for attack.

“Emotional disgust is there to keep us healthy,” Olsson said.

Alternative scents

Olsson has also been exploring other sources of telltale smells – including urine – and the team’s next target is breath, which is harder to sample and expose people to.

“We saw this inflammation process affected the smell of urine as well, and breath is a good indicator of some diseases,” Olsson said.

But Preti warns that when working with more metabolic odors, such as those in urine and breath, there are many other factors that come into play aside from immune activity. “These can be affected by your diet or you body’s microbiome. … This will make it harder to diagnose the situation,” Preti said.

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