
A Woman Who Can Smell Parkinson's - respinal
https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/joy-milne-can-smell-parkinson-s-before-it-is-diagnosed-a-1295601.html
======
aspectmin
This is awesome. I've always been a super 'smeller' and seem to be able to
taste/smell very minute concentrations of bad stuff well before others. Being
careful what I say, I also work in EMS and have been able to identify 'sick'
patients, even just on walking in the room, often their smell of their
'sickness' gives them away - even when they're not showing a lot of outward
signs.

Hopefully someday we'll have some kind of tricorder device that can identify
disease processes by gas/scents/smells.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
I can identify when a woman is ovulating by the smell of something being
exhaled on the breathe and excreted through the skin.

Only ever happens with close female friends, but I’ve identified the smell
from regular standing conversation distance away with friends I haven’t seen
for weeks and don’t otherwise know their cycle.

~~~
martin_a
Oh, I have this "condition" or something similar, too. Not even with close
friends but with strangers I pass in the supermarket. It doesn't happen often
but it's very significant.

I think I somewhere read, but unrelated to ovulating, that this was made by
nature to find suitable partners. Probably that natural smell is intensified
by ovulating.

edit: And to be honest: I never told anyone before that I sometimes sense this
different smell and I'm not sure I should. Women could probably feel
uncomfortable and think their smell is somehow "bad" when others can sense it.
Not sure.

~~~
JesseMReeves
You’re likely perceiving female pheromones. There have been studies that men
can reliably detect fertile phases from sniffing worn shirts alone. I‘ve tried
diving a bit into this topic after noticing something fruity (a good smell) in
the middle of my cycle, which somehow intensified when being around my so.
Interestingly it disappeared in the years I’ve been on hormonal contraception
(stopped now due to a couple of more severe side effects, luckily I haven’t
been on them for long).

Asking the women whether your perception is true would likely have led nowhere
as most women are not aware of their fertile phases.

Search keyword seems to be ‚copulins‘, but the area appears a bit
underexplored. Lots of companies trying to sell snake oil. Lots of urban
legends about mind control. Some girls do try using their natural perfume to
their advantage though.

The thing about compatibility you mention is more related to the immune system
I think, and mutual.

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Pheromones is the word, thanks for the reminder.

I have a tendency to associate with alternative types who are aware of their
cycle and are happy to talk about it, and have confirmed my observation by
asking on multiple occasions.

------
Arete314159
My mother, my brother and I all have this smell ability to some degree. I
remember when I was a child, my mother could diagnose me with strep by smell.
(She would also take me to the doctor.)

None of us in the family can tolerate things like fresh paint, dry cleaner
establishments, nail polish, and other chemical smells. My mother tended to
avoid the "better living through chemistry" cleaning products popular in the
70's and 80's because they bothered her a lot. I, unfortunately, have
developed extreme chemical sensitivity, so I'm on the extreme end of this.

FWIW, nobody on this side of my family has ever gotten cancer (knock on wood).
I often wonder if our profound awareness of toxins is also protective, in that
we completely avoid things that others would be comfortable working with on a
daily basis.

~~~
monocasa
I've been able to smell infections (which makes sense, the immune response of
an infection would mis with your whole microbiome). That's pretty different
from smelling Parkinson's.

~~~
etagobla
Exactly. Parkinson's is a mechanical issue and doesn't affect the microbiome
-- they proved that with science.

~~~
atombender
That's diametrically opposite to the latest research coming out [1].

There seems to be a "gut-brain axis" at work, to the point where some are
starting to think the gut is the starting point.

We're seeing an increasing number of disorders -- psoriasis [2], lupus,
schizophrenia, among others -- where there's an underlying connection to the
gut microbiome and to inflammation in general caused by "pathobionts" [3].

[1] [https://parkinsonsnewstoday.com/2019/02/12/understanding-
gut...](https://parkinsonsnewstoday.com/2019/02/12/understanding-gut-brain-
connection-critical-parkinsons-disease/)

[2]
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738081X1...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738081X18300476)

[3]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3426444/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3426444/)

------
Ewigkeit
I worked in Biotech for a while and spent years working with various cell
lines i.e cancer. Cancer has a distinct smell. I was out shopping one day and
the scent hit me, I turned around and next to me was an elderly man in a
wheelchair. I am definitely a super smeller. After developing chronic
migraines I'm now very sensitive to scent, every product I use has to be
unscented and I have to avoid crowded areas due to the risk of setting a
migraine off. It's the super power I wish I didn't have.

~~~
bik
excuse me, which brands are you using? (face wash/ shower/shampoo) cuz I am a
sensitive smeller too, I haven't found good products so far.

~~~
Ewigkeit
I use Whole Foods 365 fragrance free body wash, shampoo and conditioner. For a
moisturizer I use Alba very emollient original unscented, for face I use Body
Merry, night cream along with Cosmetica pure hyaluronic acid serum and the
blue unscented type of chapstick. For a leave in conditioner I use my kids
Little Twig unscented conditioner. They also sometimes use the Equate kids 3
in 1 unscented body wash/shampoo/conditioner. For deodorant I use a small bit
of Secret unscented, it has a masking fragrance which is noticeable to me but
the least offensive unscented deodorant I've found, and I've tried a lot of
products. I also like the Alba leave in conditioner and styling cream which
are unscented but possibly discontinued. I hope this helps!

------
dang
Different article, same title, 2015:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10434974](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10434974)

Related from earlier this year:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19528250](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19528250)

------
kylecazar
This is incredible.

The thought of her ability potentially leading to advances in disease
diagnosis is a humbling reminder of how complex the human body really is. And
that there is still more to know.

------
ryanmcbride
My favorite thing about articles about super smellers/tasters/whatever is how
whenever they show up, everyone in the comments also has this rare ability.

~~~
robotresearcher
I can smell selection bias.

------
gbuk2013
There’s an organisation that trains rats to detect tuberculosis by smell.
Sounds like this could be another candidate.

[https://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2017/dec/26/g...](https://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2017/dec/26/giant-rats-tanzania-tb-tuberculosis-african-pouched)

They also train them to find land mines.

[https://www.apopo.org/en](https://www.apopo.org/en)

~~~
gbuk2013
Oh and it turns out this lady has actually met the Apopo rats. :)

[https://www.apopo.org/en/latest/2018/04/The-woman-who-
smells...](https://www.apopo.org/en/latest/2018/04/The-woman-who-smells-
Parkinson-s-meets-the-rats-who-smell-TB)

------
skadamou
I see some comments talking about human pheromones and I just wanted to point
out that there really isn’t any strong evidence (yet) that human pheromones
exist.

“It is emphasized that no bioassay-guided study has led to the isolation of
true human pheromones, a step that will elucidate specific functions to human
chemical signals.” [1]

[1][https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15470677](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15470677)

~~~
beerandt
Does it have to "elucidate specific functions" to be a pheromone?

Or is it sufficient to be a "subconscious smell," signaling or otherwise?

------
poulsbohemian
When I first heard about this years ago, I knew exactly what the scent was,
because I'd noticed it on my grandfather years before. I don't think I have a
particularly great sense of smell - in fact, from a childhood of secondhand
smoke and oddly narrow sinus passages / allergies, I've always felt like my
nose didn't really work. But, the smell of people with Parkinson's is very
distinct and I've noticed it on people since. Likewise, the last time I was at
my grandmother's house, I noticed very distinctly that the smell was no longer
there as it was one of the few times I'd been back at her house since grandpa
passed away. Parkinsons / Lewy body / Althzeimers are all fascinating yet
horrifying for what they do to people and I'm thankful there are people
researching and seeking remedies.

------
Nasrudith
I know that I can smell when I am coming down with a cold or similiar - from
inside my nose and others. I would call it a sour curdling, "sick" smell. I
have noticed it in some other people as well.

------
willejs
Theres an interesting article about the technology behind the story by the
company worked with MIB on this.
[https://www.anatune.co.uk/resources/blog/the-smell-of-
parkin...](https://www.anatune.co.uk/resources/blog/the-smell-of-parkinsons-
the-technology-behind-the-story/)

------
jajag
The article itself is very well written - intimate and sensuous.

~~~
mongol
Makes me think of the book "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer"

------
Hitton
Fascinating. Cool that they try to teach a device to smell, but similarly
interesting would be trying to find the origin of her smelling ability - is it
genetic?

------
benbristow
Perhaps we could teach dogs to smell it like we teach them to sniff drugs &
explosives?

~~~
maxerickson
At the moment it isn't terribly important, there's no known intervention that
stops the onset of symptoms and there's no treatment that does anything other
than address the symptoms.

It's _useful_ to identify it early, but for the most part the early symptoms
are mild.

~~~
moccachino
I suspect the only way to develop a method that stops the onset of symptoms is
to detect the symptoms really early and figure out what to do from there.

Otherwise there is no way to distinguish between someone who never got cancer
and someone who did but had the progression stop before it became a problem.

~~~
maxerickson
Yes, that's why I said it would be useful.

------
excalibur
This site is yelling at me in German about my Adblocker, it's hilarous.

[https://imgur.com/EFKp8Wa](https://imgur.com/EFKp8Wa)

~~~
cnst
It's nice that you attach a screenshot, but I got the same message, and I
don't even have an ad-blocker, just the default tracking protection in
Firefox. (I don't even care about tracking itself, just the fact that most of
it slows down my computer significantly for entirely useless JavaScript
computations and slowdowns, so, it's got to go.)

