Losing the ability to smell may be associated with the risk of heart failure in older adults, even those who say they are in excellent health, according to new research from Honglei Chen, MSU Research Foundation Professor of epidemiology and biostatistics in the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

“About a quarter of U.S. older adults have poor olfaction, or sense of smell, and it is an early symptom of Parkinson’s and dementia, but that was pretty much all we knew about this common sensory deficit until recently,” Chen said. “Our recent studies suggest that poor olfaction may have a lot more to tell us about the health of older adults, including details about their cardiovascular health.”

The study included 2,537 participants age 72 to 82. It was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association and reveals a relationship between a loss of smell and the risk of heart failure in older adults. This finding adds heart failure to the expanding list of adverse health outcomes that may be associated with olfactory loss in older adults, including physical functional decline, frailty, depression and pneumonia.

This story was first reported by Laura Williamson in American Heart Association News.