Sense of Smell Might Give Away Alzheimer's Before Diagnosis Study Shares

Unfortunately, Alzheimer's disease is a common cause of death in the United States amongst the older population. What if there were early signs to detect it? A Neurology study titled Olfactory deficits predict cognitive decline and Alzheimer dementia in an urban community, might show new research on how to find it early on.

Medicalnewstoday.com shares that more than six million citizens of the United States have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, also known as the most "common form of dementia."

"According to the Alzheimer’s Association, around 1 in 9 people over the age of 65 has Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the United States, a total of 6.7 million people." Medicalnewstoday.com continues, "With an aging population, experts expect this number to exceed 12 million by 2050."

Alzheimer's does not have a cure, and continues to get worse over time due a gene variant APOE ε4, that about 40% of diagnosed individuals carry. In this study, the gene was highly correlated to loss of sense of smell and cognitive decline.

The gene isn't the only indicator of mental decline based on the findings from the University of Chicago Medicine. On top of adults having the APOE ε4 gene, they also has "smaller gray matter volume in the areas of the brain related to smell and memory, worse cognition and higher risk of dementia."

Rachel Pacyna, a student and lead author on the journal, relfects on the findsing and what we can do moving forward to stop the Alzheimer's process early. “If we could identify people in their 40s, 50s and 60s who are at higher risk early on, we could potentially have enough information to enroll them into clinical trials and develop better medications,” said Pacyna.

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