According to Science, Losing Your Sense of Smell Means You'll Die Soon
Ah, the sweet aroma of coffee. Isn't it the best thing? You wake up, grind some beans and take a deep whiff. It's invigorating. Wouldn't it be depressing if you couldn't smell that? Of course it would! But you know what would be even more depressing? The realization that because you can't smell anything, you're about to die.
According to a recent study by researchers at the University of Chicago, losing your sense of smell is a strong indicator that you're going to die within five years. To come to this conclusion, the team — led by Dr. Jayant Pinto — tested a sample of 3,000 men and women, aged 57 to 85, on their sense of smell. They asked all the people to smell five strong scents: rose, leather, orange, fish and peppermint. The team of experts then made controls for several factors that could cause death, including their age, sex, socioeconomic status, if they were a smoker or a drinker, how fat they were, their race, if they had diabetes, and on and on.
By far, the most reliable factor that predicted when they'd die was their sense of smell. Those people who could not smell the strong odors were more than three times as likely to die than those who could smell the odors. The less people could smell, the more likely they were to die within five years.
Pinto claims that this shows just how overlooked our sense of smell can be. "Of all human senses, smell is the most undervalued and underappreciated -- until it's gone," he told The New York Times. "There are treatable causes of olfactory loss, so if people have problems, they should get evaluated. This is a gross indication of your health, so if you’re having some trouble, you should see a doctor." He added that his findings merely back up a tried and (albeit archaic) method for detecting danger: The canary in the coal mine. "We think loss of the sense of smell is like the canary in the coal mine," Pinto explained to Yahoo News. "It doesn't directly cause death, but it's a harbinger, an early warning that something has gone badly wrong, that damage has been done."
The canary in the coal mine was a technique used by miners to detect the presence of poisonous gas. Miners would bring them down into the caves, and since they had much more powerful senses of smell, they'd freak out when they smelled something bad. That would tip the miners off to get the hell out of there.
As Pinto suggested, this research shows that we shouldn't take smelling things for granted. And when that day comes when you can no longer smell that sweet cup of joe in the morning, perhaps start calling your loved ones.
[Image via Flickr - Eward Simpson]
