B1 – Intermediate
All of our five senses are crucial to how our bodies receive sensory information. In particular, our sense of smell is important to be able to taste and for us to identify good foods, hazards, and pheromones.
According to some studies, the olfactory senses are also essential in knowing if your health is compromised.
According to a study carried out at the University of Chicago, a weakened sense of smell may be a predictor of death. In the study, researchers tested the sense of smell of 3,000 people between the ages of 57 and 85. Participants had to identify five different smells: rose, peppermint, leather, orange, or fish in a multiple-choice test.
When the researchers checked back on the participants five years later they discovered something very surprising; nearly 40 percent of those who had received a low rating on the smell test had died. That figure was four times higher than the death rate for those with a healthy sense of smell. And only 19 percent of those with a moderate sense of smell had died in the same five-year period.
The researches stressed that the loss of the sense of smell is probably just an indicator of declining health–not a cause. On the other hand, they said that such smell tests could be a cheap and easy way to check the overall health of elderly people and even young people too.
Discussion Questions:
- What was your reaction to the results of this study?
- How good or bad is your sense of smell? Why do you think that is?
- Do you think it is important to have regular medical checks? Explain your thoughts.
- What medical tests do you take to check your overall health and how often do you have them?
- What are other common indicators of declining health of people?
- Are you conscious about your health? Why or why not?
6 replies on “Weakened Sense of Smell Could be a Bad Sign”
1. My first reaction was surprise, because I didn’t think that smell sense was so important to indicate our health status.
2. My sense of smell is normal, I guess. However, I have a big nose and some people expect that my sense of smell to be high. It’s not a joke, it’s true!
3. Regular medical checks are necessary to know how is working our organism. A blood test once per year, at least, could be useful to prevent some important diseases, as diabetes, or hypercholesterolemia.
4. Every year, our company requests a general medical check for all the employees. This check includes a blood test, visual and hearing tests, weight and a psychological test.
5. Some indicators of declining health of people are weakness, unexpected pains, low mood and color of the skin.
6. I try to check my health periodically. When I feel unwell I always go to the doctor. However, age is age, and it is impossible to avoid some “bugs” in my organism. In any case, I try to keep a healthy life and eat properly.
You did well in writing your answers to your lesson’s discussion questions.
See some words you can use in these sentences:
Until your next entry!
1.What was your reaction to the results of this study?
In my opinion is a good test. Sometimes simple and cheap srudies can carrie out to the sucess
2.How good or bad is your sense of smell? Why do you think that is?
I think is normal but I lost it a little because I smoke a little. On the other hand if you smell very often the same things you olfactory sense get use to smell it and you dont detect it
3.Do you think it is important to have regular medical checks? Explain your thoughts.
I agree, we should check our body once a year at least because you can find a problem in a early phase and get the solution
4.What medical tests do you take to check your overall health and how often do you have them?
We have a test every year in our company.It is a basic test, but enough to find any problem , blood and urine test
5. What are other common indicators of declining health of people?
Are you conscious about your health? Why or why not?
In my opinion if you fin yourself very tired without reason you should go to the doctor.Othr reasons could be hving headaches often or if you feel dizzy. I am very worried about my health , I try to eat healthy food and practise some sports
Appreciate you for taking the time to answer your lesson’s discussion questions. Good work!
Here is the proper way to write this response:
Keep practicing to achieve more and more improvement.
1. What was your reaction to the results of this study?
I use to be very cautious with the results of studies when they are very surprising. Said this, that means that I was firstly surprised, and then I sceptic. Have other factors or health conditions been taken into account that may have influenced the persons who had a low score at the beginning and then died?
2. How good or bad is your sense of smell? Why do you think that is?
It is not quite good but not bad either. I say this because when I compare with other people, the most of times with my wife, she is able to recognize suddenly some aroma and I don’t or maybe not too much. Nevertheless, I am able to smell a lot of things along the day.
3. Do you think it is important to have regular medical checks? Explain your thoughts.
If you ask me about general checks, I mean, including the usual tests that have been shown to correlate with the health status, I answer clearly yes. However, if you ask me if we should have regular checks about our sense of smell, I would say no. Because the results of this study do not correlate with specific causes of a potential death.
What is the point of knowing that we are more likely to die if we don’t know why, what is the cause? It would only serve to make us very nervous, create great anguish, and since we are very psychosomatic animals, I think it would even worsen our health. It would be like a self-prophecy.
Of course this study shows a very significant results and it worths to be studied more deeply, trying to correlate the low rating in smell tests with particular conditions.
4. What medical tests do you take to check your overall health and how often do you have them?
I use to take the annual checks provided by my company for labour risk prevention: physical exam, tests of vision and hearing, blood and urine analysis, ECG and respiratory test.
5. What are other common indicators of declining health of people?
Weight loss, increase of bad habits, mental decline…
6. Are you conscious about your health? Why or why not?
Yes, because I have been trained in the minimal health information, not only for my education in biology and my professional career in clinical research but also for growing up in a family of nurses. And, as I said, I monitor my health regularly. Luckily, I haven’t had any major health problems in my life.
Your consistency in practicing your writing is commendable. Keep at it! You are doing a good job so far.
Here is a sentence that can be revised:
Until your next post!