Dementia: The smelly symptom that can precede memory loss by a few years
Having dementia does not come from one day to the next, but rather, during the 10 years prior to the disease, our brain begins to give signals. This pathology is actually a set of symptoms that is associated with the progressive deterioration of the brain.
When you talk about dementia It’s not just based on one aspect. This mental health illness has many types so they have different sets of symptoms. This means that not only the loss of memory is the first sign to detect it, but there are other factors that can show us concrete signs.
One of the dementias The most common is what has been called “Lewy body dementia”. A study published in the journal Psychogeriatrics found that olfactory dysfunction “preceded” the onset of memory loss by almost 10 years in patients.
If we go by scientific definitions, olfactory dysfunction is defined as the reduced or distorted ability to smell when sniffing or eating. For this reason, it is possible that people who are going to develop this type of dementiaprogressively abandon their personal hygiene because they do not feel their own body odors.
For the study, the researchers retrospectively investigated the clinical courses, including olfactory dysfunction, of 90 patients with probable dementia with Lewy bodies. Symptoms related to dementia with Lewy bodies were present in 79 of 90 patients (87.8 percent) with probable dementia with Lewy bodies before or at the time of onset of memory loss. In short, in case of progressive loss of smell consult your doctor.