r/self • u/Calm-Cucumber-252 • 5d ago

I can smell when people have cancer

Believe it or not, I can smell when someone has cancer. It is the most pungent smell ever, and only gets worse the stronger it is. As a child, my grandpa started smelling funny, and after a while he was diagnosed with cancer. The smell got stronger as his cancer did, until he passed away. I thought nothing of it until my Nan on the other side started smelling the same way, and it got stronger until she eventually got diagnosed and passed away too. That’s when I started thinking wait maybe I can smell cancer (or maybe it’s just a coincidence). I started smelling the smell at varying strengths for people in public, and always kinda thought in the back of my head oh man I think they’ve got cancer. However, it wasn’t until my OTHER granddad got cancer and had to stay in hospital and at 17 I got to go visit him in a hospice specifically for cancer patients. I could hardly walk in the building. There it was again - that SMELL! Do people secrete certain chemicals when they have cancer? I have a strong sense of smell so I could possibly pick up on it. It’s definitely not when they’re going through chemo, because I can smell it on people who haven’t started chemo yet. I am genuinely going crazy trying to find an answer. This smell is horrendous and I just don’t understand why I can smell it when nobody else seemingly can??

Edit: on a long car journey rn, feeling a bit car sick so won’t be replying to any more comments for a while. This isn’t an April fools, I’ll repost it tomorrow if u really don’t believe! Will be contacting more research places too :)

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186

u/WasteNet2532 5d ago

I cant smell cancer but I can smell when someones going to pass soon/their body is giving out on them. It isnt coined "the sweet smell of death" for no reason. Its a weird sweet/sharpie smell.

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u/Thursday_the_20th 5d ago

IIRC it’s something to do with organ failure and the feedback it has on metabolism causing an accumulation of ketones that have a distinctive sickly smell.

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u/OkForever9560 5d ago

Is that similar to the smell on someone's breath when they become a type 1 diabetic? There can be a very strong acetone smell there, and it is something that is pretty obvious if they look for it.

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u/dontmesswithtess1121 5d ago

You’re thinking of ketoacidosis. A person in that state will smell of oranges, specifically their breath will smell like oranges. It indicates a diabetic crisis and requires emergency treatment.

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u/StoppableHulk 5d ago

Of course the one thing that might make my breath smell good is a life threatening emergency

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u/shaddowdemon 5d ago

Yeah. Kidney failure also has a very distinctive smell. At first, it just smells like a kind of bad breath. When it progresses to essentially complete renal failure, it will start to be sweat out the entire body as well. I believe it's basically just ammonia.

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u/Mareith 5d ago

When you're diabetic ketones build up in your blood as you don't have insulin to absorb the glucose in your blood so your body starts breaking down fat which produces the ketones

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u/fluffywaggin 5d ago

Yes, it's similar but the diabetic scent is more of a pure scent. The death scent smells partially of mouldering decay.

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u/fablesofferrets 5d ago

fun fact, alcohol and even just being on the keto diet have the same effect lol

i think diabetes as well

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u/Chronic_Alcoholism 5d ago

Can confirm. The sweat from alcohol withdrawal has that sickly sweet smell

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u/ratratratcatratrat 5d ago

Opiate withdrawal has a very pungent odour (to me at least), which was annoying when in withdrawal in a rehab/hospital as I couldn’t escape from it; everyone, including me, stank of this almost sickly sour scent. Now I have an annoying superpower of spotting people coming off opiates, yay.

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u/Halogen12 5d ago

Sounds right to me. When my mom was in hospice (ovarian cancer), she hadn't eaten for a month and her body was starting to shut down. It wasn't a gross smell, just different. Sweaty, musty.

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u/-effortlesseffort 5d ago

wow that's terrifying

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u/Grand_Lavishness7549 5d ago

Oh no, i've smelled this on my dad for a couple of months now. It's a strong, sweetish and a bit rotten smell. I have a gut-feeling something's not right but how do i tell him.. "please go see a doctor you smell funny"?

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u/brightirene 5d ago

"Dad, I noticed your natural scent has changed and I'm worried something could be wrong. Please go to the doctor."

If he asks what the smell is, be straight with him. You'll be more likely to get him to the doctor with honesty.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/genflugan 5d ago

Right I can’t even fathom my dad listening to me about something like this. Or anything really. That’s why I went no contact with him a year and a half ago

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u/RealisticrR0b0t 3d ago

Maybe even mention this thread and how it made you think you should tell him

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u/Crazy-Age1423 5d ago

I would say it exactly like that. And if he laughs it off, just say "I have heard a lot about this, so would you, please, just do some blood tests, for my peace of mind".

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u/SuperHyperFunTime 5d ago

"Dad, look this sounds weird but some people are suggesting they can smell when people are really ill. I can smell something with you. Can you please go see a Doctor? What's the worst that happens if I'm wrong? You get to call me a silly goose and we tell this story for years. Please will you do this for me? I love you and I would hate if anything happened to you".

The guilt if you don't try isn't worth it.

Wanna know how I know what that guilt feels Iike?

At my Dad's funeral, who had passed from cancer, a friend of ours said her husband (a guy from my year in school) didn't come as he was feeling really unwell and kept falling asleep and ached with weird pains. I VIVIDLY recall my wife and I looking at each other after she walked off saying "um, that sounds like cancer right?". I felt stupid because I'm at my fucking Father's funeral, who has just died from cancer so everyone is gonna assume I just fucking see cancer everywhere. That was March 2017. February 2018 I'm back at the same crematorium saying goodbye to that friend at the age of 39.

It fucking haunts me.

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u/Air_Neither 5d ago

Maybe just tell him you had a very vivid dream about him being sick and you had a dead relative warn you to tell him to go to the Dr…? My stubborn dad wouldn’t have gone for a smell. But maybe if his grandma came to me and warned me

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u/Grand_Lavishness7549 4d ago

Good idea but he's a very strict atheist and doesn't believe anything without scientific evidence. He would probably say it's me who needs to see a doctor if i tried that 😄

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u/Advanced-Macaroon-10 3d ago

Jesus Christ, i know that smell, that's my granddad's smell... he died of some kind of gastrointestinal cancer... i know that smell!

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u/mikedomert 1d ago

Read about lactic acid and other metabolites that cancer and other illness causes. Luckily it is often fixable with improving the metabolic rate and mitochondrial dysfunction

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u/groovychick 5d ago

For months i could smell a vinegar-like smell on the sheets on my partner’s side of the bed. Then he had a massive heart attack. He recovered after getting a bunch of stents put in. Now i no longer smell it.

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u/HungryHobbits 5d ago

That’s so freaking weird. My dad passed in August from a heart attack and for a while, when I would be lying in the bed he slept in, I kept getting this really weird whiff…. almost like vinegar mixed with mildew. I thought there mood in the wall or something. ….

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u/Far-Card5288 5d ago

Man. My coworker smells like this right now. It's so strong I can't even be in the same room as him and I can tell when he was in the office even up to an hour after he left.

He's very overweight and has super high cholesterol. He even told us last month his doctor was concerned and put him on some new meds for his blood pressure but "they make him feel funny so he thinks he's fine."

His parents both died of a heart attack in their 50s. He is in his 50s.

Hm.

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u/Orchid_Significant 3d ago

Might want to show him this

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u/onlyhalfpolish 5d ago

As a nurse, I agree with this. During my training, I spent some time in Intensive Care and you can genuinely smell brain death (hypoxic brain injuries) on someone’s breath. It’s like a sickly sweet acetone-y smell, supposedly a chemical released by dying brain tissue.

If you’re curious, Google “neuro breath”

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u/BabaTheBlackSheep 5d ago

Neuro breath is AWFUL! Apparently one of the theories is that it’s related to the breakdown of glutamate, which is found in large amounts in brain tissue

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u/getrobo 5d ago

"i can tell that right this second your consciousness is fading away" hi thats horrifying

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u/Impossible_Pen4714 1d ago

I can smell ketones on my husband's breath at night often, or I'm assuming that's it bc the smell is kinda like nail polish remover to me. It's been that way for over ten years now so presumably it's not the smell of his brain dying but um... Hmmmm

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u/louielou8484 5d ago

Oh no. I had a sharpie smell to myself for a while that came up out of nowhere. It was so bizarre but I just shrugged my shoulders. It went away but periodically makes an appearance. I tried looking it up multiple times and only found a couple other posts on forums. Reading this just made me freeze and I will be making a doctor's appointment.

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u/m-in 5d ago

It’s the smell of ketoacidosis. When you do smell it again on yourself, get your blood tested. It’s a simple test that can make a big difference.

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u/goodgodling 5d ago

It's possible they won't be able to figure it out without any other symptoms. You should go anyway just so they know.

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u/Vipu2 5d ago

What is "sharpie"?

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u/Orchid_Significant 3d ago

It’s a brand of permanent marker in the US

0

u/newInnings 5d ago

Whiteboard marker /sketch pen

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u/Advanced-Macaroon-10 3d ago

Do you go long periods without eating or adhere to a low carb diet?

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u/Cute_Beanie 5d ago

I second this. I work in a nursing home and can smell when one of my residents is about to pass. It makes me feel sick when I smell it.

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u/grasshopper_jo 5d ago

My ex is a nurse and for him and many other nurses, there are certain smells that they learn about from experience that they sometimes encounter in everyday life. The smell of impending death is one, diabetes is another

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u/BabaTheBlackSheep 5d ago

The smell of kidney failure…that’s what confirmed the decision to put down our family dog. He was hit by a car last month while on a walk, broke a leg, had a detached kidney, and a spinal injury. Due to spinal shock (persistent low blood pressure) from the injury, his remaining kidney failed. The vet said they could repair his leg and remove the detached kidney with a 50% chance of making it through the surgery but from the smell I knew he would end up in kidney failure anyways. Crushing injuries like this have a high risk of renal damage to begin with from the breakdown products of muscle/tissue, plus the low blood flow for a prolonged time… But the smell is what confirmed it for me. He didn’t smell like “a clean dog napping in a sunbeam” the way he always did, he smelled like a dying patient. If only love could have saved you, Damion ❤️

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u/Expensive-Pin861 4d ago

I'm so sorry for the loss of your boy 💔

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u/BabaTheBlackSheep 3d ago

Thank you ❤️ He was the best boy, so friendly and gentle. I wish I could attach a photo to show you, he was a German shepherd/Staffordshire terrier and we called him the “counterfeit shepherd” because he had the colouring and ears of a shepherd but the smaller size and giant head from the Staffie side

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u/darkthemeonly 5d ago

My wife can too. Smelled it on both her parents with the smell increasing as they died over months. She said our dog smelled the same way before she died too.

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u/Fearless_Practice_57 5d ago

Diabetics have this smell, no?

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u/airbarne 5d ago

I think this is likely some state of ketosis

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u/mom_bombadill 5d ago

Is it the chemically ketones smell? I can smell that and I always associate it with my children when they were hungry.

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u/Due-Froyo-5418 5d ago

I just commented above .. my dog started smelling sweet a few weeks before he passed. I was very curious about that smell. Maybe that was it?

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u/WingsOfTin 5d ago

I've smelled this with pet cats who were dying, "sickly sweet" is how I described it. :(

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u/dancingpianofairy 5d ago

Ever met anyone with myalgic encephalomyelitis? Our bodies give out on us, but we don't usually die. So I'm wondering where we'd stack up.

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u/milrose404 5d ago

I have ME and can confirm the sweet sickly scent kicks in when I have really bad flares.

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u/dancingpianofairy 5d ago

Fascinating

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u/Majestic_Anxiety3622 5d ago

100 percent. Aikido acidosis or similar

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u/Bytehandle 5d ago

aikido acidosis

r/boneappletea

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u/louSs1993 5d ago

Yes! I can smell this too. Sickly sweet and really pungent. Not a nice smell at all

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u/PM_ME_Happy_Thinks 5d ago

Sickly sweet

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u/National_Register208 5d ago

I can if someone is in ketosis, and i'd also describe it as a sweet/sharpie smell. weird. bodies are weird.

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u/Ok_Awareness3860 5d ago

But the sweet smell assosciated with death refers to decomposition, which starts after you die.

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u/VanGoghPro 5d ago

Former hospice nurse, yes.

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u/owntheh3at18 5d ago

I’ve smelled this before and thought it was just hospital cleaning products or something. Interesting

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u/fluffywaggin 5d ago

Sweet and rotten, in a volatile kind of way. There's something raw about it. I hate that scent. Nothing like smelling that on a loved one and knowing.

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u/Many-Secretary-5098 5d ago

This smell can also mean they are about to get sick (flu or cold) or if they have diabetes it could spell complications. I can also strongly smell key tones… it’s great when you have kids so you know you’re probably about to get sick when they cough in your eye… and also ants. I can smell ants.

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u/Snoo-11861 5d ago

I know that smell as well. I’ve worked in healthcare for 9 years. I can smell it when they’re close 

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u/st3ady 5d ago

I too can smell this! Thanks for posting.

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u/queen_beruthiel 4d ago

I've smelt that on people before too. I knew my husband's grandmother was in a really bad way because she smelt so strongly of that "dying" smell. I told him to be ready for her to go soon, but he couldn't smell anything different about her. I smelt in on my grandmother, and patients when I was a nurse, so I knew it well. It permeated the whole house until she passed away. After she died, the house went back to smelling totally normal again.

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u/FiraliaDev 4d ago

Same, I smelt it on my cat in her final days, and very occasionally I get a whiff of it again from unknown sources.

It's such a strange smell. Not very nice, but I put up with it to spend time with my cat 😔

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u/NarrativeCurious 4d ago

It is, isn't it? It's an odd smell. I definitely know what OP means too about cancer, there is a smell I've smelled as well.

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u/Ecstatic_Bowler_3048 3d ago edited 3d ago

Oh damn, I smelled this on an older woman when I was in a psych ward (I was there for ED treatment, so nothing hallucination-related). I remember thinking she smelled like rotten flowers and had a feeling it was because she was dying but couldn't explain why I thought that. She wasn't old old, maybe like 60, so I assumed I was just not thinking right or something, considering I was already in a psych ward. I was discharged a few days later, so idk what the outcome was.

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u/Waste_Training_244 2d ago

I've noticed this too. I've had two cats of mine pass in their old age and they both had that sweet/rotten smell to them for a few days before they passed. I was also around a terminal cancer patient who was in hospice in the home I was living in. Same smell before he passed. I smell it in old people homes too.

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u/jesstarmer 1d ago

My grandad had this when he died of cancer, it was such a strong smell that was really overwhelming/overpowering and I felt like I couldn’t get away from it for ages. The teddy that he had with him also smelt of it afterwards

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u/MintTea-FkYou 1d ago

Kind of like prunes? Or sweet, black licorice?

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u/WasteNet2532 1d ago

More like black licorice except without any strong kick after biting into it

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u/MintTea-FkYou 1d ago

I've smelled it before. Just before our family dog passed, she had this smell.

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u/vandrokash 5d ago

Same. For example all the hitchhikers and prostitutes I picked up had the same smell before they went