Old people really do smell - that's right, science has proven that the elderly has body odor that is distinct from that of younger people.
The good news? Old people actually don't smell bad:
Research conducted at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia had 41 young people ages 20 to 30 sniff body-odor samples collected from 41 donors from three age groups: “young” (20-30 years old), “middle-age” (45-55) and “old-age” (75-95). They were asked to rate the scents’ intensity and pleasantness, determine which ones came from old donors, and estimate the age of each sample’s donor.
The samples were gathered via pads affixed to the underarms of T-shirts that the donors wore every night for five nights. Steps were taken to keep other smells, such as those from soap, detergent, cologne, medications or spicy foods, from skewing the scents. [...]
The young sniffers correctly identified the age groups from which the sample sets were taken. They were better able to guess the ages of the people from the old group than younger donors’ ages. And while they found the scents from the older people’s armpits distinctive, they didn’t find them unpleasant or intense.
At least not bad like the body odor of young and middle-aged people: Link