One of the more well known but “hidden” symptoms of Parkinson’s is the loss of the sense of smell. Why oh why couldn’t I “benefit” from this when the kids were in nappies?
However, that’s not the subject of this blog. Instead I’m writing about Joy Milne. She’d noticed a change in the smell of Les, her husband, when he was 33 (and not in a nice way). Les diagnosed with Parkinson’s about 12 years later. When Joy accompanied Les to a Parkinson’s support group meeting she noticed that everyone with PD had the same odour. It was at a presentation by neurobiologist Tiki Kunath that Joy asked “what about the smell”? After a while (due to a variety of reasons including disbelief) an experiment was set up. Rather than sniff people, t-shirts were used. If Joy had seen the test subjects then she would have possibly seen those with visible symptoms. Even if blindfolded it might have been possible to detect anyone with a tremor. So 6 people with Parkinson’s and 6 people without (the controls) wore t-shirts.
You see, it is sebum that contained the smell and this oily substance was produced across the shoulders and back of the neck and was absorbed by the fabric.
The t-shirts were then cut in half and given to Joy to smell. So she had 24 bits of t-shirt to test.
She correctly identified all 6 Parkinson’s sufferers.
She correctly identified 5 of the controls.
This is the hair raising bit:
8 months later the incorrect control that had been flagged by Joy was diagnosed with PD.
Joy is a “super smeller” and thanks to her, researchers have identified 4 compounds that could help identify Parkinson’s before symptoms arise, and from there potentially develop treatments to delay the onset of the loss of motor functions.
So if you notice a change in the way someone smells, don’t just get them to wear more deodorant.