The mystery of the relationship between poor sense of smell and the risk of death

Many scientists have pointed out the strange connection between the extent to which humans can smell and the risk of death. However, despite continuous research efforts and a lot of media coverage on this issue, researchers still cannot explain why.

In addition to mortality and statistics, there are still some concepts that are less fully accessible, and this latest research is no exception.

Again, researchers have demonstrated a higher risk of death in people with poor sense of smell. Although one of the first studies is expected to find out why this phenomenon occurs, research results are still vague.

To collect data from two US communities, researchers tracked 2,200 participants between the ages of 71 and 82 for 13 years. After experimenting with 12 common scents, individuals with poor sense of smell were found to be nearly 50% more likely to die within 10 years.

Researchers have demonstrated a higher risk of death in people with poor sense of smell.

Sex, race and lifestyle factors have almost no effect on this number, while mortality due to Parkinson's disease and dementia shows the strongest connection.

Sharing with Reuters , guide author Honglei Chen of Michigan State University said: "The main link lies in those who have good and good health reports when enrolling in the study. Poor sense of smell is an early and sensitive sign of a deteriorating health condition before a clinical identification sign occurs . "

No matter how much the tabloids have released information, poor sense of smell doesn't mean death. It does not mean that in the future, medicine will test smells to diagnose the early stage of neurodegenerative disease.

The UK National Health Service (NHS) writes: " The UK media reports that the study is quite accurate, but The Guardian reports:" The test of the sense of smell is determined. The term can be utilized to detect signs of dementia "not evidenced by the argument in this study ."

In fact, the agency argues that "odor testing to detect dementia" is "completely unlikely" and merely "conjecture".

Although there is the possibility of Parkinson's disease or dementia having some effect on the olfactory nerve, the authors can only explain 22% of their results thanks to these neurodegenerative factors.

Chen insisted on continuing to pursue this mystery and revealed: " We have not found a reason for more than 70% of the increased risk of death. So, we need to find out what happened to those this case ".

However, the current study does not have sufficient evidence to answer that question. Due to the fact that there were no specific early deaths, the NHS concluded that poor sense of smell has almost no effect on the overall risk of death.

Moreover, scientists are also completely unknown whether the participants in this study are always suffering from poor sense of smell or whether this condition has only recently appeared.

While observational studies like this one are certainly useful, it goes beyond the scope of human understanding to explain exactly why odors can correlate with mortality. Until now, this phenomenon will forever be a mystery without an answer.