No longer recognizing the smell of soap: a signal not to be ignored
Imagine this: You open your usual shower gel, the one with the aroma you’ve been using for years, and suddenly… nothing. Or, more accurately, a hazy, difficult-to-identify fragrance. This seemingly little detail could be one of the first symptoms of cognitive loss, according to Professor Davangere Devanand, a psychiatrist and neurologist at Columbia University in New York.
Why? Because smelling is a brain function that is intimately related to remembering. Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease affects the parts of the brain that allow us to distinguish scents.
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