Olivia Fowler

On The Way

By Olivia Fowler

Last week we read an article about an early detection test you can take for Alzheimer’s. It sounds highly improbably but according to this article this simple test, conducted at home, can alert you to the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Individuals have been tested for the condition in the following way.

Researchers open a jar of peanut butter and ask the person being tested to sniff it when breathing first through the right nostril and then through the left. This is done by closing off the nostril not being tested.

If the subject cannot identify the scent when breathing through the left nostril, this means that Alzheimer’s is in the earliest stage.

Upon reading this, Fowler and I immediately opened a jar of Peter Pan smooth and creamy peanut butter.

Fowler took a whiff inhaling with his left nostril only and said, “I can smell it just fine.”

However, when I tried the test I unfortunately found I couldn’t smell the peanut butter on either side of my nose.

When testing further I found I couldn’t smell anything else either.

This is a concern. Now I don’t know whether I should immediately take out a long-term care policy or start my sinus medication again.

It’s hard to know.

It would be difficult to say the peanut butter test is accurate if I can smell nothing.

However, if my stuffy nose can be cleared up, we’ll run the test again.

Although I can’t smell the peanut butter, I did pass the taste test and can identify it when eating it. Who knows what this might mean.

Should we be concerned? I constantly lose my cellphone, car keys, glasses and whichever library book I’m reading.

Can I attribute this behavior to early memory loss or not?

Fowler says I’ve been misplacing all these items for years, and in addition don’t remember whether or not I’ve cut the oven off.

Given enough time we’ll know the truth. Either way I won’t worry. A couple of rounds of a decongestant may be all that is needed. Anyway, by the time this condition clears up I’ll have forgotten all about the peanut butter test and will probably be happier for it.