# Smell receptors throughout the body



## sagehill (Oct 27, 2014)

Fascinating NYTimes article about body smell receptors that help healing...so Aromatherapy is good after all!



> Smell Turns Up in Unexpected Places
> Over the last decade or so, scientists have discovered that odor  receptors are not solely confined to the nose, but found throughout body  — in the liver, the heart, the kidneys and even sperm — where they play  a pivotal role in a host of physiological functions.
> 
> Now, a team of biologists at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany has  found that our skin is bristling with olfactory receptors. “More than 15  of the olfactory receptors that exist in the nose are also found in  human skin cells,” said the lead researcher, Dr. Hanns Hatt. Not only  that, but exposing one of these receptors (colorfully named OR2AT4) to a  synthetic sandalwood odor known as Sandalore sets off a cascade of  molecular signals that appears to induce healing in injured tissue.
> ...


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## El_Granado_Loco (Nov 21, 2014)

Impressive!!


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## navigator9 (Nov 21, 2014)

Thank you for that! Years ago, I read a fascinating book, "A Natural History of the Senses" by Diane Ackerman. I've always found our sense of smell amazing. I love that a fragrance has the ability to spark a memory from many years ago, that you didn't even know was there. Smell it, and you're instantly back in your grammar school art class, sniffing poster paint, or at a carnival, in front of the cotton candy stand. That memory may be long buried, but it's been lying there all along, waiting to be awakened by that fragrance wafting by. One day, I was at a perfume counter, smelling samples, and suddenly, I thought, "Aunt Lil!" I looked at the bottle. It was White Shoulders. My aunt Lil had been long gone, and I never knew the name of the perfume she wore, but in that instant, she could have been standing next to me. Our fragrance memory is a powerful thing.So if it can induce healing, that's no surprise to me.


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## Dahila (Nov 21, 2014)

Yes no surprise here, we have no idea how our body works, but it is complex.  Even nice smelling soap in shower introduce calm, give us the bust starting the day )
Thank you for interesting link


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