Declining Sense of Smell May Foretell Death.

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▼ Elderly people with a poor sense of smellhave a higher likelihood of dying in the 10 years after testing than those whose sniffers stay sharp.
In a new study, elderly people with a poor sense of smell had a 46% higher risk of death 10 years after olfactory abilities were tested, compared to those who passed the smell test. The study also reported that 28% of the increased risk of death could be attributed to Parkinson's, dementia and unintentional weight loss, all of which predict death in their own right and can also affect a person's sense of smell.
But the remaining 72% of the risk linking poor sense of smell and death is unexplained and may be due to subtle health conditions that eventually worsen, the authors wrote in the study, published today (April 29) in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
The changes of age
According to the paper, about a quarter of older Americans experience a decline in sense of smell, but this is more likely to go unnoticed compared to loss of sight or hearing. Some studies have linked the decline in sense of smell to risk of deathwithin five years of the decline's onset, but that research didn't control for demographics such as sex and race, or health characteristics that might explain the links between sensory loss and death.
In the new study, Michigan State University epidemiologist Honglei Chen and his colleagues used data from the Health ABC study, a long-running study of elderly individuals. (One of the co-authors of the new study, Dr. Jayant Pinto, has received money unrelated to the current study from pharmaceutical companies involved with respiratory allergies and nasal drug delivery.) (▪ ▪ ▪)

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ssangra

The nose and lungs work together for the sense of smell. The lungs are closely linked to the heart as well. When circulation issues happen the lungs may get impacted and these result in early deaths. Have found that people with anemia sometimes have heart blockages and hence these things may indeed be corelated.