In a magical scene towards the end of the 2007 film Rattouil, notorious harsh food critic Anton Ego is immediately withdrawn, his childhood memories were revived by a spoon of a name of the film. No picture was required – just the taste and smell of food.
The smell is the most cool in our senses, but also one of the most powerful. In fact, it can also open flood tours for memories that we had thought that we had forgotten for a long time.
It is also the most personal and subjective meaning, which makes it so difficult for people to agree on what a good fragrance is. However, the worst smell in the world seems to be a consensus.
In 1889, in a German laboratory, a chemical reaction associated with a compound called TheiCetone produced a smelly, causing it to make people vomit and unconscious half a kilometer away, forcing partial withdrawal of Frebberg city. We still do not know what the exact response is due to this smell, but it seems that no one is in a hurry to find it.
But what happens when our smell starts failing? And what if losing odor was more than just a passing symptom?
A shortcut for our feelings
Smell is a evolutionary advantage: it warns us of invisible hazards and keeps us on vigilance. Fragrances can also affect our decisions, and large brands are well aware of it, fragrant their shops with fragrances that tap in our feelings and invite us to live.
The smells have the ability to awaken memories and intense emotions, and the olfactory bulb is responsible for this. This small area of the forearm located very close to the nose receives olfactory signals and sends them directly to the regions of the brain that manage our memory and emotions.
Despite its importance, the smell is at least well understood of the senses, and is often underestimated. When it fade, it usually does not pay attention to anyone, but we cannot feel how important it is until we are lost.
This is what happened to Mitchell Krippa, a famous Italian “Super Taster”, who lost his feeling of smell during the epidemic. Although they had withdrawn it after weeks, their personal nightmare started only when their sense of smell returned, it was distorted. Orange smells like burnt plastic, peachs smell like basil, and Vanilla made her feel ill. This was likely because neurons in their olfactory bulbs were damaged.
While any disadvantage of smell is unpleasant, it can be more important: a warning signal with our brain.
A common cold, or Parkinson?
Most of us have lost their sense of smell at some point, usually thanks to a simple match of cold or flu. However, this symptom can also be an early symptom of neurodynative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. This has been known for some time, but the surprising thing is that smell loss occurs years ago when symptoms of these diseases appear.
Therefore, loss of smell can be used to predict Parkinson’s diseaseAnswer, although this can happen, it is: it depends.
An initial warning
One of the major problems with neurodogenative diseases is that the damage is already very advanced until they can be diagnosed. In the case of Parkinson’s disease, when the first symptoms (stiffness, shocks, and so similar) appear, more than half of neurons that produce dopamines, neurotransmitters that control movement are already lost.
Identifying early symptoms such as smell – which affects 90% of patients – can serve as a biomarker, alert us to the presence of the disease. This will allow us to diagnose it long ago, and will provide access to more effective treatments.
The problem is that this symptom is not exclusive to Parkinson’s: it can also appear with aging, stress, or other conditions. This means that we reduce its importance.
About the author
Jannet Rodriguez Palares, Professor of Human anatomy and Fetal Sciences, Santiago University de Compostala.
This article has been reinstated Conversation Under a Creative Commons License. read the Original article,
We still do not know why there is a loss of odor in neurodigenorative diseases, although we have some clues. In some Parkinson’s patients, the disease may begin in olfactory bulbs long before it spreads to areas controlling agitation. This is because some viruses, pesticides or toxins we can damage it and cause changes in the area.
In the case of Alzheimer’s disease, a recent study has shown that a small blue stem of a small blue stem of the brain stem may begin damage. This “alert button” keeps us awakened and concentrated, and its relationship with the olfactory bulb is that the link feelings smell. When that connection is broken, the first smell of dementia smells long before the first symptoms emerge.
In short, the loss of the ability of the smell will not only be a symptom of the disease, but a warning sign that the degenerative process has begun.
Smell
When a patient comes to the clinic, it is not always easy to differentiate between Parkinson’s disease and other similar movement disorders. Damage of odor, combined with other tests and indicators, can help confirm the diagnosis. It can also help us predict the progression of the disease, as it is related to more severe forms of the disease.
In addition, the loss of odor in Parkinson’s disease is selective. Patients have a pleasant smell like chocolate without any problem, but have difficulty in detecting neutral or unpleasant odors such as soap, smoke or rubber.
Other patients, especially women, experience some stranger: olfactory hallucinations. This means that they look at the “phantom” smells, such as tobacco or burning wood, which are not actually there.
Although it may seem incredible, Parkinson’s disease also has its own odor, described as woody and musk. We know that thanks to a Scottish woman Joy Milne, who was with a growing sense of smell – she was able to recognize this particular smell on her husband 12 years before detection of the disease.
The loss of smell may sound like something limited to the nose, but it is actually a window in the brain. This allows researchers to peep inside the brain to understand their secrets, and to collect valuable information that will help us take care of those who are suffering from neurodogenative diseases.