Download Human Scent

Human Scent
No matter how hard we try to stay clean by showering, washing our hair, or changing into clean clothes, each of us has an
odor or scent that is ours and ours alone.
Skin cells contain our genetic make-up. Medications and changes in our age and health affect our body’s chemical
structure. Other human chemicals such as pheromones, hormones, adrenaline, etc., all affect our scent. Trained dogs can
detect skin cancer and on-coming epileptic seizures.
Skin glands secrete by-products of everything we consume on the surface of our skin, which also carries residue of the
soap we use, lotions, laundry detergent and everything we use in our daily lives.
Skin structure and secretions differ between races: for example, Caucasian and Black people have more sweat glands
than Asians.
Skins cells carry scent emitted from:
Eccrine Sweat Glands – regulate body temperature and respond to emotions. More concentrated in feet, hands and
forehead.
Apocrine Sweat Glands –activated by emotions and tend to give off more odor than Eccrine Glands. These glands also
secrete Pheromones and Adrenaline. Located at the base of hair follicles in the arm pits and groin.
Sweat – clear liquid consisting of water, sodium, calcium, chloride, potassium, bicarbonate, urea and other body
secretions such as amino acids.
Sebaceous Glands – located at the base of hair follicles on your scalp, face and upper torso. They open directly to the
skin and emit fatty oils, called sebum, that spread over the skin.
Bacterial Buddies –such as mites, fungus, yeasts and viruses can never be completely removed by washing.
We are constantly shedding our outside skin layer. Skin cells or “rafts” are shed at a rate of approximately 40,000 per
minute or roughly 57 million per day. Rafts are also expelled every time we exhale.
Our body temperature is usually warmer than the surrounding air, so as heat rises, each of us are enveloped in a thermal
wind that travels upwards at approximately 1.5 miles per hour. As the air rises around us, it carries skin rafts upwards until
they clear the tops of our head, where they are caught by atmospheric winds.
As rafts are caught by atmospheric winds, the heavier rafts fall close to the source getting caught in anything that will
catch and hold rafts. Lighter rafts will travel and land further away.
Each skin cell or “raft” contains bacteria that start feeding on the cell as soon as it leaves the body. This bacteria emits a
vaporous gas or “scent”. Rafts continue to produce scent as long as moisture and nutrients from the skin cell last.
Once skin rafts fall away from us, many things affect the life span of the bacteria living on it.
Temperature – Too hot or to cold… bacteria can only thrive in perfect temperatures.
Humidity - Each skin raft is about 80% water, which is necessary for bacteria to grow. Humidity in the air also affects
bacterial growth.
Light – Ultra-violet light from the sun can kill bacteria and heat from the sun can dry up necessary moisture.
Chemicals – Residues from items such as soap or laundry detergent also affect bacterial growth.
Skin rafts that have dried out, may be re-hydrated again when dew forms or with a light rain or mist. The moisture can
reactivate bacterial growth. As the ground warms in the morning, heat rises up carrying scent with it and the scent
becomes airborne again.