{"id":131802,"date":"2019-04-22T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T11:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=131802"},"modified":"2019-04-19T13:17:01","modified_gmt":"2019-04-19T12:17:01","slug":"years-after-she-smells-parkinsons-disease-on-her-husband-woman-is-now-paving-the-way-for-early-detection-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/04\/years-after-she-smells-parkinsons-disease-on-her-husband-woman-is-now-paving-the-way-for-early-detection-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Years after She Smells Parkinson\u2019s Disease on Her Husband, Woman Is Now Paving the Way for Early Detection Test"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Joy Milne (left) and Professor Perdita Barran \u2013 University of Manchester<\/p><\/div>\n

13 Apr 2019 – <\/em>This woman\u2019s keen sense of smell is being used to develop a tool that could be a major step forward in detecting and treating Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

Joy Milne is a retired nurse who possesses a very singular talent: she is capable of smelling Parkinson\u2019s disease<\/a> in other people.<\/p>\n

The 68-year-old from Perth, Scotland first caught scent of the disease\u2019s \u201cmusky, oily odor\u201d when she smelled it on her now-late husband Les. 12 years after she first detected the smell, he was diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s at the age of 45.<\/p>\n

Milne did not realize that she had been smelling the disease for over a decade until she attended a support group for Parkinson\u2019s patients and found that everyone of them had the same distinctive smell.<\/p>\n

RELATED<\/strong>:\u00a0First Parkinson\u2019s Patient to Get Unique Stem Cell Treatment Could Pave the Way for Many More by 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After mentioning her strange discovery to Parkinson\u2019s researchers, they began working with the retired nurse in order to test her olfactory abilities.<\/p>\n

Milne was asked to smell several dozen tee-shirts worn by patients with, and without, the disease. In addition to being able to identify which shirts belonged to Parkinson\u2019s patients, Milne also smelled the disease on a shirt worn by a \u201chealthy\u201d participant. Eight months later, the patient received a positive diagnosis.<\/p>\n

The tests revealed that the Scottish woman was 98% accurate in diagnosing the disease in 50 different shirt samples. After conducting further research, scientists discovered that Milne was smelling a compound contained in the patients\u2019 sebum. Sebum is the waxy, lipid-based biofluid which moisturizes and protects the skin, particularly on the forehead and upper back. Excessive production of the substance is a known symptom of Parkinson\u2019s \u2013 and now, thanks to Milne\u2019s nose, scientists have identified specific biomarkers in the sebum that serve as red flags for the disease.<\/p>\n

MORE<\/strong>:\u00a0Parkinson\u2019s Researchers Now Have $24 Million To Keep Going Thanks to Funding From Michael J. Fox<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cFinding changes in the oils of the skin in Parkinson\u2019s is an exciting discovery that was sparked by a simple conversation between a member of the public and a researcher,\u201d said Professor David Dexter, Deputy Director of Research at Parkinson\u2019s UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore research is needed to find out at what stage a skin test could detect Parkinson\u2019s, or whether it is also occurs in other Parkinson\u2019s related disorders, but the results so far hold real potential. Both to change the way we diagnose the condition and it may even help in the development of new and better treatments for the 145,00 people living with Parkinson\u2019s in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being the second most common neurodegenerative disease next to Alzheimer\u2019s, Parkinson\u2019s does not yet have a cure \u2013 but early detection could help researchers develop future treatments and therapies to slow the disease\u2019s progression or stop it altogether.<\/p>\n

WATCH<\/strong>:\u00a0Alan Alda Announces Parkinson\u2019s Diagnosis, But He Wants to Use It to Inspire People<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And thanks to Milne\u2019s help in the research, which was published last month in the journal ACS Central Science<\/em><\/a>, scientists could now be one step closer to developing a non-invasive procedure to detect the disease before symptoms even start to occur.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis could have a huge impact not only for earlier and conclusive diagnosis but also help patients monitor the effect of therapy,\u201d says University of Manchester Professor Perdita Barran, one of the study\u2019s lead researchers. \u201cWe hope to apply this to at risk patient groups to see if we can diagnose pre-motor symptoms, and assist with potential early treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 goodnewsnetwork.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13 Apr 2019 – Milne did not realize that she had been smelling the disease for over a decade until she attended a support group for Parkinson\u2019s patients and found that everyone of them had the smell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":131803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[710,966],"class_list":["post-131802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-health","tag-parkinsons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}