Detecting sickness by the way you smell is on the cutting edge of medical technology. We all have a unique smell called an odorprint. And it depends on our age, sex, health, and the food we eat.
Mats Olsson is an experimental psychologist who studies smell. In one study, he looked at the feelings of revulsion people have to the smell of sickness. He took 8 participants and injected half of them with a compound that activated their immune system. The other half was given a placebo. Olsson then collected the scents of these 8 participants and had a group of 40 people rate the smells. The scents of the sick people were rated as less pleasant than the scents of the healthy people. This suggests that illness can be detected through smell.
Even more interesting, Olsson found that smelling unpleasant things – like rotten foods – activates the immune system of a healthy person. This could be our body’s way of protecting us against a perceived illness.
According to recent research, diseases have distinctive smells. For example, people with typhoid fever smell like baked bread. And people with diabetes smell like rotten apples. George Preti is an organic chemist who studies smell and has a highly trained nose. He says he is able to detect the scent of diabetes. “I ride public transport a lot, and every now and then, I come across someone emanating a strong odor, and it’s obvious.”
The participants in Olsson’s study rated sick people’s smell as unpleasant. Yet they were not aware that they were smelling the scent of a sick person. Even a highly trained nose like Preti’s has its limitations. But scientist Hossam Haick has taken smell diagnosis to the next level. He has created a device that some people have called an electronic nose. “According to Smithsonian Magazine, scientists used the device to sample the breaths of more than 1,400 people and found it could diagnose 17 different diseases — Parkinson’s, lung cancer, kidney failure, MS, Crohn’s disease, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer, just to name a few — with 86% accuracy.”
Dr. Haick created his device to detect lung cancer, and he says it is 90% accurate in detecting lung tumors. With diseases like cancer, early diagnosis and early treatment can mean the difference between life and death. And a device that can diagnose it so quickly could be a real game changer for humanity.
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SCIENTISTS CAN NOW DETECT 17 DISEASES BY SMELL
Device can detect 17 diseases by our breath
Understanding sickness through smell is on the cutting edge of medical technology. We all have a unique smell called an odorprint. And it depends on our age, sex, health, and the food we eat.
Mats Olsson is a psychologist who studies smell. He studied the unpleasant feelings people have for the smell of sickness with eight people. He injected half of them with something that activated their immune system. He gave a placebo to the other half. Olsson next collected the smells of these eight people. He then had a group of 40 people compare the smells. They said the smells of the sick people were less pleasant than the smells of the healthy people.
Olsson also found that smelling rotten foods can activate a person’s immune system. This could be our body’s way of protecting us against a possible illness.
Diseases have unique smells. People with typhoid fever smell like baked bread. And people with diabetes smell like rotten apples. George Preti is an organic chemist who studies smell. He has a highly trained nose. He says he can smell people with diabetes when he is on the train.
The people in Olsson’s study said sick people’s smell was unpleasant. Yet they did not know that they were smelling a sick person. Even a highly trained nose like Preti’s has its limitations. Scientist Hossam Haick has taken smell medicine to the next level. He has made an electronic nose. It can identify 17 different diseases with 86% accuracy.
Dr. Haick created his device to find lung cancer. He says it is 90% accurate in finding lung tumors. With cancer, early treatment can mean the difference between life and death. And a device that can find it so quickly could be a real game changer for humanity.
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