(Image: Sky News)
Before her late husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, Joy Milne detected an odd smell coming from him. She tells the BBC:
She says: "His smell changed and it seemed difficult to describe. It wasn't all of a sudden. It was very subtle - a musky smell.
Scientists at Edinburgh University decided to test her. They recruited 6 people with Parkinson's and 6 without and asked Milne to smell t-shirts they had worn for a day. Milne scored an impressive 11 out of 12.
The scientists were already impressed. But then Milne insisted that one of the test subjects really did smell of Parkinson's, even though he was in the control group. 8 months later, that person was diagnosed with Parkinson's.
How does she do it? There may be something going on in the skin of a Parkinson's patient:
Scientists believe that changes in the skin of people with early Parkinson's produces a particular odour linked to the condition.
They hope to find the molecular signature responsible for the odour and then develop a simple test such as wiping a person's forehead with a swab.
-via Oddity Central