Researchers use peanut butter to detect Alzheimer's disease
Florida researchers have come up with a novel way to help diagnose Alzheimer's disease, using peanut butter and a ruler.
These unusual tools provide a way for scientists to test subjects for smell sensitivity, according to ScienceDaily.
In Alzheimer's patients, one of the first locations in the brain to experience degeneration is the front part of the temporal lobe, which evolved from the olfactory system. Degeneration occurs more rapidly on the left hemisphere of the brain in this form of dementia.
University of Florida graduate student Jennifer Stamps created a simple peanut butter test used on 68 patients with cognitive impairment (including impairment believed to be caused by Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia), plus 26 control subjects. Findings appeared in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences.
Stamps came up with the idea of using peanut butter to test the sense of smell because it's easy to access and is a so-called pure odorant that's only detected by the olfactory nerve. She used about a tablespoon -- 14 grams -- of peanut butter and a metric ruler for each subject.
A clinician opened the container of peanut butter once the patient had closed both eyes and mouth and blocked one nostril. As the subject breathed normally, a staff member held the ruler next to the open nostril. While the patient exhaled, the staffer moved the peanut butter along the ruler 1 centimeter each time until the subject detected a scent.
The researcher recorded the results, then tested the other nostril after a 90-second break. Scientists were not aware of each subject's specific diagnosis until after testing.
They discovered that with early-stage Alzheimer's patients, there was a significant difference between smell sensation in the two nostrils.
These patients required the peanut butter to be on average 10 centimeters closer when using the left nostril than when the right one was open. However, control subjects and subjects with other types of dementia did not experience this difference.
Stamps indicated that the Florida clinicians currently use the peanut butter test to confirm an Alzheimer's diagnosis. They plan to follow subjects with mild cognitive impairment to learn whether it can predict which ones will develop Alzheimer's. In the meantime, the test is one tool that could prove useful in clinics without the staff and equipment necessary for a specific diagnosis.
There are more than 320,000 Australians living with dementia, according to Alzheimers Australia. This number is expected to increase by one third to 400,000 in less than ten years. Without a medical breakthrough, the number of people with dementia is expected to be almost 900,000 by 2050.
Dementia is the third leading cause of death in Australia and there is no cure. On average symptoms of dementia are noticed by families three years before a firm diagnosis is made.
If you are concerned about yourself or a loved one, speak to your doctor or contact the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500.
