Was loss of smell one of Dad’s first Parkinson’s symptoms?
A diminished olfactory sense is common among people with the disease
Many years ago, my dad began to lose his sense of smell. A doctor told him that it was likely because of his nasal polyps — small, noncancerous growths that can be caused by long-term inflammation. These polyps are relatively common, affecting up to 40% of the U.S. population, and can lead to complications if left untreated.
After careful consideration, Dad decided to get the polyps surgically removed. However, he regained little, if any, sense of smell after the procedure. He still struggled to pick up on scents that those around him seemed to smell easily.
It’s worth noting that polyps can come back even after they’ve been surgically removed, so it’s possible that Dad’s polyps came back. But his lack of immediate relief from the procedure has always made him curious about the true cause of his loss of smell.
“I can smell certain things. Other things, I cannot smell,” Dad told me, shrugging at the improbability of it all. But his life has been a small collection of improbabilities — and they were often not in his favor.
Now that he’s more than 10 years into his Parkinson’s diagnosis, Dad wonders if it was more than the polyps causing his loss of smell. In fact, according to an article from the Yale School of Medicine, about 75%-90% of Parkinson’s patients have experienced a diminished sense of smell. Today, this issue is widely accepted as a nonmotor symptom of the disease.
The link between loss of smell and Parkinson’s seems to support Dad’s theory that he was experiencing nonmotor symptoms of the disease years before he first noticed a tremor in his foot. The difficulty with conditions like Parkinson’s is that researchers are still learning about them. It often takes a large group of patients experiencing the same symptom to prompt an investigation.
A 2023 paper in the Journal of Neuroscience details how researchers uncovered the biological mechanism behind loss of smell in Parkinson’s. One of its authors, Charles Greer, PhD, a professor of neuroscience at the Yale School of Medicine, said, “We set out to understand the nature of a symptom that’s associated with Parkinson’s disease that’s been largely anecdotal. People that are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease would report loss of smell up to 10 years before their diagnosis. These findings could help in developing a very early diagnostic tool for the disease.”
Hopefully, sometime in the future, earlier recognition of symptoms like loss of smell will lead to better treatment and patient outcomes.
Note: Parkinson’s News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Parkinson’s News Today or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to Parkinson’s disease.
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Paul Brownstein
My diagnosis was very early (via biopsy), and one year in I've already flunked the smell test at the neurologist.
Steve Ashley
Exactly my experience. I too lost my sense of smell, and taste, 10 years prior to my diagnosis.
Alexa
On reflection, this was my first symptoms. I grow over 100 roses ( mostly David Austin's) that were chosen because of their perfume. Then one summer I struggled to smell them. If course I didn't do anything about it. Like, who turns up to their GP and says I can't smell my roses? Then, a few years later came the fatigue - I couldn't climb the mountain passes I once could and a weakening bladder - both put down to my age (64) by my GP. Only when the tremor in my foot suddenly appeared did I get sent to a neurologist.