New 'Peanut Butter Test' Is A Quick And Easy Screen For Alzheimer's

[FarCenter]

You may not have heard of "the peanut butter test," but it could become a fantastically low-cost and non-invasive way to test for Alzheimer's. After all, what's less invasive than asking someone to smell some delicious peanut butter?

"The ability to smell is associated with the first cranial nerve and is often one of the first things to be affected in cognitive decline," reads this release from the University of Florida, researchers from which conducted the experiment.

But with Alzheimer's patients, the sense of smell is affected in a very particular way: The left nostril is significantly more impaired than the right. Weird! But true.

The experiment involved capping one nostril and measuring the distance at which the patient could detect about a tablespoon of peanut butter. In Alzheimer's patients, the left nostril was impaired so thoroughly that, on average, it had 10 centimeters less range than the right, in terms of odor detection. That's specific to Alzheimer's patients; neither control patients (those not suffering from cognitive decline) nor those with other types of cognitive impairment (like dementia) demonstrated that nostril difference.



Read more: http://www.popsci.com/article/science/if-you-can-smell-you-may-not-have-alzheimers

[TroglodyteScholar]

1. Neat! n/t

[Thinkingabout]

2. I had heard something years back about the inability to smell in Alzheimer's patients but

At the time they had made this determination.

[DURHAM D]

3. Total WOO nt

[Sheldon Cooper]

5. What evidence do you have that it's "WOO"?

[DURHAM D]

6. Just for starters...

The only sure way to determine if a person had/has Alzheimer's (or some other type of dementia) is by a brain autopsy.

[Sheldon Cooper]

7. But it could still be shown to be true, albeit after the fact.

If the sniff test is done while the person is alive, and then their brain is examined after death, it could show a correlation.

[DURHAM D]

9. That is my point.

There is no scientific evidence for the claim thus it is Woo.

For me this is a serious matter as I have done many of what I refer to as "The Long Goodbye" with members of my family (mother's side) who died of this disease. My father was also diagnosed with Alzheimer's but his autopsy proved that he did not have it.

[DLnyc]

8. Sounds like woo-woo

You are saying hypothesis is false because hypothesis is false? Total woo-woo.

[jeff47]

11. You're a touch out-of-date

They've developed markers that can be used in a PET scan to detect it.

So what's the reason for declaring this "woo", other than it doesn't sound science-y? If it's results are repeatable, it's not woo.

[DURHAM D]

14. The markers but not the disease.

And your response is in no way related to the OP.

[jeff47]

17. Which is why it was replying to your post, not the OP.

It would be rather silly of me to respond to the OP by replying to your post.

The markers but not the disease.

The markers attach to the same structures they are looking for in an autopsy. When the markers show up on a PET scan, you are detecting the disease just as much as when you use a microscope during an autopsy.

Think of it this way: An x-ray doesn't actually detect a broken bone. All it really measures is density of the material between the x-ray source and the x-ray film. It just so happens that our bones are denser than the rest of our tissues, so we can interpret the film as showing a broken bone or not. But the x-ray is not directly detecting a break - that would require cutting the person open, assuming a simple fracture.

Now, your post declared this "woo". Yet you've not quite managed to actually provide any specifics. Perhaps you should. After all, a large part of "woo" is just asserting something is true without any evidence, and you really wouldn't want that irony, would you?

[FarCenter]

13. A brief olfactory test for Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Background

The early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) may help reduce disability, enhance quality of life, and aid clinical trials. Portions of olfactory cortex are the initial sites of AD pathology and patients with AD often have more degeneration of their left than right hemisphere. Since the olfactory epithelium projects mainly to the ipsilateral olfactory cortex, patients with AD may demonstrate an asymmetrical (left greater than right) decrement of odor detection sensitivity. This retrospective, case-control study assessed a quick olfactory test that may help diagnose AD.

Methods

Participants with probable AD (N=18), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, N=24), other causes of dementia (OD, N=26) and matched controls (OC, N=26) were tested, with closed eyes, for their ability to detect an odor, one nostril at a time. A container of 14g of peanut butter was opened, held medially at the bottom of a 30cm ruler, and moved up 1cm at a time during the participants' exhale. Upon odor detection, the distance between the subject's nostril and container was measured.

Results

The mean odor detection distance of AD patients' left nostril (5.1cm), and not their right (17.4cm), was significantly less (F(3,90)=22.28, p<0.0001) than the other groups. The mean, standard error, and 95% Confidence Interval of the L–R nostril odor detection difference (cm) for AD were ?12.4±0.5, (?15.0,?9.8); for MCI were ?1.9±1.2, (?4.2,0.4); for OD were 4.8±1.0, (2.6,6.9); and for OC were 0.0±1.4 (?2.2,2.1).

Conclusion

This non-invasive and inexpensive left–right nostril odor detection test appears to be a sensitive and specific test for probable AD.


http://www.jns-journal.com/article/PIIS0022510X13003110/abstract

The Journal of the Neurological Sciences is the official Journal of the World Federation of Neurology http://www.wfneurology.org/.

[Rex]

15. Yeah, much easier to just yell WOO.

Thank you for the informative post.

[Th1onein]

21. THAAAAT'S right! Anything you don't understand must be "woo"!

[AnotherMcIntosh]

4. Also try smelling cinnamon.

[left is right]

10. this is worrisome I don’t have much of a sense of smell anyway

but my left nostril is often stuffed up and I don’t smell anything

[jeff47]

12. The problem they're looking for is nerve damage, not stuffed up. (nt)

[Uncle Joe]

16. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, FarCenter.

[AnnieBW]

18. Well, I must have Alzheimers

Either that, or a deviated septum in my left sinus. Which I do have.

[Liberal_in_LA]

19. interesting

[uppityperson]

20. Wow, I wonder why this is? Why would the nerve on one side be more affect by Alzheimers?

very interesting, off to sniff pb.