How fragrances can affect health

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

There have been lively discussions about the effects of aromatherapy between scientists for quite some time. So, some are sure that odors do not have any noticeable effect on the state of the body. However, American scientists have come to a different conclusion. According to them, some scents can affect not only health, but life expectancy in general.

Scientists from the University of Michigan in the United States have shown that the perception of the smells of a delicious meal, namely the smell of carbon dioxide, is enough to shorten the life span of fruit flies by a third. According to experts, this discovery may to some extent be true for people.

The authors of the study also believe that the development of special drugs that block the perception of certain odors that correspond to the smell of food, may in the future help to increase the life expectancy of people.

The work of a team of scientists led by Scott Pletcher is based on the well-known phenomenon of increasing the lifespan of various types of animals, from worms to monkeys, while sharply limiting the amount of food they consume. Scientists associate this effect, which can also be observed in humans, with a slowdown in metabolic processes, which, in turn, slows down the aging of the body as a whole.

Back in 2004, a group of scientists led by Cynthia Kenyon showed that removing olfactory neurons also led to a noticeable increase in the lifespan of roundworms.

Nevertheless, until recently, scientists did not know exactly what kind of substances contained in the aroma of food can affect life expectancy.

In his work, Pletcher showed that the smell of carbon dioxide, the receptors of which were recently discovered in this species of flies, may be responsible for the change in the lifespan of fruit flies when inhaling food aromas, RIA Novosti writes. At the same time, the lack of sensitivity to CO2, which helps the flies to find food sources, did not prevent them from remaining strong and healthy individuals and bringing a normal amount of healthy offspring.

The authors explain this effect by the same slowing down of metabolic processes, which are activated by the aroma of available food. This condition helps to conserve the body's resources, which leads to an increase in life expectancy.