My DH has absolutely no sense of smell. This started about a year ago and I've mentioned to his doctors. All I get is "Hmmm---interesting" I don't know if this is a normal part of the AD or just him. In some ways, I guess it is to his advantage....especially during poop/cleanup time. But I can't help but wonder if he can even taste his food. He still eats fairly well, but has to be coaxed sometimes.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have linked smell loss in mice with excessive levels of a key protein associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Smell loss is well documented as one of the early and first clinical signs of such diseases. If smell function declines as the levels of this protein increase in brain regions associated with smelling, the research could validate the use of smell tests for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. Their findings appear in the March 12th issue of the journal Brain Research, the commemorative volume 1000
gmaewok--My husband's sense of smell was the very first thing to go--even before short term memory. Apparently, the area for smell in the brain is in the hippocampus, the area first affected by AD. At the time, I was concerned and Googled "loss of sense of smell". I found several references that attributed it to AD. If your husband's doctors are just commenting that it's interesting, it says to me that they don't know much about AD. I'm just a layperson and was able to link it based on Internet research! My husband says he has no sense of taste, but I think it's due to the damage that eliminated his sense of smell.
well, certainly smell affects taste, but I think I'd quibble about the hippocampus being the first area affected always. My husband has many deficits - mostly the reason button is broken, and the extremely short term memory (what he's supposed to be walking down the hall to do), but his normal memory is pretty okay. He remembers current events, what happened yesterday, what movie we watched.. MOST of the time! And he loves to eat and comments on how good food is. I think even good doctors are sometimes puzzled by various symptoms of various people.
ohmygosh, Marilyn, You have struck another chord! Since shortly after we were married in 1991, Foster has claimed he was losing his sense of TASTE!...He thought it was because he had smoked,...but he stopped smoking back in the mid 70's. Do you think that his loss of taste was part of the onset of this disease. The doctor kept pushing me to pinpoint the earliest time I noticed a change in his personaltiy, habits, etc., but considering that I married him when he was 64, it's entirely possible that those ameloid placques & tangles were beginning to raise their ugly little heads. He often commented on the fact that all foods just didn't taste the way he remembered them to taste...and I thought it was MY cooking! :-) Nawwwwwwwww.
My husband doesn't have a sense of smell. It probably started abut two years before he was diagnosed with MCI. He says he has a sense of taste, but I would think that not being able to smell would affect what you could taste.
Steve hasn't expressed dismay at any of his deficits except the loss of taste. He was never a "foodie", but that said, he enjoyed a good meal. He has commented many times how much he misses tasting his food. Luckily, he continues to eat well and has even put on weight, possibly due to the Seroquel?
wow...my dw has such a sensitive sense of smell, I would bet she could sniff out bombs, drugs, and keep up with the drug dogs easily. She notices all smells, in particular gasoline, smoke, flowers, mold, and perfumes. I always thought that her sense of smell was heightened because of her other loses. Her hearing is also extreme, and she can litterally hear a dog pee on a patch of cotton three blocks away...Her taste however is almost gone...she often says that things do not taste right..
Good Lord, everybody.....when I married John, he began complaining of having no sense of smell....that was back in the early 1980's! He used to laugh about it because of the usefulness of it in his job (Ob-Gyn, for goodness' sake). Then, he started complaining a few years back about not having the taste sensation he once did. Wow. And, Phranque......you're so funny. What's a dog peeing on a patch of cotton three blocks away SOUND like, anyway!!!
My DH does not have a sense of smell either. So far he can still tasate food. Especially vegetables. That's a good thing because I feed him lots of veggies.
I, myself, have an acute sense of smell. Sometimes it's rather annoying but other times it's very handy. One time I was the only one who could smell carrion. I searched and searched and finally found a dead rat. I called animal control to come and get it. I was afraid to touch it in any way. Chicken!