Why do a smell test to save his life

Seniors with a bad sense of smell a new study by Michigan State University shows that a significantly higher risk to die within the next ten years. The researchers conclude that routine could serve to moderate smell tests in older people early detection of health problems.

Compared with seniors who were able to smell good, increased the risk of death within the next ten years for older people with a poor sense of smell to 46 percent. Gender played, life style and other factors, only a minor role. Surprisingly, it was that particularly at the beginning of the study, healthy participants were affected.

"A poor sense of smell with increasing age häufiger", the epidemiologist Honglei Chen says. He adds that a poor sense of smell may be an early sign of a deterioration of health: "The inclusion of a smell tests in routine visits to the doctor at certain points in time might be useful."

A bad sense of smell is often an early sign of Parkinson’s disease or dementia and is associated with a weight loss. These factors contributed, however, only 28 percent of the increased risk, while the larger part remained unexplained. "This tells us that an impaired sense of smell in older adults has far more impact on health than we previously vermuteten", so. He advises people with difficulties in Smelling, see a doctor.

Chen had collected with his research team, data from almost 2,300 participants between 71 and 82 years over a period of 13 years, and Tests with twelve scents. The results were published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

ZOU