After hearing about the expensive
tests for Alzheimer’s, researchers came up with a cheap screening
test. The really amazing thing about this test is you may already
have the necessary item in your pantry—a jar of peanut butter.
Known as the brief olfactory test,
taking a whiff of Jif, or any peanut butter for that matter, can help
a researcher determine if you have Alzheimer’s. Anyway, that was
the news out of the University of Florida.
It’s commonly known that Alzheimer’s
affects the sense of smell. Other studies have been done on the
olfactory system and Alzheimer’s disease. This is not the first!
According to a 1989 study published in the International Journal
of Neuroscience, researchers believed that the changes occurring
in Alzheimer’s starts in the cortical region of the brain, the
region that controls our sense of smell. In 2010, the Alzheimer’s
Association and the National Institutes of health funded a study that
showed that Alzheimer’s mice could not distinguish odors as well as
other mice. At that time, the researchers noted that an olfactory
test could be an inexpensive way to diagnose Alzheimer’s.
Fast forward to 2013 and we have the
peanut butter whiff test. Jennifer Stamps, a graduate student at the
University of Florida’s McKnight Brain Institute, conducted the
test on ninety people. Some of the people had Alzheimer’s or other
types of dementia and others had mild congnitive impairment (MCI).
Although researchers did not know which people had which problem when
they conducted the tests, they were surprised to find that the
Alzheimer’s patients reacted to the sniff test differently than the
other groups.
Here’s how the test was conducted: A
tablespoon of peanut butter was put on a metric ruler and one nostril
was checked at a time. Eighteen of the study group had early-stage
Alzheimer’s, and they all had one thing in common—trouble
smelling the peanut butter out of their left nostril. The group with
other types of dementia did not have this problem. The results of the
twenty-four people with MCI was mixed—ten had trouble with the left
nostril but fourteen didn’t. Is this an indication that the ten
will go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease? Time will tell.
Other researchers urge caution due to
the small number of cases included in this study. Others note that
head trauma, sinus problems, or congestion can affect the results of
an olfactory test. In fact, my friend Donna can’t smell anything
after an accident that happened when she was a teenager.
So, are you tempted to grab a jar of
peanut butter and sniff away? Being the curious person I am and
having seen the devastating effects of dementia, I did exactly that.
Right nostril, a-okay! One down, one to go. Second nostril—nothing,
nada, zip, zero. Oh, I did not like this test. Not one little bit.
Time to analyze the test results. Let’s
see. Left nostril. Come to think of it, I just came off a ten day
supply of antibiotics for a left ear infection. So I’m sure that
could have affected my sense of smell in my left nostril. Anyway
that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. The peanut butter test
should come with a disclaimer: Don’t try this at home.
Copyright (c) October 2013 by L.S.
Fisher
Earlyonset.blogspot.com
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