Alzheimer's test: Can you smell peanut butter?
</SECTION><SECTION id=module-position-Mp3Ybt8431o class="storytopbar-bucket story-byline-module">John Johnson, Newser 3:43 p.m. EDT October 10, 2013
How's this for a low-tech way of diagnosing Alzheimer's: sniffing peanut butter. Researchers at the University of Florida have discovered some merit to the bizarre-sounding notion, reports Futurity. Knowing that patients in cognitive decline often lose their sense of smell first, the researchers had patients sniff a dollop of peanut butter with each nostril separately. They used a ruler to measure the point at which people detected the odor (and to keep the other nostril closed).
The weird result: People with a confirmed diagnosis of early-stage Alzheimer's could smell it fine with their right nostril, but not their left, say the UF scientists. Generally speaking, the right nostril picked up on it 10cm before the left one. Also of note: The left-right difference is specific to Alzheimer's, and doesn't apply to other forms of dementia.
...
</SECTION><SECTION id=module-position-Mp3Ybt8431o class="storytopbar-bucket story-byline-module">John Johnson, Newser 3:43 p.m. EDT October 10, 2013
How's this for a low-tech way of diagnosing Alzheimer's: sniffing peanut butter. Researchers at the University of Florida have discovered some merit to the bizarre-sounding notion, reports Futurity. Knowing that patients in cognitive decline often lose their sense of smell first, the researchers had patients sniff a dollop of peanut butter with each nostril separately. They used a ruler to measure the point at which people detected the odor (and to keep the other nostril closed).
The weird result: People with a confirmed diagnosis of early-stage Alzheimer's could smell it fine with their right nostril, but not their left, say the UF scientists. Generally speaking, the right nostril picked up on it 10cm before the left one. Also of note: The left-right difference is specific to Alzheimer's, and doesn't apply to other forms of dementia.
...
Comment