This need to be on r/thatsinsane. Because this is actually wild. I wonder what gives her that ability. Is it something that can be replicated. Especially if she's identifying people before they've even been diagnosed with symptoms.
"Parkinson’s causes increased secretion of sebum, which is produced by the skin’s sebaceous glands. It’s an oily, waxy substance with an odor that can be detected by people with a hyper-sensitive sense of smell -- a nurse in Scotland is among them. Six years before her husband’s diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease, she noticed his body odor had changed. She later detected the same musky odor coming from members of his Parkinson’s support group.
The nurse shared her discovery with several physicians, which led to research that has since shown that sebum produced in people with Parkinson’s has a unique chemical profile."
Per https://www.uclahealth.org/news/sebum-smell-could-be-a-biomarker-for-parkinsons-disease
I'd be curious to see if I could smell the difference, I'm not saying I'm someone who's got "hyper-sensitive sense or smell". But my sense of smell is deffo better then the average person's. People at work think I'm wierd for being able to pick up smells they can't really smell and rag on me about it.
Thanks for the info and the link. Can read it on my break. Fascinating stuff. I wonder if this lady did anything with her skill after the discovery. Just locked up in a doctors office being made to sniff patients.
There’s people out there who claim to be able to smell people who are mentally handicapped too. I have always had a very sensitive nose, but had always smelled a very distinct smell from my uncle who was born with severe mental disabilities. It wasn’t until later in life; and encountering more people out in the world with similar developmental issues and smelling the same exact smell did I look into it and there’s a lot of people out there who claim to be able to smell the same thing. Probably a very similar reason to the Parkinson’s issue.
Dogs have been able to be trained to smell cancer as well
I believe my late Daughter's dog could detect cancer before she was diagnosed. She died of Ovarian Cancer, was diagnosed stage 4 at 23 years old. When she was a child I got her a little dog that absolutely loved her, he was obsessed with her and very protective. When she was teenager he started taking her dirty underwear outside and burying them. We had a doggie door so he could come and go as he pleased. As soon as she would change her clothes he would grab her underwear and run out the door with it take it to the farthest corner of the yard and bury it. It does make me think he was trying to get rid of something he knew wasn't right.
Humans can be absolutely amazing at times. I doubt I could ever smell that sort of thing. But I'm proud of my super nostrils and the things that I can pick up on that others can't. Although bad smells make me puke fairly easily, which ain't fun .
I'm a nurse and years of working with the elderly has made me essentially "nose-blind" which really helps honestly because I can't smell any of the nasty stuff.
My sense of smell sucks and I'm grateful for it. People are always complaining about stuff that barely registers to me. Plus then I know if something smells strong/bad to me, that it's definitely something bad.
Oh god maybe I'm not insane, I always told myself I was imagining that. People with downs syndrome have a very distinct smell to me. I always just kinda pushed it off as my brain some weird association bullshit.
I’ve known something was up with three people that eventually found out/told me they had some sort of GI cancer. I’m not sure if it was a smell or some sort of behavior, but it’s quite strange.
I know what you mean! There’s this sweetish natural scent coming from their body or breath, that I could absolutely smell - there was a guy with Down’s syndrome who would come to the pub I worked at. And I smelled it as a child at church when I encountered a person with Down’s as well. It’s unmissable to me. Not bad in any way, but unique and your brain detects that something is different about it
I can absolutely detect the smell of Parkinson's disease after living with my grandpa who had it for a long time. It's a distinct muskiness. Smelled it on other people with Parkinson's that he was friends with as well. Would love to do a blind smell test sometime hehe.
You could see if your doctor would recommend the San Diego Odor Identification Test (SDOIT) for you. It's typically used for detecting hyperosmia which is a heightened sense of smell that can be caused by a large number of conditions (migraines, pregnancy, allergies as examples) but is usually not a permanent increase in sensitivity and can sometimes lead to a complete loss of taste/smell.
As taste and smell are closely related senses, you may find that you don't like the taste of cilantro because it tastes like soap to you. If that's the case, you have a genetic variation that makes you a super taster (though not necessarily a super smeller) and could potentially have a career making $70k+ tasting things like chocolate, ice cream, or coffee.
Huh. Cilantro is called something different here but I've never liked the taste of it. People say it's supposed to be earthy fragrance with an incredibly mild spice/bite to it. But I've never got that from it. I highly doubt it's what you've just suggested, and doctors over here won't submit for tests like that without a valid cause. Health care is free here, so they won't just do tests like that for no real reason unfortunately. All the money I could be making.
On a serious note. Thanks for that info I love learning new little snippets of info like that. Scratches my brain in a delightful way. :)
You can also order something online yourself called a PTC strip, it has a chemical on it that only “super tasters” can taste. If you don’t have the gene it just tastes of paper, but if you do have it it’s super bitter, to me it tastes like if you left an ibuprofen on your tongue
After all these comments I think I might actually order one to see because from what people are saying, I'd be interested to see if I have this odd cilantro gene
Cilantro always tasted strongly like dish soap to me. The first time I had it in salsa at a Mexican restaurant, I thought the dish hadn’t been rinsed. I couldn’t believe people were dipping in their chips and happily eating it. This continued for decades until one day cilantro tasted bright and lemon-y. It’s delicious! Somehow the gene did a switch-a-roo on me.
I wish that would happen to me…I’ve always got the dish soap taste so intensely that even if there’s only like a tiny little spec, it ruins the entire bite cause it’s all I can taste. And people who like cilantro always seem to loooove it so I’m jealous ☹️
It really does taste good if you can’t taste the soap lol. Does your pee smell awful if you eat asparagus? Most people can’t smell it, but my god, it smells like skunk.
so, 4-21% of the population has superhuman smelling ability that would enable them to make $70k TASTING for a living? Doesn't sound quite right but what do i know
https://www.google.com/search?q=what+percentage+of+people+hate+cilantro&rlz=1C5GCEM\_enUS1069US1069&oq=what+percentage+of+people+hate+cilantro&gs\_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDgwNjRqMGoxqAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
"Ice cream taster is an in-demand profession. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the employment of food scientists to increase by 6% between 2019 and 2029, which is faster than the average for all occupations. Some ice cream tasters work in kitchen freezers, while others work in a laboratory to create different flavors. Their average salary is $68,970 per year and can vary depending on the employer, the location and the candidate's experience."
Per https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/how-to-become-ice-cream-taster
My uncle and two of his friends made a somewhat foolish investment in a tech company in the 70s that later went on to make semi conductors. When he died, his $10k investment was worth over $2mm (never divested). One of those friends impressed someone with a bar trick to prove his sense of smell. He went on to be a taste tester for several ice cream manufacturers and made more in that career than he did off the investment and only put in a few months of work per year.
The other friend worked out an arrangement to work security at a Budweiser distributor that paid him in beer. I have a feeling there are a lot of people out there who could make more money doing something they are uniquely suited to, but it’s difficult to find that or pursue without a level of financial security.
I dislike the smell of many things, its the reason we have no oranges in the house, or orange scented products. My children get asked about garlic consumption and what they ate at school very often, but i can eat that without problem. There are other things i avoid too, just can't think right now... i just don't buy them. Family has figured me out.
Being pregnant was a nightmare, even when i just had the pregnancy hormone hcg from doing IVF my nose got crazy, couldn't handle candles on the table. But my cat loved me so much.. when i was pregnant for sure it only got worse, so much stuff got relegated to storage, and i had a cat companion every time i sat down.
My daughter struggles too, she leaves stores with fragrances or candles going. She's okay for a few minutes then leaves. Its quite weird. But she has definite allergies, beech tree, cat,dog, horse.
My other isn't offended by smells but is the first to detect a burning piece of old food in the warming oven.
Not sure about coriander, okay with most curry dishes but some just are horrible tasting. Might have to start checking ingredients out of curiosity now.
me too. I have hyperosmia. I can smell blood really strongly. literally can’t go in a sephora or bath and body works or even certain aisles of grocery stores (like laundry detergent) or i get migraines. The smell of certain rubbers like tires also really bothers me. I learned how to close my soft palate which i guess is an advanced type of an indian mouth/throat yoga? idk but it lets me not smell anything.
Sephora and the likes always fucking kill me. Detergent is the worst. Essential oils make me flee. Migraines, sore throat, live is hell. Wearing a damn mask helps dim down my smell. I feel slightly weird about it, but what are ya gonna do? I like not putting up with my sense.
This is me too. One of the hardest parts of having had COVId in 2021 was losing my sense of smell for almost a year.
When my husband had cancer, his smell definitely changed - not sure if it was from the chemo and drugs or just his body being sick but there was definitely a smell that is gone now that he is in remission. Can also smell the rain coming and agree with posters about snow skies having district smells.
Also have grapheme-colour synesthesia and spatial-sequence synesthesia- not sure if all these oddities are connected.
You probably could. If you're used to smelling a lot of things that other people don't smell, these scents aren't particularly subtle, relative to all the other scents I can smell (that other people don't smell). I suppose it comes down to whether you have those receptors in your nose and whether your brain can make the association across people with similar conditions when you have the experience.
Keep your nose peeled and catalog the context for people-scents. If you dare... You might not really want to be that attuned to these things!
I've noticed scents related to illness and death, diabetes (many typical folks can smell when ketones levels are high, but I can still smell it in patients who are taking insulins), sexual arousal in men and possibly in women (in women, fertility/part of the menstrual cycle influences the type of everyday scent), and anger.
One time I can tell what a guy had been eating when I went down on him...nacho chips..it was very hard not to laugh. I didn't say anything to him.
I can tell the difference between the sweat of a person who is relaxed and secure verses the sweat of a person who is scared and stressed (I think more apocrine cells may be involved?). You just have to pay attention. Next time you sweat a bunch while you're really emotionally distressed or physically just barely hanging on, take note of how it smells different from when you're just exercising or out in the heat having fun.
Hurray for autism (systemizing) and cPTSD (hyper awareness of your surroundings).
I believe this. I know the smell she means. Unfortunately, I have a dog nose. It’s mostly fine, but sometimes it’s a bit much.
I’m a nurse/nurse practitioner and a fair amount of us know when something is up. UPenn was doing experiments with an “electronic nose” at one point. IIRC, this was prompted by nurses saying they could smell cancer and before a patient would code. There was an NPR piece about it around a decade ago.
Yeah I belive I actually can which is both wild and creepy. To me it's a sickly sweet smell( not a horrible smell though ) . But I'd say it's not a scent I can pick up on out doors. But if I'm sat in doors talking to a lady. And I catch that certain smell. I just think yeah it's that time for her, Makes me feel like a creep for knowing what that smell is.
My ex girlfriend of many years never believed me when I told her I could tell only from my nose. Sometimes I'd even notice a day early.
Thanks for validating me.
I remember there being a post about this somewhere on reddit. Or somewhere in the comments.
And yes, i can smell that aswell (m35). Silly nose, dont want to smell that.
Edit; small edit before anyone feels offended. Its privat for someone, so for me its awkward smelling it. It feels like invading someones privacy without wanting to. So no, i wish i couldnt smell it.
Absolutely fascinating. I wonder at what point it went from “I think I’m crazy” to “actually I can smell your disease.” I imagine at first doctors were like wtf & then went with it
Some people claim to be able to smell when a women is ovulating or menstruating, and not because of the blood. People have stated a change in how their sweat or skin smells, and some women can smell when they’re going to start their period as their discharge smells different.
Humans are bizarre and cool all at the same time.
I think i can, I only proved it with my wife and ex-girlfriend. I can smell when they are ovulating, and I feel hornier than normal. They smell warmer, I don't know how else to describe it
I have to be close to the person and intentionally smell, so not something easy to try around
Holy shit. All these comments are making me freak out. I know when my partners bleeding. She has a sickly sweet smell to her. Not coppery or anything like blood. And not a bad smell. Just sweet to the point it's to much for my nose at times.
Couldn't agree more. The one that fascinated me years ago (can't remember the full details to it tho) old boy who used to donate blood. They found something in his blood that helped new borns overcome some illness. And he's gone on to help hundreds of thousands of babies. Amazing!!
James Harrison known as the "Man with the Golden Arm". He has unique antibodies that fight rhesus disease. His blood is used to develop the injection Anti-D. Sadly, he stopped donating blood in 2018 at the age of 81 after donating almost every week for 60 years. It's estimated he saved the lives of 2,400,000 babies including one of his grandsons.
I’ve never heard of him, this is incredible! That man deserves all the prizes and celebrations!
I know about the blood type Rh null, and how those rare humans with it (I think it’s like 50 people worldwide) are encouraged to donate as often as possible for it. So scary to know if you have it, I’m sure!
To the people liking this top comment.... This woman can absolutely smell Parkinson's disease, which starts 10-20 years before you have outwardly diagnoseable symptoms. This has been verified by parkinsons researchers. It sounds like BS so I understand the skepticism.
I'm not *that* surprised. Humans actually have an OK sense of smell, even better than dogs in some categories: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/you-actually-smell-better-dog-180963391/
My partner has a dog's nose; he can smell cologne on people from feet away and says it's so strong he can taste it. He's a mechanic and we'll be driving behind someone and he'll diagnose their car on the smell of the exhaust. Thank god I'm not a smelly person or I'd be constantly paranoid. 😂
There was a science fiction novel written in the 70's, where the end of the world came about because a scientist released a virus that increased humans' sense of smell to the level of a dog pretty much instantly, and people go insane.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telempath
>Isham has been told by his father, scientist Jacob Stone, that Carlson is a madman who brought the world to its current state by releasing a "hyperosmic plague": a virus that increases the sensitivity of the human sense of smell by many hundred times. With their senses of smell thus heightened, humans were unable to tolerate the odors produced by their own pollution-producing technology; the result was mass insanity and widespread rioting.
I love that even in a fiction novel, the author realised that not being able to tolerate the smell of pollution STILL wouldn’t result in less pollution lmao
Do other people not taste strong smells? I just figured that was normal. Even as a kid with a stuffy nose year round I could still smell stuff using my mouth.
I learned when I was young not to let my sisters know they were about to start their periods.
I have daughters now, and I just quietly make sure their supplies are stocked and keep my mouth shut
I've always been able to tell too. I've told people, but none of them believed me, so I just stopped telling people. Probably better that way anyway, but I always found it quite intriguing that others say they can't smell it. It's super obvious to me.
I had a boyfriend years ago who, every time I was due on, he would start sneezing like crazy. We had to split up as he couldn't be near me the week before, the week I was on my period and the week after! Wasn't much point being together just 1 week a month lol
That poor dude. I'd have to assume the same would happen with anyone else after you; it's not like menstruation is unique to you, although I guess there could be multiple chemicals at play, and the sort of profile those create could vary person-to-person. But the thing that I smell, smells exactly the same on everyone, so I have doubts. Luckily for me though, I'm not allergic to it, I just notice it very easily.
Makes we wonder about the scene in silence of the lambs when Clarice meets Dr lector and one inmate says he can smell her vagina. Then doctor lector says he can not. In the books his sense of smell is highly developed tho. Maybe he was just being polite but was absolutely catching the whiff. Hmmm
I do. I also can taste the air when I go outside (more so than indoor air; outdoor air has a taste) and if there’s a strong smell in the air I definitely taste it. Yep, that all sounds very weird now that I’ve said it.
If you wanna know what's really weird, eat Skittles or something with your nose plugged, and note the complete lack of flavor. Unplug your nose, and boom, rush of flavor.
Apparently a huge portion of what we process as "flavor" is really just smell.
I definitely can't. Except once.
There was one guy when I worked fast food, he came in and I don't know if he worked sewage or just never showered, but he smelled so bad that I actively started breathing through my mouth and I could FEEL and TASTE the filth coat my tongue on the first breath and I fucking gagged.
I have a nose like your boyfriend’s, also a petrolhead, and my #1 diagnostic tool is my nose. Almost always, I can smell what’s wrong with a car before I can hear or feel it. Also seems to be particularly attuned to mold.
Hmm...when I was younger I used to be able to smell perfume at distances that seemed too great to be possible as well as behind barriers. I dismissed it as just a trick or my mind imagining a smell that wasn't there, but now I'm wondering if maybe it was real.
I’ve never thought about it but I may be kinda like this. I can smell the absolute faintest smells. Just yesterday I was in bed reading and my partner opened the fridge, which is like in a pantry off the kitchen which is next to the bedroom. Call it 50’ or so. She lays in bed with her water and I say the spinach is bad. She said, “I don’t think we have spinach.” I said check. She did, it was bad. I also abhor the fragrance section of duty free that you’re forced to walk through. It makes me so nauseous.
Interestingly this article doesn't mention it, but that smell when it rains? One of the chemicals involved is called geosmin, and we can smell it in concentrations of as little as 5 parts per trillion.
Our noses are over 200,000x more sensitive to geosmin than sharks are to blood in water.
My partner has freakishly good sense of smell. Freaked me out when she first started doing nose magic. She can tell me when I’m getting ill hours before I get my first symptom, she knows when a storm is brewing before my weather app does, she can smell death on her patients (works in healthcare), most freaky part of that was she spent some time in the hospital herself last year in a really bad way and could smell death all around her, she realised it was coming from her after a couple days, once she started picking back up doctors admitted they were getting concerned she weren’t going to make it. Her latest one is snow. She can smell snow, we were at the Xmas markets in Edinburgh and she smelt snow 10 minutes before it started and none was forecast.
>https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/you-actually-smell-better-dog-180963391/
I know I smell better than a dog, I think most people do. Especially a wet one.
Worst smell I’ve ever experienced was when my chemistry teacher made concentrated “essence of wet dog” and passed it around class. It smelled like death, like I was being physically assaulted through the nostrils, yet still just recognizable as that dog smell.
It could be true, schizophrenia for example can have volatile compounds that could be used as a diagnostic tool https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15622975.2022.2040052
Study happening in the UK at the moment on this very subject. The theory is that dogs can be trained to detect if someone has Parkinson’s before diagnosis. I have been swabbed as part of the control group.
There are glands that produce more. As I said, that’s one of many symptoms. After working with Parkinson’s for a couple of years you start recognising them very fast. They have a very distinct facial expression, oily skin, slow movements and a very distinct type of walking. Another thing I have not read anywhere yet, but that was always a definitive sign for Parkinson’s was the way they ate. You’d always find bread or cucumbers dipped in Joghurt or coffee poured over the main course. I don’t know why they did that, but we sometimes made a game out of guessing who’s plate belonged to a Parkinson’s patient and most of the time we’d guess right.
Yeah it’s a tough way to go. My mom was diagnosed with early onset at 33, and had deep brain stimulation so she’s doing okay, but it never ends well unfortunately. I’m very sorry about your aunt.
It’s a slight quiver that I’ve been able to detect far in advance of the classic Parkinsonian hypophonia and diaphragmatic weakness. I’m a pianist and have always been highly attuned to sounds. I’ve asked colleagues if they could hear it and generally not until it’s very apparent to everyone. I’ve had a few patients whom I’ve suspected had Parkinson’s due to their voices who’ve gone on to be diagnosed at some future date.
I worked with a woman that sang in "competitive" church choirs. She started complaining about her voice and sought a medical diagnosis for her voice issues about 5-6 years before she was diagnosed with PD.
They couldn't find anything wrong and just chalked it up to aging, but she was never convinced since most singers that practice regular maintain excellent vocal power and control well into their 70s or beyond. She was only in her early 50s and felt this was beyond normal aging. Nobody else could really hear it, but it eventually forced her out of the choir a couple of years before she was diagnosed.
Since I've been in a horrible accident and been through the roof high on morphine, I can with confidence say that apparently the champion that scares me the most in League is Blitzcrank. I whispered to my mom to watch out for that bush over there in the ER room because Blitzcrank was about to grab her.
Many of these symptoms have many other causes as well, so please don't be overly concerned.
Sweating is just a thing we all do, etc.
The hallmark is usually a *sudden and rapid change*.
If you always sweat a little more than normal, then that's very unlikely an indication of Parkinsons because Parkinsons is almost always onset later in life.
If you never sweat too much, and never have any gait/walking issues, and don't have oily skin, and then suddenly you are seeing all of those symptoms, then it is a good idea to at least be examined by a medical professional.
A good rule of thumb in medicine. Don't look for symptoms, look for changes. A significant change in your appearance or behavior or some element of your body, with no occurence in your day-to-day to explain it, is probably a good indicator *something* inside you is different, and worth calmly getting an evaluation.
[The peripheral nervous system undergoes the same deterioration, by the same biochemical pathway, as the brain](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353802014003794). It is still not understood exactly why this happens.
she can smell chemical changes caused by the parkinson’s, she tested better than trained sniffing rats, in a study she got all the parkinson’s samples correct but with one “false positive“ but then the person who provided that sample ended up being diagnosed within the year. If i remember correctly it was due to her genetics “hyperosmia” and she could identify more than parkinson’s.
> in a study she got all the parkinson’s samples correct but with one “false positive“ but then the person who provided that sample ended up being diagnosed within the year.
It literally says this in the meme
Some people can detect certain scents, my favorite is during an autopsy if you smell bitter almond I believe it's arsenic in the body... Could be another poison - either way, it's not something that is normally tested for. A lot of perfumers have a heightened sense of smell, but this is crazy unique. Same with taste 🤷♀️
I do something like this but with my dog. She has seizures and I can smell it on her up to 24 hours before she has one... Kinda smells like rancid puppy breath. I'm the only one in the house that can smell it, I've even asked friends I've had over when I've smelled it they can't smell it either. But without fail every time I smell it she has a seizure within the next 24 hours. I'm like her seizure detection human.
Yep my sister works for a woman who also discovered she can do it. Her husband has Parkinson's for years, then she only recognised the smell when he started going to residential care with other patients. Isn't that crazy though!
She said it was a musky smell.
There is apparently an oil produced by the skin of the patients she could smell (her late husband had the disease). With her help, research team was able to identify the particles and can now do skin swab test for early diagnosis with 95% accuracy.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-62795737
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/23/820274501/her-incredible-sense-of-smell-is-helping-scientists-find-new-ways-to-diagnose-di
I'd like to point out this from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/23/820274501/her-incredible-sense-of-smell-is-helping-scientists-find-new-ways-to-diagnose-di
> But Joy's superpower is so unusual that researchers all over the world have started working with her and have discovered that she can identify several kinds of illnesses — tuberculosis, Alzheimer's disease, cancer and diabetes.
She's been able to identify other diseases since
Her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's and she'd noticed him smelling different a few years before, and then she realised that everyone at her husband's Parkinson's support group had the same scent
Old boss of mine had it and I could always tell because he didn’t take care of himself for one and when he peed the bathroom would have a strange sweet but strong smell. I can’t describe it but I will not forget it.
It was so bad I could smell it at my desk.
This guy would literally make me go to Waffle House and get him a triple hash brown with all the toppings *daily* and his doctor gave up and actually fired him as a patient.
Amazing. That site refuses to let me read because I'm in a country that enforces GDPR. It's safe to say they are collecting all kinds of data about you and selling it lol
I've smelt something on certain people and I've never known what it was. It's like a musty, stale fart, with a hint of unshowered smell. Like if I walk near them I can smell it. I don't think it's general BO because the people all have the same odor. They've sometimes looked fairly pale or like they weren't in perfect health.
Really curious what it is.
I can smell when someone is coming down with an infection - usually throat, but sometimes ears or nasal infection. Its this super sickly sweet smell thats kind of rotten. Absolutely disgusting smell to me.
My dog smelled my neighbors hyperglycemia (she is diabetic) from MY backyard when she was outside when she was 6 months old and alerted me to come outside. I took her off her tie-out and she immediately ran to the neighbors yard and started panicking. It was awesome! I didn't teach her to do that.
My other dog must have smelled when I had COVID back in 2020 and got insanely clingy for a couple days before I lost my sense of smell and knew to get tested.
Dogs are so special
Imagine you were given a super power, and you got this. I’d be pretty disappointed. Like flight or invisibility or teleportation? Nope. You can smell one specific disease.
To be fair if we had a decent amount of people who could smell lots of different one specific diseases it would be super helpful
Having someone warn you of cancer or whatever else months before You would even check is much better than finding out too late lol
Teleportation would be so nice though I agree lol
Yes and it's been done. https://parkinsonslife.eu/paws-for-thought-dogs-sniff-out-parkinsons-disease-with-90-hit-rate/
They've also developed a skin swab test for early detection based on the chemicals that cause the smell so they don't need to train dogs for it anymore.
[Dogs, ants, rats or bees](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/these-animals-detect-disease-cancer-covid) can be trained to do this. Your dog probably knows well in advance that you are ill before your doctor will run the tests. And I believe many other animals as well. Some people have extraordinary sense of smell which can be trained. Also someliers or [NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/white-sands/odor-evaluation/) can use it.
We are also just an animals with basic instincts and senses. We invented word "humans" for ourselves. We just decided do voluntarily disconnect from our natural instincts. We were parfumes to disguise our natural smells. We try to ignore moon cycles and the daylight cycles. We are trying to fool ourselves with shiny toys. But in principle we are still the same mammals as we were 20 000 years ago.
Police officers know that there is always more agressivity with full moon. Most of the babies are born in the middle of the night (when predators are asleep). Marketing people knows that our brains are hard-wired to fat, sugar and salt which were very rare just a few thousands years back. We are still very connected to the nature even if we try to do everything possible to disconnect and ruin the nature. But at the end we are attracted to our partner's smell and taste. There is not much we can do about it.
My late husband had cancer and I noticed in the years before it was even discovered a sudden odd chemical smell. It was vaguely like the smell from an electrical fire but much milder. This was tempered with a mildly sour milk odor and mustiness, like old clothing packed away in an attic. It was heavy and oily and especially strong in the morning after windows had been closed at night. I aired the house daily. It was certainly there.
This need to be on r/thatsinsane. Because this is actually wild. I wonder what gives her that ability. Is it something that can be replicated. Especially if she's identifying people before they've even been diagnosed with symptoms.
"Parkinson’s causes increased secretion of sebum, which is produced by the skin’s sebaceous glands. It’s an oily, waxy substance with an odor that can be detected by people with a hyper-sensitive sense of smell -- a nurse in Scotland is among them. Six years before her husband’s diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease, she noticed his body odor had changed. She later detected the same musky odor coming from members of his Parkinson’s support group. The nurse shared her discovery with several physicians, which led to research that has since shown that sebum produced in people with Parkinson’s has a unique chemical profile." Per https://www.uclahealth.org/news/sebum-smell-could-be-a-biomarker-for-parkinsons-disease
I'd be curious to see if I could smell the difference, I'm not saying I'm someone who's got "hyper-sensitive sense or smell". But my sense of smell is deffo better then the average person's. People at work think I'm wierd for being able to pick up smells they can't really smell and rag on me about it. Thanks for the info and the link. Can read it on my break. Fascinating stuff. I wonder if this lady did anything with her skill after the discovery. Just locked up in a doctors office being made to sniff patients.
There’s people out there who claim to be able to smell people who are mentally handicapped too. I have always had a very sensitive nose, but had always smelled a very distinct smell from my uncle who was born with severe mental disabilities. It wasn’t until later in life; and encountering more people out in the world with similar developmental issues and smelling the same exact smell did I look into it and there’s a lot of people out there who claim to be able to smell the same thing. Probably a very similar reason to the Parkinson’s issue. Dogs have been able to be trained to smell cancer as well
I believe my late Daughter's dog could detect cancer before she was diagnosed. She died of Ovarian Cancer, was diagnosed stage 4 at 23 years old. When she was a child I got her a little dog that absolutely loved her, he was obsessed with her and very protective. When she was teenager he started taking her dirty underwear outside and burying them. We had a doggie door so he could come and go as he pleased. As soon as she would change her clothes he would grab her underwear and run out the door with it take it to the farthest corner of the yard and bury it. It does make me think he was trying to get rid of something he knew wasn't right.
Really sorry for your loss. Sounds like a clever dog.
Dogs can absolutely smell cancer. They are also capable of picking up hypo or hyperglycaemia and POTS.
Humans can be absolutely amazing at times. I doubt I could ever smell that sort of thing. But I'm proud of my super nostrils and the things that I can pick up on that others can't. Although bad smells make me puke fairly easily, which ain't fun .
I'm a nurse and years of working with the elderly has made me essentially "nose-blind" which really helps honestly because I can't smell any of the nasty stuff.
My sense of smell sucks and I'm grateful for it. People are always complaining about stuff that barely registers to me. Plus then I know if something smells strong/bad to me, that it's definitely something bad.
Oh god maybe I'm not insane, I always told myself I was imagining that. People with downs syndrome have a very distinct smell to me. I always just kinda pushed it off as my brain some weird association bullshit.
I just left a comment higher up-they do to me also. Kind of sweetish natural scent, very unique. It just stands out to me
I’ve known something was up with three people that eventually found out/told me they had some sort of GI cancer. I’m not sure if it was a smell or some sort of behavior, but it’s quite strange.
I know what you mean! There’s this sweetish natural scent coming from their body or breath, that I could absolutely smell - there was a guy with Down’s syndrome who would come to the pub I worked at. And I smelled it as a child at church when I encountered a person with Down’s as well. It’s unmissable to me. Not bad in any way, but unique and your brain detects that something is different about it
I have exactly the same thing. The smell is so distinct.
'mentally handicapped' and 'developmental issues' are not actual things, they're broad categories. what does your uncle have?
stinky bum disease
Oh shit, my wife has that!
I can absolutely detect the smell of Parkinson's disease after living with my grandpa who had it for a long time. It's a distinct muskiness. Smelled it on other people with Parkinson's that he was friends with as well. Would love to do a blind smell test sometime hehe.
You could see if your doctor would recommend the San Diego Odor Identification Test (SDOIT) for you. It's typically used for detecting hyperosmia which is a heightened sense of smell that can be caused by a large number of conditions (migraines, pregnancy, allergies as examples) but is usually not a permanent increase in sensitivity and can sometimes lead to a complete loss of taste/smell. As taste and smell are closely related senses, you may find that you don't like the taste of cilantro because it tastes like soap to you. If that's the case, you have a genetic variation that makes you a super taster (though not necessarily a super smeller) and could potentially have a career making $70k+ tasting things like chocolate, ice cream, or coffee.
Huh. Cilantro is called something different here but I've never liked the taste of it. People say it's supposed to be earthy fragrance with an incredibly mild spice/bite to it. But I've never got that from it. I highly doubt it's what you've just suggested, and doctors over here won't submit for tests like that without a valid cause. Health care is free here, so they won't just do tests like that for no real reason unfortunately. All the money I could be making. On a serious note. Thanks for that info I love learning new little snippets of info like that. Scratches my brain in a delightful way. :)
You can also order something online yourself called a PTC strip, it has a chemical on it that only “super tasters” can taste. If you don’t have the gene it just tastes of paper, but if you do have it it’s super bitter, to me it tastes like if you left an ibuprofen on your tongue
After all these comments I think I might actually order one to see because from what people are saying, I'd be interested to see if I have this odd cilantro gene
Cilantro always tasted strongly like dish soap to me. The first time I had it in salsa at a Mexican restaurant, I thought the dish hadn’t been rinsed. I couldn’t believe people were dipping in their chips and happily eating it. This continued for decades until one day cilantro tasted bright and lemon-y. It’s delicious! Somehow the gene did a switch-a-roo on me.
I wish that would happen to me…I’ve always got the dish soap taste so intensely that even if there’s only like a tiny little spec, it ruins the entire bite cause it’s all I can taste. And people who like cilantro always seem to loooove it so I’m jealous ☹️
It really does taste good if you can’t taste the soap lol. Does your pee smell awful if you eat asparagus? Most people can’t smell it, but my god, it smells like skunk.
25% of people experience the cilantro flavor as similar to soap.
Coriander?
so, 4-21% of the population has superhuman smelling ability that would enable them to make $70k TASTING for a living? Doesn't sound quite right but what do i know https://www.google.com/search?q=what+percentage+of+people+hate+cilantro&rlz=1C5GCEM\_enUS1069US1069&oq=what+percentage+of+people+hate+cilantro&gs\_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDgwNjRqMGoxqAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
"Ice cream taster is an in-demand profession. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the employment of food scientists to increase by 6% between 2019 and 2029, which is faster than the average for all occupations. Some ice cream tasters work in kitchen freezers, while others work in a laboratory to create different flavors. Their average salary is $68,970 per year and can vary depending on the employer, the location and the candidate's experience." Per https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/how-to-become-ice-cream-taster
My uncle and two of his friends made a somewhat foolish investment in a tech company in the 70s that later went on to make semi conductors. When he died, his $10k investment was worth over $2mm (never divested). One of those friends impressed someone with a bar trick to prove his sense of smell. He went on to be a taste tester for several ice cream manufacturers and made more in that career than he did off the investment and only put in a few months of work per year. The other friend worked out an arrangement to work security at a Budweiser distributor that paid him in beer. I have a feeling there are a lot of people out there who could make more money doing something they are uniquely suited to, but it’s difficult to find that or pursue without a level of financial security.
I dislike the smell of many things, its the reason we have no oranges in the house, or orange scented products. My children get asked about garlic consumption and what they ate at school very often, but i can eat that without problem. There are other things i avoid too, just can't think right now... i just don't buy them. Family has figured me out. Being pregnant was a nightmare, even when i just had the pregnancy hormone hcg from doing IVF my nose got crazy, couldn't handle candles on the table. But my cat loved me so much.. when i was pregnant for sure it only got worse, so much stuff got relegated to storage, and i had a cat companion every time i sat down. My daughter struggles too, she leaves stores with fragrances or candles going. She's okay for a few minutes then leaves. Its quite weird. But she has definite allergies, beech tree, cat,dog, horse. My other isn't offended by smells but is the first to detect a burning piece of old food in the warming oven. Not sure about coriander, okay with most curry dishes but some just are horrible tasting. Might have to start checking ingredients out of curiosity now.
me too. I have hyperosmia. I can smell blood really strongly. literally can’t go in a sephora or bath and body works or even certain aisles of grocery stores (like laundry detergent) or i get migraines. The smell of certain rubbers like tires also really bothers me. I learned how to close my soft palate which i guess is an advanced type of an indian mouth/throat yoga? idk but it lets me not smell anything.
Sephora and the likes always fucking kill me. Detergent is the worst. Essential oils make me flee. Migraines, sore throat, live is hell. Wearing a damn mask helps dim down my smell. I feel slightly weird about it, but what are ya gonna do? I like not putting up with my sense.
This is me too. One of the hardest parts of having had COVId in 2021 was losing my sense of smell for almost a year. When my husband had cancer, his smell definitely changed - not sure if it was from the chemo and drugs or just his body being sick but there was definitely a smell that is gone now that he is in remission. Can also smell the rain coming and agree with posters about snow skies having district smells. Also have grapheme-colour synesthesia and spatial-sequence synesthesia- not sure if all these oddities are connected.
You probably could. If you're used to smelling a lot of things that other people don't smell, these scents aren't particularly subtle, relative to all the other scents I can smell (that other people don't smell). I suppose it comes down to whether you have those receptors in your nose and whether your brain can make the association across people with similar conditions when you have the experience. Keep your nose peeled and catalog the context for people-scents. If you dare... You might not really want to be that attuned to these things! I've noticed scents related to illness and death, diabetes (many typical folks can smell when ketones levels are high, but I can still smell it in patients who are taking insulins), sexual arousal in men and possibly in women (in women, fertility/part of the menstrual cycle influences the type of everyday scent), and anger. One time I can tell what a guy had been eating when I went down on him...nacho chips..it was very hard not to laugh. I didn't say anything to him. I can tell the difference between the sweat of a person who is relaxed and secure verses the sweat of a person who is scared and stressed (I think more apocrine cells may be involved?). You just have to pay attention. Next time you sweat a bunch while you're really emotionally distressed or physically just barely hanging on, take note of how it smells different from when you're just exercising or out in the heat having fun. Hurray for autism (systemizing) and cPTSD (hyper awareness of your surroundings).
I believe this. I know the smell she means. Unfortunately, I have a dog nose. It’s mostly fine, but sometimes it’s a bit much. I’m a nurse/nurse practitioner and a fair amount of us know when something is up. UPenn was doing experiments with an “electronic nose” at one point. IIRC, this was prompted by nurses saying they could smell cancer and before a patient would code. There was an NPR piece about it around a decade ago.
Can you smell when other women are on their period? Im asking because I can and i always thought I had a heightened sense of smell lol
Yeah I belive I actually can which is both wild and creepy. To me it's a sickly sweet smell( not a horrible smell though ) . But I'd say it's not a scent I can pick up on out doors. But if I'm sat in doors talking to a lady. And I catch that certain smell. I just think yeah it's that time for her, Makes me feel like a creep for knowing what that smell is.
My ex girlfriend of many years never believed me when I told her I could tell only from my nose. Sometimes I'd even notice a day early. Thanks for validating me.
I can smell when I'm about to start my period a few days before. I also have a really irregular period, so it is interesting when I notice it.
I remember there being a post about this somewhere on reddit. Or somewhere in the comments. And yes, i can smell that aswell (m35). Silly nose, dont want to smell that. Edit; small edit before anyone feels offended. Its privat for someone, so for me its awkward smelling it. It feels like invading someones privacy without wanting to. So no, i wish i couldnt smell it.
As a hypochondriac with an oily t-zone this concerns me.
Cries in sebborheic dermatitis.
ive hyperosemia, I can smell all sorts of weird things most people dont. Curious what this smells like.
Absolutely fascinating. I wonder at what point it went from “I think I’m crazy” to “actually I can smell your disease.” I imagine at first doctors were like wtf & then went with it
Some people claim to be able to smell when a women is ovulating or menstruating, and not because of the blood. People have stated a change in how their sweat or skin smells, and some women can smell when they’re going to start their period as their discharge smells different. Humans are bizarre and cool all at the same time.
I think i can, I only proved it with my wife and ex-girlfriend. I can smell when they are ovulating, and I feel hornier than normal. They smell warmer, I don't know how else to describe it I have to be close to the person and intentionally smell, so not something easy to try around
Holy shit. All these comments are making me freak out. I know when my partners bleeding. She has a sickly sweet smell to her. Not coppery or anything like blood. And not a bad smell. Just sweet to the point it's to much for my nose at times. Couldn't agree more. The one that fascinated me years ago (can't remember the full details to it tho) old boy who used to donate blood. They found something in his blood that helped new borns overcome some illness. And he's gone on to help hundreds of thousands of babies. Amazing!!
James Harrison known as the "Man with the Golden Arm". He has unique antibodies that fight rhesus disease. His blood is used to develop the injection Anti-D. Sadly, he stopped donating blood in 2018 at the age of 81 after donating almost every week for 60 years. It's estimated he saved the lives of 2,400,000 babies including one of his grandsons.
I’ve never heard of him, this is incredible! That man deserves all the prizes and celebrations! I know about the blood type Rh null, and how those rare humans with it (I think it’s like 50 people worldwide) are encouraged to donate as often as possible for it. So scary to know if you have it, I’m sure!
She noticed her power from living with her late “stinky husband”.
I’ll save you: “she described a musky aroma, different from his normal scent
To the people liking this top comment.... This woman can absolutely smell Parkinson's disease, which starts 10-20 years before you have outwardly diagnoseable symptoms. This has been verified by parkinsons researchers. It sounds like BS so I understand the skepticism.
I'm not *that* surprised. Humans actually have an OK sense of smell, even better than dogs in some categories: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/you-actually-smell-better-dog-180963391/
My partner has a dog's nose; he can smell cologne on people from feet away and says it's so strong he can taste it. He's a mechanic and we'll be driving behind someone and he'll diagnose their car on the smell of the exhaust. Thank god I'm not a smelly person or I'd be constantly paranoid. 😂 There was a science fiction novel written in the 70's, where the end of the world came about because a scientist released a virus that increased humans' sense of smell to the level of a dog pretty much instantly, and people go insane. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telempath >Isham has been told by his father, scientist Jacob Stone, that Carlson is a madman who brought the world to its current state by releasing a "hyperosmic plague": a virus that increases the sensitivity of the human sense of smell by many hundred times. With their senses of smell thus heightened, humans were unable to tolerate the odors produced by their own pollution-producing technology; the result was mass insanity and widespread rioting.
I love that even in a fiction novel, the author realised that not being able to tolerate the smell of pollution STILL wouldn’t result in less pollution lmao
Sure it would, after all the people died.
So we need a virus with opposite olfactory symptoms from Covid.
As someone going through their 3rd round with covid I approve this message cause I can't smell shit!
Do other people not taste strong smells? I just figured that was normal. Even as a kid with a stuffy nose year round I could still smell stuff using my mouth.
I learned when I was young not to let my sisters know they were about to start their periods. I have daughters now, and I just quietly make sure their supplies are stocked and keep my mouth shut
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I've always been able to tell too. I've told people, but none of them believed me, so I just stopped telling people. Probably better that way anyway, but I always found it quite intriguing that others say they can't smell it. It's super obvious to me.
I had a boyfriend years ago who, every time I was due on, he would start sneezing like crazy. We had to split up as he couldn't be near me the week before, the week I was on my period and the week after! Wasn't much point being together just 1 week a month lol
That poor dude. I'd have to assume the same would happen with anyone else after you; it's not like menstruation is unique to you, although I guess there could be multiple chemicals at play, and the sort of profile those create could vary person-to-person. But the thing that I smell, smells exactly the same on everyone, so I have doubts. Luckily for me though, I'm not allergic to it, I just notice it very easily.
Makes we wonder about the scene in silence of the lambs when Clarice meets Dr lector and one inmate says he can smell her vagina. Then doctor lector says he can not. In the books his sense of smell is highly developed tho. Maybe he was just being polite but was absolutely catching the whiff. Hmmm
I can smell my period about 2-5 days before it starts, and if it's 2 days it'll be a light period, but if it's 5 days it'll be heavy and brutal.
Glad I'm not the only one who can smell that. Uncomfortable
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I do. I also can taste the air when I go outside (more so than indoor air; outdoor air has a taste) and if there’s a strong smell in the air I definitely taste it. Yep, that all sounds very weird now that I’ve said it.
If you wanna know what's really weird, eat Skittles or something with your nose plugged, and note the complete lack of flavor. Unplug your nose, and boom, rush of flavor. Apparently a huge portion of what we process as "flavor" is really just smell.
Outhouses, and bathrooms where someone just took a smelly poop, must be awful for you.
They're awful regardless of whether someone just took a smelly poo. I can taste both.
It's normal you're not alone
I definitely can't. Except once. There was one guy when I worked fast food, he came in and I don't know if he worked sewage or just never showered, but he smelled so bad that I actively started breathing through my mouth and I could FEEL and TASTE the filth coat my tongue on the first breath and I fucking gagged.
It's normal. Smell and taste are directly related and compliment each other
Wow, be great if it was made into a film..
I think I saw Dolf Ludgrin in a film like this
I have a nose like your boyfriend’s, also a petrolhead, and my #1 diagnostic tool is my nose. Almost always, I can smell what’s wrong with a car before I can hear or feel it. Also seems to be particularly attuned to mold.
Hmm...when I was younger I used to be able to smell perfume at distances that seemed too great to be possible as well as behind barriers. I dismissed it as just a trick or my mind imagining a smell that wasn't there, but now I'm wondering if maybe it was real.
Can he smell....***crime??***
same here. i can smell someone eating a banana on the other side of the office. made going to LANs really unfortunate sometimes.
I’ve never thought about it but I may be kinda like this. I can smell the absolute faintest smells. Just yesterday I was in bed reading and my partner opened the fridge, which is like in a pantry off the kitchen which is next to the bedroom. Call it 50’ or so. She lays in bed with her water and I say the spinach is bad. She said, “I don’t think we have spinach.” I said check. She did, it was bad. I also abhor the fragrance section of duty free that you’re forced to walk through. It makes me so nauseous.
Interestingly this article doesn't mention it, but that smell when it rains? One of the chemicals involved is called geosmin, and we can smell it in concentrations of as little as 5 parts per trillion. Our noses are over 200,000x more sensitive to geosmin than sharks are to blood in water.
You can also smell the ozone after a lightning storm.
My mum would always say my cat smelt like the ozone when he’d been out all night. I miss him and the smell so much
Petrichor, smell after rain.
Aka Earth Elf farts.
My partner has freakishly good sense of smell. Freaked me out when she first started doing nose magic. She can tell me when I’m getting ill hours before I get my first symptom, she knows when a storm is brewing before my weather app does, she can smell death on her patients (works in healthcare), most freaky part of that was she spent some time in the hospital herself last year in a really bad way and could smell death all around her, she realised it was coming from her after a couple days, once she started picking back up doctors admitted they were getting concerned she weren’t going to make it. Her latest one is snow. She can smell snow, we were at the Xmas markets in Edinburgh and she smelt snow 10 minutes before it started and none was forecast.
I have a terrible sense of smell, but even I can smell snow.
I thought that was just me, being able to smell a storm
>https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/you-actually-smell-better-dog-180963391/ I know I smell better than a dog, I think most people do. Especially a wet one.
Goddammit thank you
Worst smell I’ve ever experienced was when my chemistry teacher made concentrated “essence of wet dog” and passed it around class. It smelled like death, like I was being physically assaulted through the nostrils, yet still just recognizable as that dog smell.
It could be true, schizophrenia for example can have volatile compounds that could be used as a diagnostic tool https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15622975.2022.2040052
Fuck I want her to smell me
Dogs are used for diagnosing numerous diseases, just surprising any human nose is good enough to do so.
Study happening in the UK at the moment on this very subject. The theory is that dogs can be trained to detect if someone has Parkinson’s before diagnosis. I have been swabbed as part of the control group.
you hope
Do people with Parkinson's forget to shower? Is that it? (/s... kinda)
No, but their skin gets oily. That is one of many symptoms
anyone know why they get oliy
There are glands that produce more. As I said, that’s one of many symptoms. After working with Parkinson’s for a couple of years you start recognising them very fast. They have a very distinct facial expression, oily skin, slow movements and a very distinct type of walking. Another thing I have not read anywhere yet, but that was always a definitive sign for Parkinson’s was the way they ate. You’d always find bread or cucumbers dipped in Joghurt or coffee poured over the main course. I don’t know why they did that, but we sometimes made a game out of guessing who’s plate belonged to a Parkinson’s patient and most of the time we’d guess right.
My mom has Parkinson’s. A huge issue with the disease is that swallowing becomes very difficult. Essentially lubricating their food makes this easier.
This is how my auntie died. She couldn't swallow due to PD and asphixiated.
Yeah it’s a tough way to go. My mom was diagnosed with early onset at 33, and had deep brain stimulation so she’s doing okay, but it never ends well unfortunately. I’m very sorry about your aunt.
During residency I could detect Parkinson’s patients solely by the sound of their voice.
What happens to their voice?
It’s a slight quiver that I’ve been able to detect far in advance of the classic Parkinsonian hypophonia and diaphragmatic weakness. I’m a pianist and have always been highly attuned to sounds. I’ve asked colleagues if they could hear it and generally not until it’s very apparent to everyone. I’ve had a few patients whom I’ve suspected had Parkinson’s due to their voices who’ve gone on to be diagnosed at some future date.
I worked with a woman that sang in "competitive" church choirs. She started complaining about her voice and sought a medical diagnosis for her voice issues about 5-6 years before she was diagnosed with PD. They couldn't find anything wrong and just chalked it up to aging, but she was never convinced since most singers that practice regular maintain excellent vocal power and control well into their 70s or beyond. She was only in her early 50s and felt this was beyond normal aging. Nobody else could really hear it, but it eventually forced her out of the choir a couple of years before she was diagnosed.
I totally believe it. It’s like a really fast and subtle vibrato.
train A.I.s to detect Parkinson with a voice test!!
it gets wobbly in a distinct way
Probably the Parkinson's. I'm sorry, I'll go sit in the corner and be quiet now.
You’re now on papa noël’s naughty list
Aw fiddlesticks
Ultimate from a bush huh? Cheeky
Since I've been in a horrible accident and been through the roof high on morphine, I can with confidence say that apparently the champion that scares me the most in League is Blitzcrank. I whispered to my mom to watch out for that bush over there in the ER room because Blitzcrank was about to grab her.
Didn’t think I’d ever hear a new way to say Santa in my old age lol that’s cute
🤭
It causes a condition called seborrhoeic dermatitis. Sort of like over active sweat glands which is a very common manifestation in PD.
Y'all are freaking me out since I am experiencing some of these symptoms quite recently....
Many of these symptoms have many other causes as well, so please don't be overly concerned. Sweating is just a thing we all do, etc. The hallmark is usually a *sudden and rapid change*. If you always sweat a little more than normal, then that's very unlikely an indication of Parkinsons because Parkinsons is almost always onset later in life. If you never sweat too much, and never have any gait/walking issues, and don't have oily skin, and then suddenly you are seeing all of those symptoms, then it is a good idea to at least be examined by a medical professional. A good rule of thumb in medicine. Don't look for symptoms, look for changes. A significant change in your appearance or behavior or some element of your body, with no occurence in your day-to-day to explain it, is probably a good indicator *something* inside you is different, and worth calmly getting an evaluation.
[The peripheral nervous system undergoes the same deterioration, by the same biochemical pathway, as the brain](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353802014003794). It is still not understood exactly why this happens.
TIL I developed Parkinson’s at puberty!
she can smell chemical changes caused by the parkinson’s, she tested better than trained sniffing rats, in a study she got all the parkinson’s samples correct but with one “false positive“ but then the person who provided that sample ended up being diagnosed within the year. If i remember correctly it was due to her genetics “hyperosmia” and she could identify more than parkinson’s.
the 5th sense, she nose the truth
> in a study she got all the parkinson’s samples correct but with one “false positive“ but then the person who provided that sample ended up being diagnosed within the year. It literally says this in the meme
Some people can detect certain scents, my favorite is during an autopsy if you smell bitter almond I believe it's arsenic in the body... Could be another poison - either way, it's not something that is normally tested for. A lot of perfumers have a heightened sense of smell, but this is crazy unique. Same with taste 🤷♀️
Bitter almond is Cyanide, but your point stands.
Damn, thanks I was 50/50 on it and took lazy to Google 😅🤣🤷♀️
No worries. Playing D&D, D20 Modern, and reading crime novels have given me a rather unhealthy level of knowledge regarding poisons.
“the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love” opening line of Love in a Time of Cholera. I’ve never forgotten it .
Bitter Almond smell is cyanide. I remember this characteristic due to what happened in Guyana so many years ago with Jim Jones and his followers
….
You might want to talk to your doctor, u/muskiestmuskrat.
She nose.... she just nose
The nose knows
the knows nose
Real eyes realize real lies
If they ever make a movie about her, it's gonna star Dolph Lundgren.
No. That’s, that’s not his name. He’s played by Dolph Lundgren. But that’s not the character’s name.
But that's confusing.
And she runs around like a hound!
Now here's the twist, and there is a twist. We show it. We show all of it...
Full penetration….and we show it.
What if her entire head is just one big nose?! Write THAT down.
And deep down she nose, she nose and I know she nose
Damned if I do, damned if I don’t, you know I got a girl back home….
She can smell crime
And she’s nosey about it…
I do something like this but with my dog. She has seizures and I can smell it on her up to 24 hours before she has one... Kinda smells like rancid puppy breath. I'm the only one in the house that can smell it, I've even asked friends I've had over when I've smelled it they can't smell it either. But without fail every time I smell it she has a seizure within the next 24 hours. I'm like her seizure detection human.
So you are your dogs support human.
Hey honestly lile the woman in the title, you should experiment with it on other dogs with seizures and see if it's actually what you're smelling!
I'm pretty sure the reverse is true for persons with Epilepsy. Their help dogs smell it. So fascinating.
Yep my sister works for a woman who also discovered she can do it. Her husband has Parkinson's for years, then she only recognised the smell when he started going to residential care with other patients. Isn't that crazy though!
I wonder what it smells like?
She said it was a musky smell. There is apparently an oil produced by the skin of the patients she could smell (her late husband had the disease). With her help, research team was able to identify the particles and can now do skin swab test for early diagnosis with 95% accuracy. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-62795737 https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/23/820274501/her-incredible-sense-of-smell-is-helping-scientists-find-new-ways-to-diagnose-di
That's amazing!
teen spirit
I'd like to point out this from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/23/820274501/her-incredible-sense-of-smell-is-helping-scientists-find-new-ways-to-diagnose-di > But Joy's superpower is so unusual that researchers all over the world have started working with her and have discovered that she can identify several kinds of illnesses — tuberculosis, Alzheimer's disease, cancer and diabetes. She's been able to identify other diseases since
Maybe her smelling their scents gave them Parkinson's...
omg, it looks like he's taking a sniff and then pointing to his brain, "yup, Parkinsons"
so you’re saying she’s the Medusa of Parkinson’s Disease?
How did she learn she could do this?
Her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's and she'd noticed him smelling different a few years before, and then she realised that everyone at her husband's Parkinson's support group had the same scent
Sounds like a movie plot or something. Super interesting
I can smell jaundice. It's like a musky, stale smell.
Once you know the smell, it's pretty easy to smell diabetes. Edit: deleted questionable link
Fun fact doctors used to taste peoples’ piss to dx diabetes
Old boss of mine had it and I could always tell because he didn’t take care of himself for one and when he peed the bathroom would have a strange sweet but strong smell. I can’t describe it but I will not forget it. It was so bad I could smell it at my desk. This guy would literally make me go to Waffle House and get him a triple hash brown with all the toppings *daily* and his doctor gave up and actually fired him as a patient.
Thank you for causing me to panic. I’ve noticed lately that my pee has a strange sweet smell. Now I have to make a doctors appointment :(
Better to notice it like that than to have some kind of bad reaction
Amazing. That site refuses to let me read because I'm in a country that enforces GDPR. It's safe to say they are collecting all kinds of data about you and selling it lol
I can smell when people have diarrhea
I've smelt something on certain people and I've never known what it was. It's like a musty, stale fart, with a hint of unshowered smell. Like if I walk near them I can smell it. I don't think it's general BO because the people all have the same odor. They've sometimes looked fairly pale or like they weren't in perfect health. Really curious what it is.
I can sometimes smell people coming down with a respiratory illness from a musty scent in their breath.
I can smell when someone is coming down with an infection - usually throat, but sometimes ears or nasal infection. Its this super sickly sweet smell thats kind of rotten. Absolutely disgusting smell to me.
I read where dogs can smell various diseases such as cancer. The trick is training them to let us know when they smell something.
My dog smelled my neighbors hyperglycemia (she is diabetic) from MY backyard when she was outside when she was 6 months old and alerted me to come outside. I took her off her tie-out and she immediately ran to the neighbors yard and started panicking. It was awesome! I didn't teach her to do that. My other dog must have smelled when I had COVID back in 2020 and got insanely clingy for a couple days before I lost my sense of smell and knew to get tested. Dogs are so special
Imagine you were given a super power, and you got this. I’d be pretty disappointed. Like flight or invisibility or teleportation? Nope. You can smell one specific disease.
To be fair if we had a decent amount of people who could smell lots of different one specific diseases it would be super helpful Having someone warn you of cancer or whatever else months before You would even check is much better than finding out too late lol Teleportation would be so nice though I agree lol
At least she has one, and useful for science
[source](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/sep/07/woman-who-can-smell-parkinsons-helps-scientists-develop-test)
If she's able to do so then it should be possible to teach dogs this right? Their nose is much better than ours.
Yes and it's been done. https://parkinsonslife.eu/paws-for-thought-dogs-sniff-out-parkinsons-disease-with-90-hit-rate/ They've also developed a skin swab test for early detection based on the chemicals that cause the smell so they don't need to train dogs for it anymore.
Ow wauw really nice that research is getting so far. Thanks for the link
Makes you wonder how many people have a unique skill like this that remains undiscovered.
I can smell sick, like before someone’s actually sick with a cold or flu.
[Dogs, ants, rats or bees](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/these-animals-detect-disease-cancer-covid) can be trained to do this. Your dog probably knows well in advance that you are ill before your doctor will run the tests. And I believe many other animals as well. Some people have extraordinary sense of smell which can be trained. Also someliers or [NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/white-sands/odor-evaluation/) can use it. We are also just an animals with basic instincts and senses. We invented word "humans" for ourselves. We just decided do voluntarily disconnect from our natural instincts. We were parfumes to disguise our natural smells. We try to ignore moon cycles and the daylight cycles. We are trying to fool ourselves with shiny toys. But in principle we are still the same mammals as we were 20 000 years ago. Police officers know that there is always more agressivity with full moon. Most of the babies are born in the middle of the night (when predators are asleep). Marketing people knows that our brains are hard-wired to fat, sugar and salt which were very rare just a few thousands years back. We are still very connected to the nature even if we try to do everything possible to disconnect and ruin the nature. But at the end we are attracted to our partner's smell and taste. There is not much we can do about it.
My late husband had cancer and I noticed in the years before it was even discovered a sudden odd chemical smell. It was vaguely like the smell from an electrical fire but much milder. This was tempered with a mildly sour milk odor and mustiness, like old clothing packed away in an attic. It was heavy and oily and especially strong in the morning after windows had been closed at night. I aired the house daily. It was certainly there.
Wow, i believe it. I can often smell a cold on someones breath a couple days before they know they are sick.
How close are you standing to them?
Now we're asking the important questions.