The wife who 診断するd her husband’s Parkinson’s by smell: Now she's using her 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の gift to help doctors find a cure

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As childhood sweethearts who had married, 追求するd successful careers ― him as a doctor, her a 上級の nurse and lecturer ― while raising three children, Les and Joy Milne were an enviable couple.

They had a beautiful, detached home in the Cheshire countryside, travelled 広範囲にわたって, played squash together and were always 最高の，を越す of the guest 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） on the dinner party 回路・連盟.

However, when they reached their 中央の-30s, Joy noticed a change in her husband ― nothing to do with what he did or said, but in his 団体／死体 odour.

‘He began to smell unpleasant to me and, although we always were, and continued to be, a loving couple, I was always aware of it,’ 解任するs Joy.

Joy Milne (pictured left with her husband Les and granddaughter) was able to use her sense of smell to recognise the 早期に onset of her husband's Parkinson's 病気

‘It was a musky, greasy sort of odour and I would tell him he needed to にわか雨 and 小衝突 his teeth. He’d 主張する he was doing both of those things and I could tell that my complaining upset him, so 結局 I stopped について言及するing it.’

It 現れるd many years later that Joy, now 67, was （悪事，秘密などを）発見するing in Les the 早期に onset of Parkinson’s 病気, a 進歩／革新的な disorder of the nervous system that 影響する／感情s movement, mood and energy.

Because it seems she is one of a tiny 禁止（する）d of what’s known as 最高の-sniffers blessed ― or some would say 悪口を言う／悪態d ―with an ability to （悪事，秘密などを）発見する 病気s 簡単に by smell. Almost a century ago, 研究員s identified changes in sebum 生産／産物 on the 肌 of Parkinson’s 苦しんでいる人s, 主要な to a waxy 外見.

In the Eighties, links were made between this and the sebaceous （分泌する為の）腺s in the 長，率いる and neck secreting the same oily sebum, which may, 研究員s believe, be the 原因（となる） of the unusual odour.

Although the smell ぐずぐず残るd and Les began 苦しむing a string of other symptoms, 含むing （軽い）地震s, 疲労，（軍の）雑役, impotence, 審理，公聴会 difficulties and eyesight problems, he was 45 before he finally got a 医療の diagnosis of his 条件.

‘We had both 結論するd that the symptoms 示すd a brain tumour,’ 解任するs Joy. ‘So, when the 顧問 said he believed it was Parkinson’s we were surprised, though of course neither 条件 boded 井戸／弁護士席.’

There is no 最終的な 実験（する） for the 病気, which 原因（となる）s the neurons in the brain to break 負かす／撃墜する and die resulting in a loss of dopamine, the 化学製品 which sends signals between 神経 独房s, and doctors base their diagnosis on 患者s’ symptoms. This is 悲劇の for 苦しんでいる人s who, by the time they have such obvious outward 調印するs, also have irreversible 損失 to their brains and 団体／死体s.

Joy (pictured on her wedding day with husband Les) 解任するs her husband 存在 診断するd with the 条件 after he began 苦しむing その上の symptoms

The Milnes, whose three sons were by then grown up, could not have foreseen that their idyllic lives, in their lovingly-回復するd six-bedroom house ―which featured in the Domesday 調書をとる／予約する ― would be torn apart by this 病気.

Around this time Les, a gentle man who had never shown 侵略 に向かって his wife, 攻撃するd out on two occasions, once bruising her 直面する.

Joy 解任するd: ‘The first time it happened, when we were at home, I was 完全に taken aback. The second time, about three weeks later, he went to 激しく打ちのめす, I caught his arm and he 支援するd off. As it was happening, his 注目する，もくろむs looked blank, like he had no idea what he was doing.

‘Afterwards he was utterly horrified by his 活動／戦闘s and thankfully it never happened again. It made me sad, rather than angry, that the man I loved had done something so out of character.’

Over the 20 years に引き続いて his diagnosis, Joy watched her clever, 運動競技の husband ― he swam and played 水球 for Scotland in his 青年 ― become a 爆撃する of his former self.

At 50 he had no choice but to retire from 薬／医学 as 手渡す （軽い）地震s and poor 集中 made his 職業 as a 顧問 anaesthetist impossible.

From his 中央の-50s the 病気 left him ますます 扶養家族 on a walking でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる and it became too much 成果／努力 to travel. No longer able to join in dinner party conversations, about sailing holidays or his beloved ゴルフ, the Milnes felt ますます 孤立するd from their social circle.

Joy was able to smell other people with Parkinson's whilst visiting a support group with her husband Les (pictured 権利)

In 2005, they moved 支援する to their native Perth, in Scotland. It was there they had started dating, 老年の 16, while students at Harris 学院 in nearby Dundee. すぐに after the move, while …を伴ってing her husband to a support group for Parkinson’s 苦しんでいる人s, Joy began to make the link between his 団体／死体 odour and this cruel neurodegenerative 病気, which 影響する／感情s one in 500 people.

‘After we left I said to Les: “The people with Parkinson’s in that room smelt the same as you”, she 解任するs. ‘As 医療の people we knew that this was 重要な.

‘Les said: “We have to go to the next 会合 and 実験（する） this again”. Sure enough, there were all different degrees of the odour, but I could （悪事，秘密などを）発見する it in every one of the Parkinson’s 患者s.’

It was while listening to a talk, by Tilo Kunath, a Parkinson’s and 茎・取り除く 独房 研究員 at Edinburgh University, in 2010 that Joy first took the 勇敢に立ち向かう step of 株ing her insights in public.

‘Why are we not using the smell of Parkinson’s to 診断する it earlier?’ she asked the scientist.

Baffled by her question, having been unaware of any smell associated with the 病気, Tilo thought little more of it. However, the に引き続いて year he について言及するd this 明らかに 半端物 interjection to a 同僚.

Les (pictured) died from Parkinson's 病気 age 65. His dying wish was for Joy to use her smelling 技術 to help with researchi ng 治療s

‘She was a 癌 biologist, a professor, and said that some 癌s have a unique odour,’ 解任するs Tilo.

‘She said that Joy might not be bonkers but 現実に の上に something, and encouraged me to 跡をつける her 負かす／撃墜する, which I did.’

To put Joy’s 最高の-匂いをかぐing 技術s to the 実験（する） in 2014, Tilo and his team asked 12 people, six of whom had been 診断するd with Parkinson’s and the other half who had not, to wear a T-shirt for 24 hours. They then asked Joy to smell each T-shirt 個々に and say which ones gave off the telltale scent of the 病気.

She 正確に （悪事，秘密などを）発見するd the odour, tellingly most noticeable on the collar, rather than the underarm, on six of the T-shirts, 加える an 付加 one worn by a man in the 支配（する）／統制する group.

‘We were amazed at how 正確な she was,’ says Tilo. ‘Eleven out of 12 seemed remarkable. Then, three months later, the same guy from the 支配（する）／統制する group called me and said “井戸／弁護士席, you know, I’ve got Parkinson’s”.

‘Joy had told us that this guy had Parkinson’s before he knew, before anyone knew, so then I really started to believe she could （悪事，秘密などを）発見する it by odour.’

In 2015, 老年の 65, Les lost his 戦う／戦い with the 条件 which had robbed him of a normal middle age. 荒廃させるd by the death of her partner of almost 50 years, Joy grieved not only his loss but for the man she had been 軍隊d to say goodbye to three １０年間s earlier, when Parkinson’s first got its 支配する on him.

Joy (pictured) now 補助装置s?Professor Perdita Barran, 長，率いる of 集まり spectrometry at the University of Manchester in identifying the 病気's 誘発する／引き起こすs

However, she was 決定するd to fulfil her husband’s dying wish and use her 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 技術 in （悪事，秘密などを）発見するing the scent associated with the 病気 in the hope that it might lead to 治療s which could spare others the 苦しむing he had 耐えるd.

She says: ‘The day Les died he was 予定 to have an 操作／手術 on his prostate （分泌する為の）腺 and, the night before that, thinking he may not 生き残る it, I remember him 説: “You won’t let this go, will you? You 約束 you will do it?” ’

By that 行う／開催する／段階 Joy was already working with scientists who are hoping that identifying the 正確な 分子s she can （悪事，秘密などを）発見する in the scent of Parkinson’s 苦しんでいる人s may help lead to earlier （犯罪，病気などの）発見, and even a cure.

Since Les’s death, Joy has been able to use her keen nose to 補助装置 Professor Perdita Barran, 長，率いる of 集まり spectrometry at the University of Manchester, in identifying the ten 分子s that 誘発する／引き起こす the 病気. Together they were able to 孤立する these 分子s in 肌 swabs taken from 苦しんでいる人s.

So what is so special about Joy’s olfactory abilities? ‘Perdita said the strength of my sense of smell 落ちるs somewhere between a human and a dog,’ she says, laughing at the memory.

Tim Jacob, emeritus professor at Cardiff University 収容する／認めるs he's 懐疑的な that humans can be '最高の-sniffers' of 病気s

Tim Jacob, emeritus professor at Cardiff University and a doctor specialising in the neurophysiology of smell, says that while there are those, 特に women ― who have an 激烈な／緊急の sense of smell 予定 to having more receptors on their olfactory 神経s ― he is ‘懐疑的な’ about the 存在 of human ‘最高の-sniffers’.

‘I think the 重要な here is that her husband’s characteristic smell was so familiar to this lady, after many years together, that she was able to （悪事，秘密などを）発見する a change in it,’ says Dr Jacob. ‘When the dopamine pathways are destroyed as a result of Parkinson’s the 団体／死体 is no longer in its equilibrium and it results in a change in 団体／死体 odour. People often 報告（する）／憶測 （悪事，秘密などを）発見するing a change in their own scent when they are unwell.’

によれば Dr Jacob, that subtle but, to her, 重要な change in her husband’s smell will have had such an 衝撃 on Joy, that it evoked an emotional 返答, making her 極度の慎重さを要する to that same odour in others.

Dr Jacob’s 研究 示すs that those who 報告（する）／憶測 存在 hyper-極度の慎重さを要する to smells turn out to have strong emotional, rather than physical, reactions.

However, he 認めるs that 確かな 条件s, such as schizophrenia ― which creates a goat-like odour 原因（となる）d by the 解放（する） of methyl hexenoic 酸性の in the 団体／死体 ― can 生成する a scent detectable by humans while 癌 can be 匂いをかぐd out by dogs.

He says: ‘Dogs have been shown to be 93 per cent 効果的な in （悪事，秘密などを）発見するing prostate 癌.’

Joy (pictured) is also hypersensitive to everyday odours and wears a scarf 一連の会議、交渉／完成する her nose to 保護する herself when she's out

Parkinson’s was not, says Joy, the first 条件 she was able to identify nasally. As a student nurse she realised that she could tell which 患者s were 苦しむing from 胆石s before an 公式の／役人 diagnosis was made.

‘They would have raised bilirubin, the stuff that 原因（となる）s jaundiced 肌, and I could smell it on their breath,’ she says. ‘One time, before 決まりきった仕事 scanning, my 区 sister’s aunt was in for 探検の／予備の 外科, because they thought she had 癌.

‘I told my boss not to worry, that it was just 胆石s. She was furious with me and said, “Don’t go around 説 things like that ― you don’t know!” When it turned out to be 胆石s she apologised and asked how I knew. I said I could smell it and she looked at me as if I was crazy.

‘I was only 19 and やめる upset, so I told my grandma who said: “You mustn’t tell people you can do that”.

‘It made me wonder if she had the same ability.’

After training as a midwife, Joy noticed she could also tell by the smell of a woman’s placenta whether she smoked or had 糖尿病.

However, Joy’s olfactory 専門的知識 has a downside: She is also hypersensitive to everyday odours and, whatever the 天候, 包むs a scarf around her nose and mouth to 保護する herself when she’s out.

‘I was ill in my 30s and 診断するd with 多重の 化学製品 アレルギーs,’ she says. ‘It took five months to 人物／姿／数字 out what I needed to 除外する from my diet and it turned out to be any food or ワイン 含む／封じ込めるing sulphites, used as a preservative, 加える tap water because of the 化学製品s in it.

‘These things 原因（となる） my 団体／死体 to swell, give me mouth ulcers and my stomach 燃やすs, as if I’ve drunk 酸性の.

‘I think there’s a link between this and my sense of smell 存在 so pronounced. I can’t 許容する anything 含む／封じ込めるing perfumes and only mineral-based make-up, さもなければ my 注目する，もくろむs swell and the 肌 peels off my lips.’

Her ability could be considered as much of a 悪口を言う／悪態 as a blessing.

‘I’ve been called the “whiffy woman” and people will say to me: “Ooh, don’t 匂いをかぐ me, if I’ve got Parkinson’s I’m not sure I want to know”. I have （悪事，秘密などを）発見するd the odour on strangers ― one time on a fellow shopper in Tesco who was complaining to a friend about feeling unwell, but, until there’s a 実験（する） or a cure, it’s not my place to tell them.

‘Once there is, however, there will be 抱擁する advantages to finding out 早期に, before too much 損失 has been done to the brain to be 逆転するd using 茎・取り除く 独房s.

‘I wish that had been true for Les so we could have enjoyed our middle age and 退職 together.

‘Sadly, it wasn’t, so now, like he asked, I’ll do whatever I’m able to help 未来 苦しんでいる人s.’

One thing Joy can be 確かな of, her husband would be very proud indeed.