You smell funny!

[monabri]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/0 ... d-disease/

After reading the article in the Telegraph today, I followed up with a search using Google. I see that this has been reported in the press previously. Interesting though!

"A new Parkinson’s test has been developed after scientists were able to harness the power of a woman who can sniff out the disease. The test has been years in the making after researchers at Manchester University realised that Joy Milne of Perth, Scotland, could smell the condition."

"Mrs Milne has a rare condition which gives her a heightened sense of smell. She is now working with scientists around the world to see if she can smell other diseases like cancer and tuberculosis (TB)."

"She described her sense of smell as "a curse and a benefit", saying that she can sometimes smell people who have Parkinson's while in the supermarket or walking down the street, but has been told by medical ethicists she cannot tell them."


From the University of Edinburgh.
https://www.ed.ac.uk/impact/research/fu ... parkinsons

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-47627179

[servodude]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/0 ... d-disease/

After reading the article in the Telegraph today, I followed up with a search using Google. I see that this has been reported in the press previously. Interesting though!

"A new Parkinson’s test has been developed after scientists were able to harness the power of a woman who can sniff out the disease. The test has been years in the making after researchers at Manchester University realised that Joy Milne of Perth, Scotland, could smell the condition."

"Mrs Milne has a rare condition which gives her a heightened sense of smell. She is now working with scientists around the world to see if she can smell other diseases like cancer and tuberculosis (TB)."

"She described her sense of smell as "a curse and a benefit", saying that she can sometimes smell people who have Parkinson's while in the supermarket or walking down the street, but has been told by medical ethicists she cannot tell them."


From the University of Edinburgh.
https://www.ed.ac.uk/impact/research/fu ... parkinsons

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-47627179

I love this stuff!
Most of us can tell "when something isn't right" and a few folk appear to have this olfactory equivalent of perfect pitch!
It's amazing and fascinating stuff that the regulatory bodies really aren't quite ready for
- like the COVID sniffing dogs (when that was a thing) I think that was partly on the back of dogs being trained for parkinsons originally)

It is the kind of thing that made the good futurist science fiction plausible - like a Bene Gesserit skill, or why overcrowding wasn't a problem in Beninia

[Clariman]

I'm quite excited about the prospects of this becoming a diagnostic test. My father had Parkinson's disease and it is physically and mentally debilitating. He was a very cerebral gent and one of the saddest moments for me was when he/we donated all his specialist 'academic' books to a university because he could no longer use, appreciate or even understand them. Still saddens me to think about it.

So it is great news or progress with this test.

[UncleEbenezer]

The lady may have an exceptionally acute sense of smell for a human. Or may just have educated herself to be aware of something other people could detect but not identify. Or a bit of each.

But surely the test itself is nothing new? Animals have been trained to such tasks for some time. Obviously dogs (some of whom need no training to detect diseases in their humans long before the quack spots anything), and I've heard reports of less obvious sniffers such as bees.

[XFool]

The lady may have an exceptionally acute sense of smell for a human. Or may just have educated herself to be aware of something other people could detect but not identify. Or a bit of each.

She is described as a "super-smeller" (more technically someone with hyperosmia).

But surely the test itself is nothing new? Animals have been trained to such tasks for some time. Obviously dogs (some of whom need no training to detect diseases in their humans long before the quack spots anything), and I've heard reports of less obvious sniffers such as bees.

Bees? I feel a possible plot for a horror film taking shape...

Is Michael Caine still available for film work?

[Dod101]

The story of the lady with the sense of smell of Parkinson's has been around for a long while. The Times today as an item about a new test for Parkinson's. Scientists/researchers from Manchester University have taken samples of sebum from the backs of participants in the study and tested them using a mass spectrometer. Sebum is apparently an oily secretion from the sebaceous glands under the skin. Within the sebum there are much higher levels of certain chemical compounds in those with Parkinson's than in those without. They are now said to be developing a simple test for Parkinson's based on testing this sebum. It should take only a matter of minutes and will be non invasive.

They now think that the lady with the heightened sense of smell is smelling those compounds.


Dod