Doctors have long known that smell is one of the first senses to fail as Alzheimer's begins its slow and incurable progression. Tracking the process whereby a person loses their ability to smell could play a pivotal role in early detection and treatment of Alzheimer's. And now researchers at Columbia have developed a tool that will aid early detection.
The system that governs our sense of smell is centered in the same area of the brain that is first attacked, then damaged, during the original stages of Alzheimer's. But for researchers such as Davangere Devanand, professor of psychiatry and neurology at Columbia University Medical Center, the perplexing issue was, exactly which smells people lose the ability to recognize. Could memory loss be detected soon enough to allow for early treatment, and once isolated, what might findings about smell loss suggest for developing detection and treatment methods for Alzheimer's?
There are 4.5 million Americans suffering from Alzheimer's, with an estimated annual medical tab of $100 billion in related treatment and health care costs. This fact was not lost on Devanand, who clearly saw the value in examining the link between diminished smell and Alzheimer's.