Fish odor syndrome – A rare metabolic condition that makes sweat smell like fish
14 comments
·March 27, 2025graphcolorer
karunamurti
Another Mahabharat character, Krishna might have a genetic condition as well called methemoglobinemia. Or he's a god.
79a6ed87
I recently learned about this condition through a film called The Holdovers
throwing_away
I've never seen The Holdovers, but I'm a stunned fan of Bob's Burgers, if we're doing a "surprised by fish odor syndrome in well-known media" thread.
e40
Great movie.
mhb
Terrible.
Imagine that you want to make a film that is an unholy amalgam of Scrooge, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Dead Poets' Society and The Breakfast Club. Imagine that your audience is oblivious to any nuance and you're not so creative, so you will need to employ the standard tropes of bratty prep school kids, mother whose son was killed before his time, bookish professor with a heart of gold and life lessons at the end for all our protagonists.
Trowel on the schmaltz like it's wet concrete and multiply the cringe by 1000. Now you have a decent description of this movie.
mhb
So there was a redeeming element to that film!!
psygn89
I remember a girl in my music class in elementary school. She sat away from everyone else but the bullies would always make remarks about the smell, and she smelled strongly of fish. Not knowing any better I thought she should shower more because it was foul but never said anything mean to her. Sad to know this is probably what she had.
reassess_blind
What's the condition that makes it smell like marijuana? Some days it will smell like nothing, and some days it is reminiscent of some high quality sticky icky.
Permik
Good to know that I'm not alone :D
dudefeliciano
Marijuana detox? At least in my case
int3
oh so that's what my elementary school classmate had
tetris11
I had a classmate like that too. You could genuinely smell him the moment he entered the room.
I used to think it was lack of hygiene, but I'm now quite sad to hear it was this condition.
That must be hell, knowing there's nothing you can do
An important character in the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, likely had this condition. She was the great-grandmother of the Pandavas and Kauravas and her name was Satyavati. She was also known as Matsyagandhi ("fish-fragrant").