Can you smell Alzheimer’s?

No, you can’t.

Quite literally, apparently.

In fact, this study has identified a link between loss of smell and the future development of Alzheimer’s!

Although we know that cognitive testing is helpful in determining risk of dementia, being able to smell and recognize odors may help strengthen the accuracy of screening tests.

I am not presently aware of any smelling exercises that you can do to strengthen your olfactory senses. So, for now, there isn’t really anything to be done in the way of risk reduction beyond what we already know…

• Maintain a healthy lifestyle
• Be careful with salt
• Don’t smoke
• Exercise your mind
• Be physically active

Maybe one day we’ll learn that we should periodically have someone test us on our sense of smell with the kitchen spices or the essential oils that we have lying around.

Here is the Medscape article referencing this study if you’re interested.