The loss of smell as a prediction of death not far away – New York Times

Barcelona. (Editorial) .- A surprising study highlights the importance of a sense sometimes unappreciated, relative to others, as is the smell. A group of American specialists, headed by Jayant Pinto, have concluded that the Loss sense of smell is not the cause of death as such, but predicts a likely death more accurately than a diagnosis of cancer, heart failure or lung disease.

This group of researchers argues that stop feeling odors predicts death in five years, and that the sense of smell serves as a reference for the general state of the body or as a marker of exposure to environmental toxins.

The scientists came to this conclusion by investigating some 3,000 volunteers between 57 and 85 years old, as detailed in an article published in the journal PLOS ONE .

Between 2005 and 2006 medical subjected participants to a simple test. They had to identify five scents: rose, leather, fish, orange and mint. The number misidentification served researchers marker to determine the loss of smell .

Five years later, the same researchers tried to find the maximum number of volunteers who took part Test for five years before returning to subject them to an olfactory analysis like. The surprise came when they certified that 430 of the original volunteers had died. Of the total participants, 39% had failed the first experiment, 19% had shown a moderate loss of smell and only 10% had passed the test successfully.

The researchers found that volunteers who failed in the first test had a four times higher chance of dying within five years later than those who had identified the five smells good. The trend remained the same when the researchers took into account factors that often influence smell. Race, sex, socioeconomic status and mental health

The American doctors have even made a scientific explanation for their findings . According deducted, the nose can effectively predict death from the tip of olfactory nerve not only contains odor receptors but is also the only part of the human nervous system continuously regenerated by stem cells.

The emergence of new cells decreases with age, which leads to the gradual decrease in the ability to perceive and identify odors. An olfactory dysfunction indicates that the body is entering a state of disrepair and is no longer able to repair itself.

It is worth mentioning that researchers have not examined the exact causes of the death of its volunteers and not have predicted whether young people would show the same results if they are put to the same tests.