Studies have shown that a simple test for smelling may help identify elderly people with weak bodies and signs of unhealthy aging in advance.
A research team at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. believes that the degree of loss of smell can predict the risk of health problems as you get older. The research team evaluated olfactory sensitivity, which is the ability to detect odors of test participants, and olfactory discrimination, which is the ability to explain them.
The research team analyzed related data on 1160 elderly people who registered for the "National Social Life, Health and Aging Project" between 2015 and 2016. Participants took charge of five scents in measuring their olfactory ability and six scents in measuring their sensitivity. The research team then compared the test results with the participants' health conditions.
As a result, each time the olfactory discrimination and sensitivity score decreased by 1 point, the health status score decreased significantly, indicating a weak state. In other words, it shows that the ability to smell well is related to the overall health status of the elderly. The research team reasoned that smell can act as a risk factor (weak health condition) for major biomarkers.
Nicholas Rowan, a professor of otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S., argued that olfactory tests need to be introduced to see if the elderly suffer cognitive impairment enough to receive treatment. For example, patients who fail the olfactory test need to improve their nutritional status or undergo a more precise neurological test.
He said, "The olfactory test is as easy as the visual or auditory tests already in place in less than a few minutes," adding, "In the future, olfactory tests can be used as a tool to assess potential health risks or signs of unhealthy aging."
Previous studies have also pointed out that olfactory dysfunction can be an early indicator of cognitive decline, but the discovery broadened its horizons and confirmed that both the brain and nose are related to aging health conditions.
Professor Rowan said, "The sense of smell also weakens with age, like vision and hearing," adding, "We found that both the sense of smell identification and the degree of damage to sensitivity are related to weakness due to aging." He added, "This is interesting in that it can predict not only the aging of the brain but also the possibility of health crisis (weakness) and death due to aging from peripheral factors such as the nose."
Writer: Yeyoung Jeon
(Picture from Unsplash)
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