The Lady That Can Smell Parkinson’s Disease

When Doctor Les Milne returned from work one day, His wife Joy noticed a nasty yeast like smell. She asked him to shower, but the punchent aroma remained.

Over proceeding years, Joy would nag him about the smell. In the end Les snapped at her to leave him alone because nobody else could smell it.

With everyone perplexed and confused, it wasn’t unti Les (now diagnosed with Parkinson’s) and Joy attended a Parkinson’s Disease Support Group that the mystery was solved.

Running late to the group, they were one of the last to arrive. Upon entering the room, Joy was hit by an overpowering scent the was exactly the same greasy, musty and yeasty scent she had smelt that day when her husband returned home from work.

During that meeting it occurred to her that perhaps she has a heightened sense of smell that could pick up Parkinson’s Disease. Subsequent tests and studies proved this to be the case.

Joy’s olfactory abilities are now studied to help develop detection and treatment methods for Parkinson’s Disease.
Source: www.npr.org

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