MOSCOW, June 26, Tatyana Pichugina. Each person has an individual smell. It can tell a lot about nutrition, health, bad habits and exposure to external factors. And also, as scientists have found out, it can cause allergic reactions.
Fear of your own smell
It seemed to the eighteen-year-old girl that her face was distorted, she constantly looked in the mirror, tried to correct the «ugliness» with her hands. Her parents assured her that everything was fine, but her daughter suffered: she believed that her peers were making fun of her.
On the Internet, she found communities where people talked about similar problems, which they called «allergic to me» (people allergic to me, or PATM).
As a result, the girl ended up in the psychiatric department of the Peking University Medical School. No diseases, including mental ones, were identified by experts. They prescribed a course of drug treatment, and a month later the patient got rid of a strange ailment.
An article describing this case was published in a scientific journal in 2019. It was about dysmorphophobia — a mental disorder in which a person is overly concerned with defects or features of his own body. “The disease occurs in 0.7-2.4 percent of the population,” the paper states. “For the majority, it begins in adolescence and does not go away for a long time.” According to the authors, the «allergy to me» is psychiatric in nature.
Skin fumes
Individual odor consists of many components and depends mainly on hygiene, clothing, cosmetics and perfumes. Volatile compounds that are synthesized by the body itself or produced by bacteria living on the body make their contribution.
The smell of a person can be unpleasant, it causes discomfort to others — and nothing more. Another thing is when skin gases cause allergies — sneezing, redness of the eyes, itching, runny nose. One of the community members on Reddit tells his story: “A few years ago, a bad smell began to come from me — it seemed to me more from my mouth. Then it decreased, but my body also smelled unpleasant. I go into the room — and every third person starts allergic reactions «.
Those who publish such messages have a lot in common: natural shyness, unsuccessful attempts at treatment. Often doctors simply did not believe the stories of patients. People with PATM experience great difficulties in everyday life and at work, they are turned away by friends, others are showered with ridicule. photo» data-crop-ratio=»0.66640625″ data-crop-width=»600″ data-crop-height=»400″ data-source-sid=»not_rian_photo» class=»lazyload» width=»1920″ height= «1280» decoding=»async» />
Chemists take over
In 2018, Japanese scientists paid attention to PATM. A 35-year-old resident of Tokyo asked for help, and experts decided to check whether his skin really emits volatile substances that smell bad or provoke allergies. After collecting samples with a miniature gas trap, the researchers found an increased concentration of toluene and xylene, which can cause a reaction in sensitive people. In addition, pathogenic bacteria have been isolated from the nasal mucosa, which, multiplying on the skin, leave waste products with a rotten smell.
In June, Scientific Reports published an article with the results of a larger work on the study of PATM. The participants in the experiment were 44 people, of whom 20 suffered from this condition. Volunteers took samples of skin gases themselves and sent them to the laboratory of Tokai University.
Experts analyzed 75 skin gases. As it turned out, nine of them, including toluene and xylene, are present in the samples of participants with PATM in greater quantities. Other studies have shown that these substances enter the body while working in chemical laboratories and then exit through the skin. Toluene is also found in the skin gases of smokers — even passive ones. » data-crop-width=»600″ data-crop-height=»715″ data-source-sid=»depositphotos» class=»m-vertical lazyload» width=»1920″ height=»2288″ decoding=»async » />
In the skin gases of people with RATM, the content of such volatile substances as methanethiol and ethanethiol (with the smell of spoiled cabbage), allyl methyl sulfide (with the smell of garlic) is exceeded. In addition, isovaleric aldehyde was found, a product of the reaction of leukocyte antigens with skin microflora. Elevated concentrations of acetone, which serves as a biomarker for the breakdown of fats in the absence of carbohydrates in the body, indicate malnutrition.
All these gases are normally emitted in very small concentrations, but even the slightest fluctuation can change the smell of the whole body, the authors of the work say. And in the group of people with PATM, the level of these substances was exceeded dozens of times.
Scientists cannot explain the difference in composition and concentration of skin gases between people with PATM and those who do not. All participants in the experiment have different professions, lifestyles, and habits. No relationship was found with age or gender. However, some compounds, according to the researchers, can be considered as markers. For example, toluene is not synthesized in the body: it gets inside with air, and from there — into the blood. The main part decomposes and is excreted in the urine, the rest evaporates through the skin. It turns out that the ratio of the content of toluene and its decay products can be used to diagnose «allergy to me».
There are two more substances that strongly affect body odor — octanal, which is synthesized during oxidative stress in the body, and hexanal, which is formed during breakdown of lipids. Increased evaporation of these gases through the skin is associated with mental disorders that are not uncommon in people with PATM. According to the researchers, this condition requires further study by specialists of various profiles. «0.665714285714286» data-crop-width=»600″ data-crop-height=»399″ data-source-sid=»not_rian_photo» class=»lazyload» width=»1920″ height=»1278″ decoding=»async» />