Woman says she can smell Parkinson's disease

Mary Bowerman | USA TODAY Network

Show Caption Hide Caption Woman who can smell Parkinson's disease Sparks new research A woman in Scotland says she can smell Parkinson's disease, and that skill prompted scientists to do further diagnostic research into the phenomenon.

A Scottish woman who said she could smell her husband's Parkinson's disease may be on to something, according to scientists.

Joy Milne's husband died of Parkinson's disease in June. Milne, of Perth, Scotland, said she noticed that he began to smell differently during the 20 years he lived with the disease, BBC reported.

"I recognized a change in his smell. It's quite a musky smell," Milne told Sky News.

Parkinson's is a progressive disease affecting the nervous system and bodily movement. There is no cure, but symptoms can be treated.

Edinburgh University decided to put her theory that people with Parkinson's disease emit a distinct odor to the test. Researchers recruited six people with Parkinson's and six without, according to Tilo Kunath, a Parkinson's fellow at the school of biological sciences at Edinburgh University, BBC reported.

The researchers had the participants wear a t-shirt for a day and then bagged the shirts and asked Milne to smell them.

"Her job was to tell us who had Parkinson's and who didn't," Kunath told BBC. "Her accuracy was 11 out of 12. We were quite impressed."

Milne was adamant that a man in the control group had Parkinson's disease, but researchers assured her that he did not have the disease. Kunath said that eight months later the researchers were proved wrong and Milne right, when the man was diagnosed with the disease.

Researchers believe that people with Parkinson's may experience changes in the skin that could lead to the distinct odor Milne noticed. They hope the research could lead to a simple diagnostic test.

"A diagnostic test like this could cut through so much of that, enable people to go in and see a consultant, have a simple swab test and come out with a clear diagnosis of Parkinson's," according to Katherine Crawford, the Scotland director of Parkinson's UK, BBC reported.

A follow up study of 200 people with and without the disease is being funded by Parkinson's UK, a support and research charity, BBC reported.

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