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Science Fact: The Women Who Can Smell Parkinson's · Do You F*cking Mind?

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, So the brain Fact is about a woman who
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: could smell Parkinson's disease.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: I found this really really fascinating.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: This actually came out a couple of years ago, but
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I haven't shared it on the podcast, and if you
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: haven't heard of this story, it is fascinating.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: So it's this woman from Scotland.
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  Speaker 1: Her name is Joy Milne, and she's considered to be
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: a super smeller and the medical term for that is
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: hyper osmia. So it's just people that have a really
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  Speaker 1: heightened sense of smell and they kind of compare it
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  Speaker 1: to like something between a human and a dog, something
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  Speaker 1: that sits in the middle as far as their ability
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  Speaker 1: to smell things. So she has the ability to smell
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  Speaker 1: Parkinson's disease and she discovered it in this really interesting way. So,
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  Speaker 1: when her husband was around thirty two ish, she noticed
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: this strange smell on him, this strange odor, and they
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  Speaker 1: were both trying to work out what it was. She
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  Speaker 1: didn't really find it that pleasant, but it was just
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  Speaker 1: like this musky odor and she could not work out
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  Speaker 1: what it was. No one else could smell it. He
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  Speaker 1: couldn't smell it. She thought it might be his breath
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  Speaker 1: or it was his body odor or his clothes.
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  Speaker 2: And they just could not work it out.
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  Speaker 1: No matter how much he showered or washed his clothes
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  Speaker 1: or brushed his teeth, they just couldn't work it out.
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  Speaker 1: So she basically said, well, I stopped kind of talking
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  Speaker 1: about it because I don't want to offend him.
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  Speaker 2: It is what it is. But the smell didn't go away.
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  Speaker 2: It just remained, and.
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  Speaker 1: About roughly ten years later, he got diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: When he was about forty four forty five, he got
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  Speaker 1: diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. So she also states that as
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: the years went on, as these ten years progressed, that
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: smell got stronger and stronger and stronger. She not only
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  Speaker 1: did it not go away, but it was more intense
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  Speaker 1: and she just wasn't getting used to it.
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  Speaker 2: She could smell it all the time.
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  Speaker 1: So she claims that it's this heavy, musky smell that
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  Speaker 1: is kind of like a thick smell, if you can
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  Speaker 1: imagine something like that. Anyway, one day after her husband,
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  Speaker 1: Les was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, they went to this
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  Speaker 1: support group of patients with Parkinson's disease. So there's all
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  Speaker 1: these people in the room with the disease and their
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  Speaker 1: their family or their you know, support network as well.
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  Speaker 1: And when she walked into the room, she says that
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  Speaker 1: that smell that she could smell at her husband was overbearing.
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  Speaker 1: It was like she was hit with that exact same smell,
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  Speaker 1: but like tenfold, And she realized that that smell that
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: she had detected in her husband was the smell of
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  Speaker 1: Parkinson's disease. She noticed that everybody that she met with
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  Speaker 1: Parkinson's smelled the same. So when researchers heard about this,
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  Speaker 1: because obviously she spoke to the doctors about it, she
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: spoke to researchers about it, they were like, we need
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: to get this woman in for a test because she
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: claims that she could smell this ten years or more
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: before her husband was diagnosed with the disease. And they're
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  Speaker 1: a little bit skeptical because they're like, like.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Maybe it's just him. How could this actually be? So
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  Speaker 2: they got her in.
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  Speaker 1: Researchers got her into a lab for a test, and
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  Speaker 1: what they did is they got twelve people, six of
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  Speaker 1: them with Parkinson's disease, six of them as the control
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  Speaker 1: group without Parkinson's disease. They bought them all a T shirt,
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  Speaker 1: brand new T shirt, exactly the same T shirt, and
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  Speaker 1: they got all twelve participants to sleep a night in
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  Speaker 1: that T shirt. Then the following day, those shirts were
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  Speaker 1: given to Joy, obviously unlabeled. They all look the same,
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  Speaker 1: and she had to detect which of those T shirts
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  Speaker 1: were from the Parkinson's patients and which ones were not.
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  Speaker 1: She picked out all six of the Parkinson's patients, but
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  Speaker 1: then she also pulled out one of the t's from
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  Speaker 1: the control group, even though that person didn't have Parkinson's disease,
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  Speaker 1: but she still selected one from the control group.
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  Speaker 2: So seven out of the twelve she.
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  Speaker 1: Selected, And it turns out that nine months later that
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  Speaker 1: person from the control group who didn't have Parkinson's disease
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  Speaker 1: got diagnosed with parkinson So she was able to detect
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  Speaker 1: it even when this person or their physicians were not
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  Speaker 1: aware that they had the disease. So it turns out
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  Speaker 1: that she can detect the molecules within the smell and
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  Speaker 1: with her help heaps of help, like you know, working
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  Speaker 1: with researchers in the lab trying to work it out.
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  Speaker 1: They found that this particular scent was in the sebam,
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  Speaker 1: which is the oily part of the skin, the oil
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  Speaker 1: produced by the skin, and they found these molecules in
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  Speaker 1: the sebum that were specific to Parkinson's disease.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's actually specific.
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  Speaker 1: Compounds that are a lot higher in people with Parkinson's
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  Speaker 1: disease versus control So the compounds are I'm trying not
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  Speaker 1: to butcher how to pronounce these, but hyperic acid e cosaane.
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  Speaker 2: And octa decanal octadecanal.
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  Speaker 1: So these are these compounds that were found in the
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  Speaker 1: sebam that the concentrate were higher than in the skin
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  Speaker 1: of controls, and that is specific to Parkinson's disease. It's
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  Speaker 1: not in any other disease, those compounds being a lot higher.
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  Speaker 1: So in these trials of this new technique, researchers are
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  Speaker 1: able to identify these molecules, these compounds being a lot
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  Speaker 1: higher from just a swab, and they're able to get
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  Speaker 1: the results back in under an hour.
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  Speaker 2: Now that's like in the testing phase. I'm not sure
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  Speaker 2: where it's at.
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  Speaker 1: Right now, but there if this scene can be rolled
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  Speaker 1: out on like a massive scale, then you can imagine
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  Speaker 1: the difference that it would make to patients. Because at
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: the moment, there's no definitive way of testing for Parkinson's
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: disease rather than diagnosing by observing symptoms like behavioral symptoms
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  Speaker 1: and interviewing the patients, interviewing their family and the people
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  Speaker 1: that are close to them and getting like a broad
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  Speaker 1: scope understanding of how things are changing for them. And
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  Speaker 1: Parkinson's is you know, it causes tremors, including a whole
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  Speaker 1: bunch of other motor deficits, degeneration of the and ultimately dementia.
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  Speaker 1: And the earlier that the disease can be detected, the
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  Speaker 1: earlier you can intervene with treatments which can help the disease,
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  Speaker 1: like which can help stop the disease from spreading further
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  Speaker 1: or at the very least slow down the course of
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  Speaker 1: the disease, and it can give the patient really good
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  Speaker 1: tools to help them manage their life with Parkinson's disease.
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  Speaker 1: Versus if you then detect it ten years later, by
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  Speaker 1: the time the tremors are present, there's already been quite
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  Speaker 1: a significant amount of damage that's already been done.
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  Speaker 2: So this is massive breakthrough.
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  Speaker 1: And if every single person with Parkinson's has these compounds
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  Speaker 1: that are higher, then the ability to detect these compounds
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  Speaker 1: may be as simple as you know, a machine that
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  Speaker 1: can do the same work that Joys knows does by
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  Speaker 1: detecting these compounds. So pretty fucking fascinating, And there's been
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: all these advances in science in the way of Parkinson's
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  Speaker 1: disease because of this woman, so wild brain fact, I
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: found that absolutely fascinating. Go look it up. There's all
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: these news articles on this woman. It's unbelievable.