Alzheimer's disease, the infamous degeneration of the mind in many unfortunate individuals, has a new, slightly unorthodox test to confirm diagnosis in early stages.
According to Science Daily's article, graduate student Jennifer Stamps has come up with an effective "peanut butter test" useful for confirming Alzheimer's diagnosis. Upon noticing that patients' sense of smell was not tested at the practice she observed, she went about finding an inexpensive, effective way of testing the sense. Peanut butter is brought closer centimeter by centimeter to the patient's left nostril, then the same with the right, measuring the distance. In patients diagnosed with the beginnings of Alzheimer's, the left nostril is impaired.
Although it is by no means a cure or even a conventional method, but the peanut butter test proves useful in confirming diagnosis in a quick, cheap way with no invasive medical tests. It will no doubt be tweaked and perfected with use, but for now it is simply an amusing ray of sunshine in something as tragic as Alzheimer's disease.
