I diagnosed my husband with Parkinson's after noticing a strange smell | The Sun
A WOMAN who sniffed out Parkinson's in her husband helped scientists develop a test for the devastating disease.
Joy Milne, 72, from Perth in Scotland was able to sniff out Parkinson’s in her husband more than a decade before he was diagnosed, because the way he smelled changed.
The retired nurse, who has been dubbed 'the woman who can smell Parkinson's', said that when he was 33, her late husband Les, a former doctor, began to smell of a "musky" aroma, different from his normal scent.
Some 12 years later he was diagnosed with the disease, which leads to parts of the brain become progressively damaged over time.
Joy's superior smelling ability – she has a rare, heightened sense of smell – has been used by scientists to help create the first ever test to determine whether people have Parkinson's disease.
In 2012 scientists investigated Joy's super sniffer power, asking her to smell t-shirts worn by people who had Parkinson's and those who did not.
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She correctly identified the t-shirts worn by Parkinson's patients, but also said one from the group of people without Parkinson's smelled like the disease.
Just eight months later the individual who wore the t-shirt was diagnosed with Parkinson's.
The study revealed that a scent caused by a chemical change in skin oil, known as sebum, can be triggered by the disease.
To Joy, this chemical change leaves the skin smelling musky.
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Academics at the University of Manchester have made a breakthrough by developing a test based on findings from Joy's t-shirt experiment.
The new test, which is still in development, is designed to identify people with Parkinson's disease using a simple cotton bud run along the back of the neck.
While still in the early phases of research, scientists are excited at the prospect of the NHS being able to use such a simple test to help detect the disease.
There is currently no definitive test for Parkinson's disease, with diagnosis based on a patient's symptoms and medical history.
This means many people often get diagnosed when the condition has already been present for several years and has already caused neurological damage.
What are the symptoms of Parkinsons?
According to the NHS, symptoms can include:
- involuntary shaking of particular parts of the body (tremors)
- slow movement
- stiff and inflexible muscles
- depression and anxiety
- balance problems
- loss of sense of smell
- problems sleeping
- memory problems
Joy called delayed diagnoses "unacceptable."
She said: "I think it has to be detected far earlier – the same as cancer and diabetes.
"Earlier diagnosis means far more efficient treatment and a better lifestyle for people."
According to charity Parkinson's UK, the neurological disease is the fastest growing brain condition in the world.
A staggering one in 37 people alive today in the UK will be diagnosed with Parkinson's in their lifetime, the charity estimates.
Joy is now working with scientists around the world to see if she can smell other diseases like cancer and tuberculosis (TB).
"I have to go shopping very early or very late because of people's perfumes, I can't go into the chemical aisle in the supermarket," she said.
"So yes, a curse sometimes, but I have also been out to Tanzania and have done research on TB and research on cancer in the US – just preliminary work.
"So it is a curse and a benefit," she explained.
Joy said she can even sometimes smell people who have Parkinson's while in the supermarket or walking down the street, but has been told by medical ethicists she cannot tell them.
"Which GP would accept a man or a woman walking in saying, 'The woman who smells Parkinson's has told me I have it'?
"Maybe in the future but not now," she added.
It turns out going to church slashes your risk of Parkinson’s by up to 90 per cent, previous research reveals.
Regular worship is thought to boost levels of dopamine, the brain chemical which plays a critical role in how the disease develops.
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Other research has found that nightmares could be the earliest sign of Parkinson’s.
Experts found older men were twice as likely to be diagnosed with the condition after they started experiencing bad dreams.
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