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According to aromatherapists and articles such as this, good smells boost our immune system, and conversely, bad smells deteriorate our bodies.

Is there a plausible mechanism to explain why this would happen?

Has this claim ever been validated by scientific evidence?

Sklivvz
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Thursagen
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  • Is this a "[public claim made in the media or elsewhere](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/faq)"? Or, is it just a factoid or hypothesis which you invented? – ChrisW May 16 '11 at 05:45
  • Actually, the idea came after reading [this](http://www.ambition.co.uk/news/1164-Accountants-'live-longer') – Thursagen May 16 '11 at 05:49
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    You may be suggesting the wrong cause: perhaps accountants live longer because they're relatively rich and educated, not because they have nicer things to smell. – ChrisW May 16 '11 at 05:54
  • First of all, shorter lifespan is not necessary a good catch-all measure on overall effects of health. Second, even if there is a health effect, we do not know whether it is caused by infection (the direct cause), immune system response (indirect cause), or the effect of cleaning chemicals (work-related correlation), among other factors. –  May 16 '11 at 06:52
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    The second part of your question can be separated into its own: does olfactory (sense of smell) have impact on health? That way it will not be tied to the correlation caused by the occupation (cleaners). –  May 16 '11 at 07:06
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    @third idiot I'm going to edit this to focus on the question "can smells affect the immune system" since it doesn't seem to be doing very welll as written. Can always roll it back if you feel it's necessary – Monkey Tuesday May 18 '11 at 06:35
  • What would be the characteristics of a "good smell"? Some people might rate e.g. lavender smell as "good", some as "bad", some as "ugly" (pardon the pun). – Piskvor left the building May 18 '11 at 22:41

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