Scientists in the UK have developed a test to determine whether people have Parkinson’s disease — thanks to the help of a woman who can sniff out the disorder.
Joy Milne, a retired nurse from Scotland, knew her husband Les had Parkinson’s over a decade before he was diagnosed when she identified a change in the way he smelled.
“He had this musty rather unpleasant smell especially round his shoulders and the back of his neck and his skin had definitely changed,” Joy Milne said. “I kept saying to him, you’re not showering properly. And he became quite angry about it at first,” she told Sky News.
Joy connected the smell to the disease after Les was diagnosed, and the couple met people at a Parkinson’s support group who had the same smell, reports the BBC. According to the Daily Mail, she has been found to have hereditary hyperosmia – a heightened sensitivity to smells.