Researchers used a standardised smell test wherein participants were asked to identify 12 scents – six of which were related to food items including banana and cinnamon, and the remaining were non-food such as petrol, soap and roses.
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Results show that those who had a bad performance at the smell test had a higher risk of suffering from memory issues; and, those with the lowest sense of smell had the higher chances of developing Alzheimer’s.
Another aspect to note here is that sole sniff test is not the one and only pointer or solid proof leading to dementia, however, it can serve as a worthwhile sign in order to prepare for the upcoming disease.
Over an average of 3.5 years of follow-up, the authors identified 250 incident (new) cases of MCI among the 1,430 participants.
All participants were healthy, as they didn’t show any signs of dementia at the beginning of the study.
Three years and a half later, 250 people that were part of the test started showing memory problems, more specifically mild cognitive impairment. Scientists didn’t examine the brains of the participants and so their results were not conclusive enough to prove a link between the power and smell and dementia. The researchers suspected that deterioration in that part of the brain having link with smell is also associated with memory.
Lead researcher Rosebud Roberts who is a professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic, explained that the study’s findings suggest that doing a smell test on elderly patients with normal mental capacities could help identify which of these patients are likely to develop memory problems or who may already be progressing into Alzheimer’s disease.
“Our ability to sense smell doesn’t just reside in our nose, there are receptors that are activated in our brains”. Yet, they do have a theory why loss of sense of smell and cognitive impairment may be linked.
According to researchers at Mayo Clinic research centre in Minnesota, their latest findings may pave way for a simple sniff test that could detect possible onset of Alzheimer’s. The Brief Smell Identification Test (B-SIT) is easily administered in the outpatient setting, does not require administration or interpretation by trained personnel, has normative data, is relatively cheap, and is noninvasive.
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British experts last night welcomed the breakthrough – but said far more research is needed. 221 people developed more serious problems, out of which 64 were affected by dementia. In fact, according to the Daily Mail, there are more than 60 medical conditions that could affect the ability to smell properly. Studies like this are a step in the right direction, but we need significantly more investment to enable a step change in research to help turn discoveries like this into meaningful clinical tools’.
