The smell of Parkinsons

[maize]

This is an interesting article:

https://m.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/joy-milne-can-smell-parkinson-s-before-it-is-diagnosed-a-1295601.html

[Guest]

Interesting. My mother has advanced Parkinson’s. I find that to be a disorganized article, though, and the article said her husband died of Parkinson’s disease. I don’t think that’s accurate. My understanding is that Parkinson’s itself is not fatal, but it could bring about other complications which do prove fatal. 

I have heard before of service dogs that smell cancer or diabetes. I wonder if there are any Parkinson’s-smelling dogs at this time? 

[Tree Frog]

That's an interesting article. She certainly has an interesting nose! The thought that this is another disease that may start in the gut (or stomach, I don't remember which) and travel through the vagus nerve to the brain is fascinating.

[Stacia]

That article gave me chills when she predicted the Parkinson's for the seventh person, as well as smelling it everywhere among crowds. What a heavy responsibility.

I have a very good sense of smell & know that diseases can be smelled. Others often look at me funny when I describe something as smelling overwhelming (because it seems so strong to me), when they can barely smell something, if at all. (My family has often said I'm like a human bloodhound.) It's not like you can help or control it, either; smells come crashing in. That's why I feel it's a heavy responsibility for her; she knows even if she doesn't want to know. Smells come regardless &, especially if gifted with other extraordinary senses, it can lead to sensory overload. I totally get why she wants to escape to the shore to breathe in sea air.

(A weird aside. My dd wanted to see the Charlie's Angels movie tonight & I went with her. It's fairly frivolous & not really recommended. But, in one scene, two of the Angels had accessed a secure area during a party, then were hiding to take out the security person who was coming. My first thought when he entered the screen was that the Angels must not have been wearing perfume -- something I would associate w/ the party clothes & such, otherwise he would have definitely been able to smell them even if he didn't see them. I guess reading this article has made me wonder/realize that may have been an odd thing for me to think when I saw the scene. But I seriously wondered how their smell wouldn't have given them away in close quarters w/in a short timespan w/ little to no time for a smell to dissipate. I guess I need the scratch 'n sniff theater experience, lol. Not!)

Fascinating.

[klmama]

Interesting article.  Thanks for sharing. 

I've not read much about Parkinson's before, and I'm curious about the fact that people with Parkinson's often lose their sense of smell and also develop a particular odor.  Are there other illnesses that cause the same problems?  I know a family with several people who don't have a good sense of smell, but none have Parkinson's or any other illness that I'm aware of, although they may just not have mentioned it.  They do all share an unusual body odor, though.  Of course, I haven't asked them about that, but it seems odd that they have that in combination with difficulty smelling things.  Ideas?

[G5052]

Yes, that's interesting. My father was diagnosed with Parkinson's in his early 50's, my mother in her late 70's, and my sibling has had essential tremor (another movement disorder) since his early 50's. I never noticed anything different about their smell.

Any movement disorder is of course devastating. My father would go to Mayo Clinic twice a year and went for many years before he had to retire, and he did very well in retirement up until the last three years or so before he died. My sibling can no longer work.

[EKS]

When my father was in elementary school he was on the playground one day and a girl came up to him and told him that he needed to go to the nurse's office because he smelled like he had measles.  Sure enough, he did.

[Jean in Newcastle]

There are Parkinson sniffing dogs.  https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/washington-dogs-trained-to-detect-parkinsons-disease/1002520683

[Bensmom2]

Fascinating. I am by no means a super smeller but I have spent a lot of time in the nursing home and noticed that certain residents have very different smells even though they are all bathed regularly (and it is not an unwashed smell), eat the same diet, have their body, hair, clothes and beds laundered in the same soaps/detergent etc. If they had vastly different diets like lots of garlic or spices, I would expect their body odor to be a little different, but with so many factors being the same, it is interesting that some of the residents did have very different smells to them🤷‍♀️  

I had never really given it much thought though as to having any significance. Fascinating article; thanks for sharing!

[Katy]

I hate Easter Lilies because they smell like cancer hospice patients.  Textbooks or whatever say it's the result of deep ketosis, but it smells nothing like ketoacidosis or someone doing long term fasting or a low carb diet.  Those have a more metallic/acetone sort of scent.  Not Easter Lilies.

People with C-Diff and colon cancer have distinct smells.  So does Lung cancer.  I've never noticed a smell with Parkinson's before, but that doesn't mean there isn't one.  I've read that Parkinson's is fatal but I've never known it to kill anyone I knew with it.  Or maybe they were misdiagnosed and have some other movement disorder.

[G5052]

23 hours ago, Katy said:

People with C-Diff and colon cancer have distinct smells.  So does Lung cancer.  I've never noticed a smell with Parkinson's before, but that doesn't mean there isn't one.  I've read that Parkinson's is fatal but I've never known it to kill anyone I knew with it.  Or maybe they were misdiagnosed and have some other movement disorder.

 

My father got Parkinson's-related pneumonia and then rapidly declined. He ultimately died of a stroke because of the strain on his body, and his death certificate says "complications of Parkinson's." Pneumonia occurs because Parkinson's affects how they swallow as it progresses, and that's the most common complication with advanced Parkinson's.

[BlsdMama]

Multiquote has decided to stop working for me on the PC this morning.  Sigh.

I didn't read the article - I have a hard time with these neuromuscular articles written from the perspective of the family and just can't do it currently.  

But I'd add that while we will die from something other than the disease itself, it is rare to make the distinction.  I might die from respiratory failure, or from choking on food, or a trip down the stairs, but if I hadn't had ALS, well, none of these would have happened. 😉  We tend to lay the blame where the blame belongs - on the disease, so  I don't think she is mistaken when she says her family died of Parkinson's - it's a differentiation of a hair's width, kwim?

But, yes, I think they will find this is another disease heavily rooted in the gut with genetic predispositions and triggers.  They already know we have an altered gut microbiome with significantly reduced numbers and types of healthy and necessary bacteria.  Parkinson's and ALS have some interesting similarities and I think with advances in one, we'll see advances in the other. The Parkinson's sniffing dogs are amazing to me!

[prairiewindmomma]

On 11/17/2019 at 7:04 AM, Katy said:

I hate Easter Lilies because they smell like cancer hospice patients.  Textbooks or whatever say it's the result of deep ketosis, but it smells nothing like ketoacidosis or someone doing long term fasting or a low carb diet.  Those have a more metallic/acetone sort of scent.  Not Easter Lilies.

People with C-Diff and colon cancer have distinct smells.  So does Lung cancer.  I've never noticed a smell with Parkinson's before, but that doesn't mean there isn't one.  I've read that Parkinson's is fatal but I've never known it to kill anyone I knew with it.  Or maybe they were misdiagnosed and have some other movement disorder.

Thank you for saying that about Easter lilies. I have the same issue and thought I was the only one who couldn’t stand them for that reason.

[Katy]

1 hour ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Thank you for saying that about Easter lilies. I have the same issue and thought I was the only one who couldn’t stand them for that reason.

 

Oh no, I was working my second nursing job and my favorite co-worker told me that, and I thought she was crazy.  As soon as I took care of someone with cancer on hospice I learned what she meant.  I've never liked those flowers since. I've heard the same thing from many nurses.

[kbutton]

Interesting. I smell some things really well (I can often smell a fever, and I almost always can smell hot things before others), and other things not as much, but when I was little, my sniffer was out of control and overwhelming.  I got chills reading this. One of the things I remember smelling the worst of all was my great uncle and great aunt's house, but no one else seemed to be bothered by it. My great aunt had Parkinson's for a long time. I haven't been around many people with it to know if I could smell it on someone else, or if that is what I was smelling. I have smelled a similar but diluted smell in nursing homes and always assumed it was "old people smell." 

[Vanchy]

My mother-in-law has Parkinson's and she has very acid smell. She is trying to hide that with the perfume, but result is not good.... 😞

[J-rap]

That's super interesting.  It makes sense though, because so many bodily changes are occurring.  I've heard about dogs that can smell a seizure ahead of time in someone with epilepsy.   My sister has epilepsy, and she says she can taste her seizure ahead of time.  She begins to get a metallic taste in her mouth, and she knows she'll be having a seizure soon.  It gives her time to sit down and prepare herself or others.