web analytics

Study Says Losing Sense of Smell Can Indicate Death

| October 2, 2014 Comment

Study Says Losing Sense of Smell Can Indicate Death – Researchers found elderly adults with a poor sense of smell are more likely to die within five years.

Sense of smell is important. It attracts you to others and, conversely, lets you know when you’re not so attracted to others. But a new study says our sense of smell is even more important than that. If you’re starting to lose this one of the five senses, you could be in serious trouble.

Researchers interviewed more than 3,000 adults ages 57 to 85 living in the United States. Their senses of smell were tested with five scents: rose, leather, orange, fish, and peppermint. Individuals were scored on their results, which were surprising, or we wouldn’t be bringing you this story.

Five years later, when the researchers checked back in, they found that, 39% of those who had failed the smell test had died, while only 10% of those who did well on the test had died.

Also as a story of impending doom, it has been quick to make the rounds. But we need to say, that obviously, losing the sense of smell isn’t the cause of death; it’s more like an early warning sign. It is an indicator of some other age-related degeneration.

The study’s author from the University of Chicago says,” We think loss of the sense of smell is like the canary in the coal mine … it doesn’t directly cause death, but it’s a harbinger, an early warning….Our findings could provide a useful clinical test, a quick and inexpensive way to identify patients at most risk.”

It’s still unclear how the loss of smell could indicate an early death but researchers are considering several hypotheses.

Tags: , , , ,

Category: News Videos

Leave a comment