People with a poor sense of smell more likely to develop dementia

PEOPLE with a poor sense of smell are more prone to dementia, medics warn.

The link emerged after a four-year study of 397 elderly volunteers who took “scratch and sniff” tests.

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Fifty went on to get dementia and typically did worse in the tests as their sense of smell failed.
The deterioration in memory accompanied thinning of a part of the brain that processes information from the senses.
Protein analysis of 84 other volunteers found those with a worsening sense of smell were three times more likely to have memory problems.

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The US research was conducted by New York’s Columbia University.
Dr Doug Brown, of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “We need larger studies to test how reliably sense of smell can be used.”

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• DEMENTIA symptoms in men are often harder to spot than in women, meaning many with the disease go undiagnosed for longer, a Florida study found.