Measure health through body odor

Everyone's sweat glands secrete very characteristic smells. It not only reflects the level of personal hygiene or the concentration of chemical components in your body, but according to Loughborough University's latest research, body odor is also one of the criteria. Help reflect the health status of each person.

What does the taste of the body say?

Although it is a characteristic characteristic of each body, most of the body odor is not pleasant and not everyone can accept this fact. The problem is that despite finding ways to fix it, the body odor still arises every day on our body and it is one of the factors reflecting the very clear health condition. Any physical changes or abnormal biochemical reactions that occur in the body can affect and cause changes in the body's odor. However, not everyone easily discovers this change. Research on the fastest-smelling olfactory animals has resulted: Some animals have a sharp sense of smell like dogs have the ability to detect subtle odor changes and are difficult to detect.

The body odor from each person contains a lot of very volatile chemical components, mainly organic ingredients (VOCs). They are collected and produced by processes such as: metabolism takes place in the human body, the process of digesting food, the elimination process and especially skin excretion. These odorless organic ingredients are mostly released from the body through sweat glands located under the pores all over the body's skin surface. They also escape to other ways such as through breathing, saliva and human urine.

Studies and analyzes show that the composition of the body odor is very diverse and complex. They change composition and concentration depending on many factors including: food, weather, health status and even the emotional state of people. Therefore, scientists believe that, based on analyzing the body odor and the unusual change of smell, we can fully identify our health status. Tests on odor concentrations for some volunteers showed that the body odor of the same person in different states: hunger, thirst, stress . is very different, they have a change Significant changes in the amount of chemical components are released.

Detecting cancer through body odor

The incident began to attract the attention of the scientific community when it was discovered: a shepherd dog in Belgium has the ability to smell the smell of patients with prostate cancer. 91% accurate, this shepherd dog has caused many people to ask the question: Is the cancer smelling different from normal healthy people? According to scientific explanations, when an abnormal change occurs in the body, such as the appearance of strange cells and cancerous tumors that interfere with the normal functioning of an organ in the body. The characteristic body odor may change.

However, there are also some theories: When the body is sick, such as cancer, cancer cells have a different smell and that is the reason the sheep shepherds discovered sick. Looking for a real answer to the above questions, scientists from Loughborough University, UK, after repeatedly conducting experiments concluded in patients with prostate cancer, in the urine sample of they have a huge change in chemical composition, smell and the sensitive nose of sheepdogs that can easily identify it. Similarly, body odor and body odor changes are not only factors for cancer detection, but can also help detect more physical changes and other health conditions of humans. .

Hair follicles and sweat glands form a single structure and function.

Application in electronic nose development

Stemming from the fact that some dogs can smell and detect cancer cells, but to train dogs with such professional detection capability is costly and impossible. wide practice. In order to develop this unique way of detecting the disease, scientists at Loughborough University in the UK have also developed the idea of ​​creating 'electronic noses ' with the ability to sharpen the sense of smell that can support the present doctors in early detection of the germ of this incurable disease. They studied this type of electronic device with super sensitive sensors (which are specialized sensor devices used in detecting and warning earthquakes in areas at risk of natural disasters, disaster).

These super sensors will be mounted inside electronic nose devices to detect changes in the chemical composition of body odor. And when there is an abnormal change in the concentration of chemicals in it, they will record and gather information and give an alarm signal to the electronic nose device. GS. Paul Thomas, head of the research group at Loughborough University, said this is an extremely useful application for science, especially in the detection of germs of dangerous diseases. Also according to GS. Thomas, with information on changes in chemical concentrations in the body odor component that electronic noses can provide, can allow scientists to analyze, clarify processes. changes and changes in metabolic processes taking place inside the body. This indicates the trend of forming any risks or pathogens in the patient's body and healthy people.