--- title: Sense of Smell: 4 Things Your Nose Can Tell You About Your Health description: Not being able to smell well could signal the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease canonical: https://time.com/3513557/nose-sense-of-smell-health/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-21T13:25:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:50:19.250Z article:section: Health og:title: 4 Surprising Things Your Nose Can Tell You About Your Health og:description: Not being able to smell well could signal the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease og:url: https://time.com/3513557/nose-sense-of-smell-health/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4c26470b6a4ab34/69876122428a9e71d7cc4912/nose.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3800 og:image:height: 2138 og:image:alt: Nose og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 4 Surprising Things Your Nose Can Tell You About Your Health twitter:description: Not being able to smell well could signal the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4c26470b6a4ab34/69876122428a9e71d7cc4912/nose.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 4 Surprising Things Your Nose Can Tell You About Your Health > 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. by [Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Health.com Contributor Oct 21, 2014 1:25 PM UTC  A womans nose illuminated A womans nose illuminated Getty Images by [Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Health.com Contributor Oct 21, 2014 1:25 PM UTC No one appreciates their sense of smell when they pass a trash heap or accidentally step in dog poop. But your nose knows a lot—not just when things stink. In fact, your ability to smell, or not, can tell you a lot about your health. Here’s why you shouldn’t take your whiffing powers for granted. **A bad sense of smell can signal an early death** Feel like your sense of smell has gone south over the years? If it’s less than stellar, it could be a tip-off that you’re not in good health. A new study from the University of Chicago Medical Center found that not being able to detect certain odors had an increased risk of dying within five years. A whopping 39% of older patients who couldn’t pick up on scents like orange, rose, and peppermint died within that time frame, compared to only 19% of so-so smellers, and 10% of good smellers. **HEALTH.COM:** [How to Live to 100](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20320915,00.html?xid=Time-nose-101514) **Poor smell detection may be a sign of Alzheimer’s** Not being able to smell well could signal the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, according a Harvard Medical School study. Participants with elevated levels of amyloid plaques (telltale proteins found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients) who performed worse on an odor identification test also had greater brain cell death. Why? When the disease starts to kill brain cells, this often includes cells crucial for your sense of smell. **HEALTH.COM** **:** [25 Signs and Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20416288,00.html?xid=Time-nose-101514) **Smelling something weird could predict a stroke** Some people pick up on more scents than others, but brief episodes of smelling something completely off-base—like fish when there isn’t any around—may be a sign of stroke or a seizure. The American Academy of Neurology says these “olfactory hallucinations” are usually unpleasant smells, but they can differ from person to person, according to the Mayo Clinic. Contact your doctor right away if your nose seems to be going haywire. **HEALTH.COM** **:** [10 Stroke Symptoms Everyone Should Know](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20719000,00.html?xid=Time-nose-101514) **Imagining odors can precede a migraine** While it’s relatively uncommon, people may also hallucinate a smell as part of a pre-migraine aura, according to a review of research done by the Montefiore Headache Center. Again, the scents were mostly unpleasant: the most common were of things burning or decomposing. **HEALTH.COM** **:** [18 Signs You’re Having a Migraine](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20537878,00.html?xid=Time-nose-101514) [_This article originally appeared on Health.com_](http://news.health.com/2014/10/07/sense-of-smell-and-your-health/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3513557/nose-sense-of-smell-health/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3513557/nose-sense-of-smell-health/"},"headline":"4 Surprising Things Your Nose Can Tell You About Your Health","datePublished":"2014-10-21T13:25:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:50:19.250Z","description":"Not being able to smell well could signal the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease","url":"https://time.com/3513557/nose-sense-of-smell-health/","keywords":["Research","health","Alzheimer's Disease"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4c26470b6a4ab34/69876122428a9e71d7cc4912/nose.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Health.com","jobTitle":"Contributor","url":"https://time.com/author/health-com/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte4c26470b6a4ab34/69876122428a9e71d7cc4912/nose.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Nose","caption":"Nose","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/3513557/nose-sense-of-smell-health/","name":"4 Surprising Things Your Nose Can Tell You About Your Health"}}]}] ```