Originally published at: This woman can smell if you have Parkinson's | Boing Boing
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Her nose knows, you knows. 
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The new “sniff test”.
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From 2017:
Scent has a long history as a medical diagnostic tool. Before the advent of molecular evaluation or invasive techniques, ancient Chinese healers would diagnose tuberculosis via a tarlike scent it gives off. Hippocrates sniffed patients’ breath for a fishy odor as a way to diagnose liver failure. In the late 1700s, John Rollo, surgeon general of the British Royal Artillery, noted that diabetes sufferers exhibited “the odor of decaying apples” on their breath.
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I was fascinated to read about her some years ago - particularly about the test they did of her diagnostic ability. They found she had a very high degree of accuracy (90-something percent), but with some false positives. Except it turned out that her detection was 100% accurate - the “false positive” cases also eventually turned out to have Parkinson’s - her nose was able to detect the condition at a much earlier stage than medical science could manage, which is why studying her ability is so important.
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I’d hate to think that if I ever came down with Parkinson’s, that woman would smell. Doesn’t seem right to me.
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If you can somehow persuade the ITV Hub you are legit and get to watch this…
… and skip to 35mins 50secs, then you will see an extended meeting between this remarkable lady, along with a key researcher at Manchester University, and Jeremy Paxman.
Worth trying to see it if you can - it is a very nice bit of TV.
(You’ll probably need a VPN to the UK and then register/sign up, etc.)
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That’s amazing! Gotta get doggos in on that one.
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Not the worst way to be a supersmeller.
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Some wasps are really good at smelling certain medical conditions, too.
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WASPs?
Stay back Emsy, it’s terminally poor!
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