

Losing the sense of smell predicts death within five years - junto
http://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2014/oct/01/your-nose-knows-death-is-imminent

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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8397264](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8397264)

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pawelkomarnicki
I don't what to think about that, because due to severe sinusitis I kind of
lost my smell sense when I was a teenager (I'm almost 30 now), yet I can smell
pretty strong odours (mostly alcohol smell sensation and peppermint). It can't
be really true that it's "5 years and you're dead" :D

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donquichotte
From the sampled individuals, they calculated:

P(die within 5 years | healthy sense of smell in 1st test) = 0.1

P(die within 5 years | moderate sense of smell in 1st test) = 0.19

P(die within 5 years | bad sense of smell in 1st test) = 0.39

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nilkn
Notably, all participants were at least 57 years old.

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robinhouston
The paper is open access:
[http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna...](http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0107541)

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timboslice
Thanks!

> 3,005 community-dwelling adults aged 57–85 were studied in 2005–6 (Wave 1)
> and their mortality determined in 2010–11 (Wave 2). Olfactory dysfunction,
> determined objectively at Wave 1, was used to estimate the odds of 5-year,
> all cause mortality via logistic regression, controlling for demographics
> and health factors.

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uptown
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8397264](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8397264)

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simonbarker87
My Grandmother lost her sense of smell at 20 and lived to 85 - Yes, anecdotes
are not data but for those concerned, don't sweat it too much.

