The YMCA of Metropolitan Denver is working with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research to encourage our communities to get involved and learn about smell loss and the risk of Parkinson's disease.
Your Nose Knows: Smell Loss and Brain Health
A study from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) is exploring this link. A simple scratch-and-sniff test could help scientists learn more about risk and develop new treatments. MJFF is asking everyone age 60 and older without Parkinson’s disease to take a free smell test.
Monitoring your sense of smell could give you important information on your brain health. Sense of smell does naturally diminish as we get older. And many people have smell loss. Smell loss may be one of the most important indicators of risk to brain health as we age.
In fact, ongoing smell loss may be one of the most important signs of risk for Parkinson’s disease. Importantly, not everyone with smell loss develops Parkinson's.
Taking a simple smell test could help you monitor your brain health and help scientists learn more about risk of brain disease.
How to get started:
- Visit mysmelltest.org/ymca.
- Answer a few brief questions to receive your smell test in the mail.
- You’ll take the test, which takes about 15 minutes to complete.
- You’ll enter your answers online.
- Your results may mean you’re eligible for a brain health study.
People age 60 and up who do not have Parkinson’s in the U.S. are eligible.
No — not everyone who has smell loss will develop PD. It is one of many factors linked to higher risk of Parkinson’s.
No, the test does not diagnose Parkinson’s. The test is being done for research — to help scientists understand the role of smell loss in brain disease, including Parkinson’s. Understanding how Parkinson’s starts will get us closer to one day preventing it. If you’re concerned about smell loss, please talk to your doctor.
You will not receive the results from your smell test. This is being done for research, not for diagnostic or clinical purposes. The act of taking the test, though, may show you a deficit in your smell ability. If you are concerned about smell loss and brain disease risk, please talk to your doctor.
Most likely: Age. Only people age 60 and up in the U.S. are eligible to take this smell test.
Otherwise: If you have Parkinson’s, or live outside the U.S., you will not be eligible to take the smell test at this time.
