Monday, March 26, 2012

Do you have a good sense of smell? Guess what it can tell you about your health and happiness...

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Do you have a crackerjack sense of smell? Can you sniff out the best (and worst) scents a mile away? I can! And, let me tell you, it's not always a great sense to have. But ... there is a benefit, say researchers.

A poor, or damaged, sense of smell has been linked to depression, report researchers whose study was recently published in the journal PLoS One. Here's why, they say: "As olfactory cues (a sense of smell) are able to confer social information about others it is possible that patients have more problems in assessing others, because this channel of communication is closed." In other words, you don't know if you have body odor or bad breath (just as an example). And lack of that knowledge can make people depressed, they explain. 


This (partially) explains why I feel so down when I have a cold. I can't smell anything!

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