Fogies, Start Your Sniffers!

A new study reported in Discovery News indicates that if you can't identify the aromas of 12 different smells, you may be headed down the rickety road to Alzheimer's. Among the featured smells are many from the food world, including lemon, chocolate, onion, black pepper, pineapple, banana and cinnamon. But wait--what about rotting potatoes, burned toast, cat tuna breath,  and  canned Dinty Moore's beef stew? ( The latter a horrific childhood camping memory...)

Apparently if  your olfactory department stays on track, you continue to exercise even from your chair, and you keep your mind  crackling by daily inventing new email addresses, you'll wobble off into the Great Beyond with all your marbles clicking away  neatly in your noggin.

I fear for many, however--for those who plug aromatherapy lamps into their sockets, spray the cat with Febreze,  layer wet clothes with sheets of Bounce, hang "new car" smellies from the rear view mirrors of their aging Volvos---surely all this artificial odeur is bound to skew the ability of the aging schnozz to pick up on the actual aromas of lemon and banana?

Comments

[Rhea]

Interesting study. Thanks for the info.

[Cynthia]

Boy -- I can't tell you how many friends I have who have complained lately of not being able to smell anything. I hope they find lots of other reasons for losing ones olfactory acuity.

[Win]

Just noticed you added a food news ticker to this site, down on the left margin....a lot of China food safety items currently. I look forward to checking this feature regularly.

[Kelly Mahoney]

That's really interesting. I guess I have to keep my nose in shape too!

[KathyF]

When I participated in that HD Predict study a few months ago, one of the many tests was a smell detection test. (HD is also a neurodegenerative disease.) Since the study had been authored in the States, many of the smells were strange to folks in the UK, including spearmint (or was it wintergreen?), skunk, root beer, etc. The test giver commented that many Brits were having trouble with it, but I passed with flying colours. Ah, colors.

[Foodie]

Flying odours--not sure I could discern mint from spearmint from wintergreen....