Smell Training for Brain Health?

Worth two minutes of smelling a flower, perfume, peanut butter, creosote (MMMMmmmmm..!!), or frying pork bits. 😀

Funny you should ask about this -- it's something I've been looking into. This article and video from NewScientist may or may not be behind a paywall for you, but it puts the issue into a useful perspective: https://www.newscientist.com/video/2481473-can-training-your-sense-of-smell-help-reverse-cognitive-decline/. I found it sufficiently compelling to look into the commercially-available Memory Air product: https://memoryair.com/, and then I ordered one.

On the one hand, I'm still impressed by the product. On the other hand, it turns out that I can't use it, because it needs to be located 2-6 feet away from the bed, you can't routinely face away from the air flow during the night (it runs for 5 1/2 hours each night -- I sleep on my side, which is fine, but I switch sides back and forth during the night, which is not a behavior I can fix), and you can't have another fan going that will cause the scent to dissipate. Which makes sense, but were not criteria that I found before I opened the box. And so far, I'm having difficulty arranging a return, which makes me wonder about their customer service.

Also, it's a fairly costly product that is not covered by insurance.

I still think it's a great idea, well-tested, and very appealing. Just isn't going to work for me, for practical reasons.

If anyone does try it successfully, I would love to hear about your experience in a few months.

Yikes! The Memory Air machine costs $799!!!
I bought little vials of essential oils for a few dollars.
I sniff them while reading emails and new on my computer, AM and PM.
You could also use household things, soap, spices, coffee grounds.
(I got essential oils because they remind me of the scents we wore back in the 1960s.)

I bought fairly inexpensive vials of essential oils too. They are long lasting and I put a little on a piece of watercolor paper and put it on the bottom of a small glass jar. We have a set. Started with recommended scents: lemon, clove, rose and eucalyptus.

Have added cinnamon, lavender, frankincense, rosemary and peppermint because they were part of the kit. I had to buy rose separately. I made more kits out of old empty medicine bottles and gave it to friends who have lost their sense of smell as well.

My H and I do smell therapy from time to time at home when we think of it. It does seem to help some. We refresh the scent with a few more drops of oil from time to time.

I actually tried scent retraining which is similar, due to a period of post covid syndrome, in which I lost most if not all of my sense of smell. I was diagnosed during a visit at ENT visit, which I failed miserably on a standardized smell test. However, it was my primary who suggested the scent retaining. I used little vials of essential oils at first. I didn’t find them distinctive enough and incorporated foods, like bananas, popcorn, coffee, etc. I didn’t really have much faith in the theory, but when I returned to my ENT my score on the retest was significantly higher! My ENT was surprised. Often, smell does not improve that way. So, I’m grateful.

I’m glad there may be other benefits too. It’s a pleasant therapy to be in.

For us, the scent retraining is pretty easy and has helped me and my H. In any case, the vials were free and oils under $40 total and last years (stored in metal cans).

I can now smell some, which is an improvement from not at all. I will happily take some sense of smell over none.

@edsutton Yes, indeed, Memory Air is an expensive solution, so it doesn't make sense if you are just trying to improve your sense of smell, but as far as I know, is the only smell-based memory treatment that has been tested in a clinical trial, which also means it was very costly to bring to market in the first place. Think of it as a new big pharma drug, most of which are hideously expensive until generic options become available, which is what it takes to motivate firms to go through the hideously expensive process to design, make, test, trial, fail over and over again, and and finally get something to market as a commercial product.

Latest update: You can trial the Memory Air device for 60 days and return it for a full refund at that point if you are not seeing benefits. After a chat with customer service about my concerns, I'm going to give it a go. I'm also marking my calendar, so I have a reminder to consider returning it before the window closes.

So one possibility would be to trial the essential oils, and if you were not entirely happy with their impact on your memory, trial the device.

They actually offer an (optional) before-and-after online memory test you can use if you wish to see if there is an impact. Maybe you can just do the test without buying the product, use the essential oils for several months, and do the test again? They say:
- Visit test.memoryair.com to start.
- You’ll hear a list of 15 words, repeated over 5 rounds.
- After the 5th round, you’ll be asked to recall as many words as you can.
- We’ll give you a personal score to track your starting point.
Memory Air therapy has been shown in clinical trials to dramatically improve memory—by as much as 226% in healthy seniors and 300% in patients with dementia. This optional test can give you a clearer view of your own memory growth over time.

@projfan
Let us now how it goes!
Ed