Common cold symptom ‘could be an early warning sign of 139 diseases’ – see the full list

A startling 139 distinct illnesses have been connected to a symptom that is frequently brought on by the common cold.

According to a study, it might be a precursor to Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s.

A common side effect of conditions like allergies and colds is losing your sense of smell.

In the early stages of the pandemic, it also functioned as a marker for COVID-19, as many people were unable to smell for weeks after contracting the virus.

However, researchers at the UC Irvine Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences in California, USA, warn that the seemingly innocuous symptom is not to be taken lightly because persistent loss of smell may be an early indicator of a number of illnesses.

“There is reason to believe that the relationship between olfactory loss and medical conditions may be more than coincidental,” they wrote in Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience.

“First of all, both are frequently prevalent; olfactory impairment has been linked to at least 139 medical disorders.

Second, olfactory loss may predispose the brain or body to exhibiting the symptoms of certain medical diseases since it occurs before the medical condition manifests.

“Third, olfactory loss prospectively predicts both memory loss and all-cause mortality.”

By examining numerous papers, researchers were able to connect odor loss to hundreds of distinct illnesses.

Additionally, they discovered that it might be a precursory sign of some important illnesses.

“Olfactory loss appears well before any other Parkinson’s symptoms and similarly, an early symptom of Alzheimer’s disease is the loss of olfaction, with the first part of the brain to deteriorate in that disease being the olfactory pathway,” the investigators noted.

Young people who later acquire schizophrenia often have an impaired sense of smell, which has been connected to the mental illness.

The authors continued by saying, “Olfactory loss also precedes depression, major cardiac events, and multiple sclerosis,” suggesting that the indicator may manifest before other known signs of the illnesses.

Finding studies for so many medical disorders was challenging, according to study leader Professor Emeritus Michael Leon.

However, he added that research on scent loss may potentially lead to the development of “therapeuticolfactory stimulation” as a treatment for some illnesses.

Prior studiesby Professor Leon and his colleagues discovered that “olfactory enrichment”—exposing individuals to novel smells every day—could enhance memory.

Prof. Leon went on to say: The results are especially intriguing because we previously discovered that olfactory enrichment can enhance older individuals’ memory by 226 percent.

Now that we know that pleasant smells can reduce inflammation, this may help explain how they can enhance brain function.

According to the study’s authors, their findings have set the groundwork for further research that will examine the medicinal application of fragrance to treat a variety of illnesses.

According to Professor Leon, it will be intriguing to observe whether olfactory enrichment can help with the symptoms of other illnesses.

He is now developing a gadget to administer olfactory treatment with his team.

According to them, it might be a non-invasive method of helping patients with a variety of ailments.

This comes after research from the University of Chicago revealed that a sharp deterioration in one’s sense of smell can be a sign of dementia.