Uncovering my history of Hyposmia!
One of the earliest signs that something might be amiss with your dopamine levels, is the complete or partial loss of the sense of smell. This is called Hyposmia. (This is also one of the early signs of COVID-19 and quite honestly, the relationship scares me! Why covid-19 makes people lose their sense of smell)
I have written about this before in Stop and See the Roses and acknowledged that looking back, this one of my earliest symptoms.
Well, I found out just how EARLY this sign appeared!
As I was looking at old movies from over a decade ago (which was so much fun!), I came upon a moment where my son brought me a flower from the garden to smell. I attempted to smell and my reply was;
“I have a very weak sense of smell because I can’t smell that.”
The date on the film was July…2009.
I was diagnosed in May…2017.
Wow. I’m not sure if anything would be different now if I had pursued a doctor’s visit because I couldn’t smell the flowers, but researchers are now doing a lot of work around early diagnosis based upon loss of/impaired smell.
Loss of Smell in Parkinson’s Research
Uncovering this little gem from my history is just a fragment of the complex puzzle of Parkinson’s Disease.
Pondering PD 