»The Smell of Grapefruit Helps Women Look Younger«

March 24, 2005 (Atlanta) -- Eau de grapefruit, anyone? Don't snicker: A new study shows that the fruity aroma from grapefruit may be able to shave years off your appearance.

There's a lot of prejudice against older people in our society, says researcher Alan B. Hirsch, neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago. "A lot of it is related to how we look and how we talk. So we looked at the concept of smell.

"In the presence of the smell of pink grapefruit, women appear to be six years younger than their real age," says Hirsch.

It sure beats Botox or cosmetic surgery, he tells WebMD.

Hirsch has made a career out of smelling things -- all sorts of things. A few years ago he found that banana, green apple, and peppermint aromas can help you lose weight.

"We've also done studies on odors and sexual arousal and found a positive effect," he says.

Reporting here Monday at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, Hirsch says he recently "came to the idea of aging."

Sadly, of the three aromas studied, only grapefruit did the trick: Grape and cucumber odor had no effect on age perception whatsoever, he says.

An Overpowering Sense of Smell

For the study, 37 men and women were asked to estimate the age of a series of models in photographs while wearing masks that were infused with the various aromas and then again while wearing a regular surgical mask.

Overall, the grapefruit aroma made the participants think the models were about three years younger than they really were, Hirsch says.

But when Hirsch broke the experiment down by sex, the picture changed.

"When women were wearing the mask, there was no perceptible change in age," he says. "But for men wearing the mask, women looked six years younger."

Smell fishy? Not so, says Duke University's Marian Butterfeld, MD, MPH, chairwoman of the committee that chose which studies would be presented at the meeting.

The findings are "intriguing," she tells WebMD, and in line with other research that shows sex differences in the sense of smell.

Hirsch offers up several explanations for the phenomena. It could be that the aroma simply makes people happy and that happy people judge others in a better light, he says.

More likely, Hirsch says, is that the grapefruit aroma induced a smell memory-nostalgic effect. Another possibility is that the grapefruit aroma could have sexually aroused the men, clouding their judgment, or even could have acted as a stress buster, he says.

Butterfeld says further study is warranted.


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SOURCES: American Psychiatric Association 2005 Annual Meeting, Atlanta, May 21-26, 2005. Alan R. Hirsch, MD, neurological director, Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, Chicago. Marian Butterfeld, MD, MPH, chairman, APA scientific program committee; Duke University, Durham, N.C.