Off The Record
A Woman With A Unique Sense Of Scent Describes The Smell She Detected On Her Husband With Parkinson’s Disease
A woman with a very uncommon talent for detecting Parkinson’s illness described what she smelled on her spouse prior to his diagnosis.
In some ways, Joy Milne is a medical miracle. The Scotswoman had been married to Les since she was sixteen years old, and given how long they had been together, it’s safe to assume that she had grown acclimated to his scent.
However, Joy suddenly started to notice that her husband’s smell had changed.
The reason why a person’s smell changes with age has already been determined by science, and it all boils down to the fact that the amount of substance 2-nonenal in the human body increases with age.
Les’s shifting scent, however, was caused by both health issues and aging.
Joy can detect Parkinson’s disease in humans, just as some dogs can be trained to detect specific cancers or the possibility of an impending seizure in their owner.
Joy noticed that her husband’s scent had changed around the time of Les’ 32nd birthday.
Recalling the time, she told The Guardian: “In 1982, before Les’s 32nd birthday, I noticed a musky, dank odour on him – he knew about my heightened sense of smell. I thought it might be the unprocessed air of the operating theatres he worked in and told him to shower more. That caused arguments.”
He was given a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis twelve years later, which is the same illness that actor Michael J. Fox suffers.
It wasn’t until later that the two realized Joy could also detect the disease in other individuals, but they did eventually correlate her sense of scent to his diagnosis.
Joy was struck by an overpoweringly familiar odor after she and Les had attended a Parkinson’s support group.
Since discovering the extent of her special talent, Joy has done everything in her power to assist researchers in developing a method for using her sense of smell to detect Parkinson’s disease early.
“Les and I should have been enjoying retirement, but Parkinson’s had stolen our lives,” stated Joy.
“We became determined that others wouldn’t suffer the same way. When Les died in June 2015, he made me promise I’d carry on. I spent time in labs, smelling sufferers’ T-shirts and swabs for sebum – the skin oil we all produce, which changes with the onset of Parkinson’s.”
“I could detect whether the person had the disease with 95% accuracy. I was surprised.”
Joy has worked on research projects with the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom for the past several years. She was even mentioned in an article that was published in the journal ACS Central Science.
According to BBC News, the research she has assisted with has shown that the skin of Parkinson’s sufferers contains greater than normal levels of several chemicals, especially octadecanal, eicosane, and hippuric acid.
Now Trending:
- Doctors Are Giving New Warnings About A Quiet Disease That Causes More Deaths Than Cancer And Dementia Combined
- 8 People Have Died From “Eye-Bleeding Disease,” Prompting Doctors To Issue An Urgent Warning
- Mother Discovers Unauthorized Online Video of Her Breastfeeding – Her Response Goes Viral
Please SHARE this story with Family and Friends and let us know what you think!
