SMELL TESTS should
not be used to predict Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia,
according to a new study.
Although there is a
link between the two, Researchers found other medical problems may cause people
to lose their sense of smell, and it may not necessarily mean they will develop
the progressive brain disorder later in life.
"A nonspecific
association between poor smell function and Alzheimer's dementia is not the
same as actually being able to use a smell test to predict Alzheimer's,"
Dr. Gordon Sun, a General Otolaryngologist at the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor, said in a University News Release.
"Unfortunately,
this misinterpretation of the research has led to the promotion of these tests
by the media and public figures like Dr. Oz," he added. "This study
helps set the record straight about where the evidence currently stands."
In conducting the comprehensive
review, the study's authors examined nearly 1,200 articles dating back to 1984.
Two studies that tracked patients over time and 30 studies that evaluated
patients at one specific point in time met inclusion criteria.
"Understandably,
researchers, clinicians and the public are eager for a simple, accurate, and
inexpensive way to predict or diagnose Alzheimer's early, but we're not there
yet," argued Sun, who is also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/U.S.
Veterans Affairs Clinical Scholar at the University of Michigan Medical School.
"My concern is
that by promoting smell tests at this point, we create false hope or even false
alarm among seniors and their families," he said. "Additional
research is needed before we can rely on smell tests to predict the later onset
of Alzheimer's."
The study, published
online on 10 May in the Journal Laryngoscope, concluded that patients visit their
primary care physician if they are concerned about their risk for Alzheimer's
disease.
(Source: HealthDayNews, 10 May 2012)
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