Odortype

In the same way that your brain and your fingerprints are unique, you possess a unique odor. (Those with a kinesthetic sensory system are especially sensitive to odortype.) According to researchers, your odortype, your genetically determined body odor, acts like an olfactory nametag. This helps to distinguish one person from another. It may even play a part in your selection of a partner or mate. Your odortype is determined in part by genes in a genomic region called the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which plays a role in the immune system. The type of food you eat can influence your body odor; garlic for example, especially if you eat a lot of it. Can you completely mask or alter your odortype by what you eat? Apparently not. Studies have shown that chemical analyses could still detect an underlying odortype. According to study author Gary Beauchamp, a behavioral biologist, this suggests that electric sensors can be developed to detect individual odor types as well as body odor differences linked with diseases. These sensors potentially could assist even with early detection and rapid diagnosis of conditions such as skin and lung cancers and perhaps some specific viral diseases.