With age, the skin may emit a bad odor that is difficult to get rid of through various personal care methods, but an elderly care specialist revealed a common superfood that can help them regain a fresh body scent, according to an article published in the British "Daily Mail." It should be emphasized that the sour and unpleasant smell, according to scientists, is a real chemical process that develops with age.
Leslie Kenny, an expert in the field of aging health, explained that eating mushrooms up to four times a week can help get rid of the smell. The odor is caused by a compound called 2-noninal, which is produced when omega-7 fatty acids break down in the skin’s natural oils, called sebum, through oxidation.
With age, the body produces fewer antioxidants that protect skin fat from breaking down. At the same time, skin cell regeneration slows down, allowing the chemical compound 2-noninal to accumulate and persist.
This phenomenon was first documented in a Japanese study from 2010, which found that 2-noninal exists only in people over the age of 40, regardless of gender or personal hygiene habits.
“This was the first study to show that the ‘distinct scent of older adults’ develops later in life,” said Kenny. “The problem is worsened by the fact that older people simply do not regenerate their skin cells as quickly as younger people, which means that ‘rusty’ skin accumulates and emits a stronger odor.”
The smell often settles into the skin, clothing, and bedding, and even the most rigorous personal grooming habits cannot completely remove it.
Mushrooms may offer a promising solution, as they contain two rare compounds, ergothioneine and spermidine, which work from within the body to combat the formation of 2-noninal.
Ergothioneine is a powerful natural amino acid and antioxidant that protects skin fat from breaking down into 2-noninal. Of course, the human body cannot produce ergothioneine, but it is only found in high levels in mushrooms.
At the same time, spermidine promotes autophagy, the process by which old and damaged cells are broken down and replaced.
“Eating spermidine-rich plants regularly, including mushrooms, legumes, peas, and soybeans, can also trigger autophagy,” said Kenny.
“Champignon mushroom extract directly inhibits the production of toxic odor compounds in the body,” the researchers wrote, reducing levels of ammonia and methyl mercaptan, gut-related compounds known to cause unpleasant smells.
Laboratory tests showed that it helped break down these sulfur-based byproducts into odorless forms, effectively neutralizing the smell.
In another study published in the journal Food Chemistry, researchers from the University of Turku, Finland, analyzed the natural odor compounds in Nordic wild mushrooms and found chemicals such as 2-noninal associated with body odor that develops with age. The researchers found that the mushrooms contain substances that can inhibit the skin process responsible for those odors.
The researchers discovered that “the flavor compounds in mushrooms originate from linoleic acid, the same fatty acid that breaks down into 2-noninal in human skin,” and emphasized that edible mushroom species “contain natural pathways to regulate this breakdown process.”