Posted on 01/05/2008 6:11:15 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Wearing too much perfume 'signals depression'
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
Last Updated: 3:29pm GMT 04/01/2008
Women who wear too much perfume may be suffering from depression, scientists have said.
The sense of smell appears to be impaired in people with the condition meaning they use more scent.
Smell is already known to have a profound effect on mood and memory with shops and retailers using aromas to induce shoppers to buy certain products.
But a team at Tel Aviv University have found that certain diseases cause the body to attack the olfactory system which governs the ability to detect smells.
This means an impaired sense of smell could be a pointer to serious conditions.
The team suggest depression could have a biological cause rather than being just a psychological disorder and other studies have confirmed patients with depression have a loss of sense of smell and when their condition is treated their senses improve.
Prof Yehuda Shoenfeld, a member of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University is an expert in autoimmune disorders such as arthritis, lupus and rheumatism where the body attacks its own cells.
He found that one of the autoantibodies attacked the olfactory system weakening the sense of smell and inducing depression.
"Our scientific findings suggest that women who are depressed are also losing their sense of smell, and may overcompensate by using more perfume.
"We also believe that depression has biological roots and may be an immune system response to certain physiological cues," he said.
The findings can be applied more widely than just to patients suffering with autoimmune disorders, Prof Shoenfeld said.
"People who are depressed seem to respond well to aromatherapy. Certain smells seem to help them overcome the effects of the biological factors, suggesting that depression may have a biological cause.
"I think that science is able to show that aromatherapy might not be just for quacks. After all, some of these remedies have been used since the time of the Egyptians to treat organic diseases."
He suggested that a "smell test" could be used by doctors to help diagnose depression as well as autoimmune diseases.
Other studies have questioned if depression is a result of a reduced ability to smell rather than the other way around as the condition is also linked to weight loss as people lose their appetite.
Scientists have also used electrodes to establish that the brains of people with depression are less responsive to smells and picked up scents later and at stronger concentrations.
Sudden exhibitionism reflects the anxiety about getting old.
On the other hand, I think what is mentioned above is the product of solid research.
Ping!
There is another and very likely possibility..... the woman with too much perfume stinks
i guess that all the Nigerian/middle eastern cab drivers in Houston and New york are all on suicide watch.
:)
Regardless ... it’s inconsiderate of others to wear too much perfume, and in many cases, to wear any at all.
When you are dining, sitting in close proximity and many other occasions, just don’t wear any.
particularly when getting on a bus having not bathed in two months...
underneath all that icky sweetly syrupy sick perfume.
(Just lost my desire for breakfast!)
I’m thinking of one woman I used to work with ... lots of perfume. And lots of CHEAP perfume.
Does this apply to the youth sporting the flashy ghetto look and using gallons of stinky cologne and using body washes like Axe? From what I have observed, it does.
Great, now we have more ‘symptoms’ of depression to sell more happy pills.
Can’t women just simply have bad taste in perfume or a lower sense of smell? Why do they have to be ‘depressed’.
You are so right. The other night at dinner a party came in and sat at our next table. The man! had some cologne on that almost choked me. There was no way I could even breathe. The wait staff totally understood and quickly moved us one table over. Another party was seated at that table and both of them kept putting their napkins up to their noses during dinner. I could still smell the cologne two tables away.
Impaired Olfactory Identification in Relatives of Patients with Familial Schizophrenia
The Mods are curious: what would possess you to post this under Foreign Affairs & Technical?
I fart in your general direction Lord Dictator.
Yeah, I’ve been exposed to that too. Also nauseating.
But I hope she at least bathed!?
Boy, I would rather smell purfume than some of the obnoxious smells people carry with theirselves in the city.
Eau de flatulence?
Eggzactly!
It is rather specific about physiological details, even though their title can be rather skewed.
Well, when I read the title, I thought it was about the French. Does that count?
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