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  • 2016-12-27 (xsd:date)
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  • Can You Use Peanut Butter to Diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease? (en)
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  • On 7 December 2016, celebrity spokesperson for the United States' number-one selling kitchen appliance David Avocado Wolfe (who believes, among other things, that the oceans contain salt to prevent water from levitating away from the planet's surface) published an article titled Here’s How You Can Use Peanut Butter To Diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease! In it, he states: This article cites a single 2013 study (titled A brief olfactory test for Alzheimer's disease) published in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences which reported the observation that individuals diagnosed with early stages of Alzheimer’s disease consistently displayed a reduced ability to smell out of their left nostril, relative to their right. The study, which measured the distance away from each nostril from which a patient could first smell a 14g container of peanut butter, reported: This idea is not as crazy as it might sound at first blush. That damage to one’s olfactory senses correlates with some forms of dementia is not new science, and it has a well-established basis, as covered in a 2015 review on the topic: The authors of the 2013 study indicated that their results should be considered preliminary, as their sample size was too small to be conclusive. They called for further research into the question, as its utility as a non-invasive diagnostic would be groundbreaking. In 2014, another team of researchers grabbed the baton and attempted to replicate the results of the 2013 study. They concluded: A 2015 study further complicated this story when it demonstrated a positive correlation, similar to the 2013 study, between mild cognitive impairment (which often, but not always, leads to Alzheimer's) and asymmetry in nostril olfactory function. This study, however — like the 2013 paper — utilized a small sample size, and argued that more research was necessary for any conclusive clinical application to be developed. This is a common tactic employed by Wolfe: He frequently cites out-of-date preliminary studies without proper context to make a highly shareable tidbit of what is ultimately false or misleading information. In the case of this peanut butter test, it is best to follow the advice of the 2013 study's lead researcher, Jennifer Stamps, herself, when she was interviewed about her preliminary findings by NPR in 2013: (en)
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