--- title: Study: Loss of Smell May Signal Death in Five Years description: Older adults inability to smell may signal coming death in five years' time canonical: https://time.com/3455141/study-sense-of-smell-death/ author: David Stout article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-02T08:10:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:26.174Z article:section: Health og:title: How Your Sense of Smell Is Linked to Your Lifespan og:description: Older adults' inability to smell may signal coming death in five years' time. og:url: https://time.com/3455141/study-sense-of-smell-death/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf3f90fdcd2b2043/6986a6b61eebf79ddc37303d/smell-life.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5200 og:image:height: 2925 og:image:alt: Womans jaw, low angle og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Your Sense of Smell Is Linked to Your Lifespan twitter:description: Older adults' inability to smell may signal coming death in five years' time. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf3f90fdcd2b2043/6986a6b61eebf79ddc37303d/smell-life.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Your Sense of Smell Is Linked to Your Lifespan > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now [Watch (HLS stream): A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uJFYIrvP.m3u8) (3:13)  _Published 2014-08-20. A practicing sex therapist in New York City, Dr. Shirley Zussman has witnessed everything from the legalization of the contraceptive birth control pill to the AIDs epidemic in the 1980s to the rise of internet porn in the new millenium._ by [David Stout](https://time.com/author/david-stout/) ## David Stout Oct 2, 2014 8:10 AM UTC  Womans jaw, low angle Womans jaw, low angle Getty Images by [David Stout](https://time.com/author/david-stout/) ## David Stout Oct 2, 2014 8:10 AM UTC The loss or erosion of an individual’s sense of smell may [signal](http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/2014/20141001-smell.html) impending death, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Chicago found 39% of subjects who failed olfactory sense tests died within a five-year period, compared with 19% of subjects with moderate smell loss and just 10% who retained a healthy sense of smell. This mean the loss or degradation of the olfactory sense may serve effectively as an “early warning” signal that something has gone very wrong inside the body, says the study published in the journal _PLOS One_ on Wednesday. “We think loss of the sense of smell is like the canary in the coal mine,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Jayant Pinto. “Our findings could provide a useful clinical test, a quick and inexpensive way to identify patients most at risk.” The research was conducted in two waves over the course of more than five years and surveyed approximately 3,000 adults. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3455141/study-sense-of-smell-death/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3455141/study-sense-of-smell-death/"},"headline":"How Your Sense of Smell Is Linked to Your Lifespan","datePublished":"2014-10-02T08:10:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:06:26.174Z","description":"Older adults who suffer an impaired olfactory sense are more likely to die within five years, say researchers","url":"https://time.com/3455141/study-sense-of-smell-death/","keywords":["Research","Death","study","health"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf3f90fdcd2b2043/6986a6b61eebf79ddc37303d/smell-life.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"David Stout","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/david-stout/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf3f90fdcd2b2043/6986a6b61eebf79ddc37303d/smell-life.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Womans jaw, low angle","caption":"Womans jaw, low angle","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3455141/study-sense-of-smell-death/","name":"How Your Sense of Smell Is Linked to Your Lifespan"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A 100-Year-Old Sex Therapist on Having Good Sex, Then and Now","description":"A practicing sex therapist in New York City, Dr. Shirley Zussman has witnessed everything from the legalization of the contraceptive birth control pill to the AIDs epidemic in the 1980s to the rise of internet porn in the new millenium.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/uJFYIrvP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-08-20T13:40:15.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uJFYIrvP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3455141/study-sense-of-smell-death/","duration":"PT3M13S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3455141/study-sense-of-smell-death/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```