Seniors Who Distinctly Smell Roses, Paint-Thinner, or Lemons 'Have Half the Risk of Dementia'

A study from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) published in Alzheimer's and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association suggests that seniors who retain good sensory function — including being able to identify the smell of roses, paint-thinner, and lemons — were up to half as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, reports Yahoo! News . All 1,800 participants were dementia-free at the study's outset, with 328 developing the condition over the next 10 years. The researchers learned that 27 percent of those with a poor sensory score received a dementia diagnosis later, compared to 19 percent in the middle range and 12 percent with good scores. Participants whose sense of smell declined by 10 percent had a 19 percent greater likelihood of developing dementia, versus 1 percent to 3 percent higher odds for those who experienced the same decline in vision, hearing, or touch. These findings prompted the investigators to speculate whether regions of the brain affected by dementia may also regulate the sense of smell. "Even mild or moderate sensory impairments across multiple domains were associated with an increased risk of dementia, indicating that people with poor multi-sensory function are a high-risk population that could be targeted prior to dementia onset for intervention," explained UCSF's Kristine Yaffe.