There might be more to our sense of smell than we think. A group of researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine has been studying this.
They found that people who lose their sense of smell are more likely to get depressed as they get older.
But don’t worry, losing your sense of smell doesn’t mean you’ll definitely get depressed. It’s just something that could be a sign.
How Do We Know This?
This group of scientists kept an eye on over 2,000 older people who live in the community for eight years.
They found out that those who had a decreased sense of smell had a higher chance of being depressed. Their findings were published on June 26 in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A.
Why Does This Matter?
Understanding this link can give us a clue about a person’s health and well-being. “We’ve known that a poor sense of smell can be a sign of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
It can also be a sign that someone’s at risk of dying. Our study shows it’s also linked with depression,” says Dr. Vidya Kamath, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
The Study’s Design
The scientists studied data from a big government project called the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study. This project was looking at healthy older adults between the ages of 70–73.
They made sure these people didn’t have trouble walking, climbing steps, or doing their usual activities. The researchers talked to them in person every year and called them every six months.
In 1999, when they first checked people’s sense of smell, nearly half had a normal sense of smell.
A bit more than a quarter had a weaker sense of smell, and about a quarter had almost lost their sense of smell completely. By the end of the study, 25% of these people had significant signs of depression.
What the Findings Mean
What’s interesting is that people with a weaker or almost no sense of smell were more likely to get depressed. The worse the sense of smell, the higher the chances of being depressed.
This was true even when the scientists took into account other things that could affect depression, like age, income, lifestyle, and health.
“Losing your sense of smell affects many things, like sensing bad food or gas, and enjoying food. Now we know it could also show that something’s wrong with your health,” says Dr. Kamath.
How Does Our Sense of Smell Work?
Our sense of smell is one of the ways we interact with the world around us. It works through special cells in our nose that can pick up smell molecules.
These cells send the smell signals to our brain. The brain then tells us what we’re smelling. Some parts of the brain involved in memory, decision-making, and emotions work closely with the part that processes smell.
What’s Next?
The scientists want to do more research on this. They want to see if the same thing happens in other groups of older adults.
They’re also interested in looking at changes in the brain’s smell system in people diagnosed with depression. They hope to find out if improving people’s sense of smell could help prevent depression in older adults.
If you care about depression, please read studies about the key to depression recovery, and this stuff in your diet may cause depression.
For more information about mental health, please read studies that ultra-processed foods may make you feel depressed, and Vitamin D could help reduce depression symptoms.
The study was published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A.
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