The belly button may conceal more than just skin and sweat residue, as researchers have found that the volatile substances that accumulate in it may carry a chemical signature linked to a person's health status.
The navel naturally accumulates dead skin cells, sebum (oily secretions), and sweat, along with bacteria that feed on these substances. This mixture produces a range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), molecules that are easily dispersed in the air and whose composition can change depending on what is happening inside the body.
Based on this, a scientific team investigated the possibility of using these compounds to detect patterns associated with certain diseases, by analyzing samples taken from the navel and other areas of the body.
The study included 24 people, including six with Parkinson's disease, six with mild cognitive impairment, six with COVID-19, and six healthy people for comparison.
The researchers took swabs from three locations on each participant's skin: inside the nose, the ear canal (the concave part of the outer ear that collects and directs sound into the ear canal), and the navel. They chose these areas because they are relatively less exposed to perfumes, soaps, and other substances that might alter the compounds on the skin's surface.
The researchers then analyzed the volatile substances released from the swabs using a technique known as laser-based acoustic spectroscopy. This technique relies on measuring how different molecules absorb infrared light, allowing for the creation of a spectral fingerprint of the sample.
Then, the researchers used statistical analysis to compare these fingerprints and see if the samples taken from people with the same condition were similar to each other.
The results showed differences between the groups, most notably in the nasal and navel samples.
In the navel samples specifically, a clear distinction appeared between healthy individuals and those with mild cognitive impairment. However, the samples of those with Parkinson's and COVID-19 were not clearly separated from the rest of the groups, and some of their results overlapped with the results of other participants, meaning that the technology could not completely differentiate between the cases.
To determine whether the pattern observed in Parkinson's patients could be replicated, researchers took swabs from three additional individuals with the disease two weeks later. The results from these samples were remarkably similar to those of the Parkinson's patients in the first group, suggesting that the pattern was not solely dependent on the timing of the sampling. However, these results alone are insufficient to establish the stability of this pattern due to the small number of participants.
The researchers found that just five wavelengths may be sufficient to distinguish the patterns that appeared in the study, which may allow for the future development of smaller and simpler devices to analyze these chemical fingerprints.
However, this technique cannot currently be considered a diagnostic tool for diseases. The small sample size makes it difficult to determine whether the differences observed by researchers are due to the disease itself or to other factors, such as age.
The experiment was conducted under controlled laboratory conditions, whereas perfumes, soaps, personal care products and environmental factors may affect the compounds present on the skin and navel.
Therefore, the researchers believe that the results represent an initial step towards proving the possibility of using volatile compounds in the body as health indicators, but larger studies are needed, involving groups of similar ages and conducted under more realistic conditions, before it can be determined whether this approach can be turned into a practical diagnostic tool.
The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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