Just sniffing certain smells could help heal skin, according to new research.
For the first time odorant cells have been discovered to exist not just in the nose, as previously thought, but in the skin too.
Research carried out the at the Technical University of Munich and published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology has found that olfactory receptors, which are the those that respond to smell, as also in the skin’s epidermis.
In fact the new research has found that the majority of smell receptors are in the skin with only a small percentage in the nose, meaning that the skin could be far more receptive to the effects of smell than the nose.
The research had found five different types of smell receptors in the skin.
Certain smells, such as a synthetic version of the essential oil sandalwood, were found to trigger the production of cloned ‘smell’ cells in the skin, which in turn increased the production of skin cell turnover.
The researchers concluded that this chain reaction in skin production triggered by smell could dramatically speed up would healing or improve skin barrier function in skin conditions like eczema.
