139 medical conditions have this one warning sign in common and it is related to your nose

Is your nose trying to tell you something about your health? A new study finds that problems with your sense of smell might be an early warning sign for a surprisingly wide range of medical conditions (at least 139 approximately). So, your impaired sense of smell may not just be a minor inconvenience; it could be more than that.

(Also Read | Intense 30-minute exercise gives you more brain power than regular workout durations)

The study was published in Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience and found that olfactory loss accompanies at least 139 neurological, somatic, and congenital/hereditary conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease, COVID-19, and others.

Could your nose be trying to tell you about your health?

According to the study, our sense of smell might be one of the first systems to signal that something’s not quite right in our body. Moreover, in many cases, the loss of smell preceded the development of other symptoms, sometimes by years. For instance, people who later develop Parkinson’s disease experience a diminished sense of smell. Similarly, individuals who develop Alzheimer’s disease frequently report problems with their sense of smell as one of their earliest symptoms, even before they notice any memory issues.

Another finding that baffled the researchers was the correlation between the sense of smell and inflammation. According to the study, when researchers looked at all 139 conditions associated with smell loss, they all involved inflammation in some way.

Michael Leon, the lead author and professor emeritus at the Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, said, “It was difficult to track down the studies for so many medical conditions.”

Leon added, “The data are particularly interesting because we had previously found that olfactory enrichment can improve the memory of older adults by 226 per cent. We now know that pleasant scents can decrease inflammation, potentially pointing to the mechanism by which such scents can improve brain health.”