Some add a little jelly,

and others like it right out of the jar.

But did you know a little dollop of this

could be the newest way to detect Alzheimer's disease?

JENNIFER STAMPS: My test involves a ruler and

some peanut butter, and that's it.

NARR: Neuroscientist Jennifer Stamps has found

a way to test a person's sense of smell

to confirm a diagnosis of Alzheimer's in its early stages.

STAMPS: Your olfactory cortex, the part of your brain

that processes smell, is the first area of the brain

to deteriorate in Alzheimer's.

NARR: She says that after ruling out other problems,

she can find out if there is a possible problem

in the part of the brain that processes smells --

in less than two minutes.

Here's how it works.

STAMPS: I'm going to test your ability to detect an odor.

Close your eyes.

[patient sniffs, searching for the scent of peanut butter]

PATIENT: Yes.

NARR: If the left nostril is worse at detecting an odor

than the right one by a certain amount,

it may be a sign of Alzheimer's.

STAMPS: If you're like that different between nostrils,

that's pretty normal.

I'm talking like this different.

NARR: While this is not the first test to use the sense

of smell to help diagnose early-stage Alzheimer's,

it is in early research --

and can be very accurate.

STAMPS: The sensitivity is 100 percent in the

early Alzheimer's group.

NARR: Seems simple, because right now, patients are

put through a battery of cognitive tests,

physical exams,

and imaging.

STAMPS: We get a lot of patients in our clinic

that have already been told by their geriatrician

or another neurologist that they have Alzheimer's.

And a lot of times, they don't.

They have something very curable,

or they're on a bad medication,

and I think it would be something that you could

easily do in a geriatric practice.

That might make you look harder at their lab work.

NARR: But why peanut butter?

STAMPS: Peanut butter is not a smell typically lost

during regular aging.

NARR: And even though there's no cure for Alzheimer's,

confirming it in its earliest stages

could be life-changing.

STAMPS: The sooner you slow down the progression,

the better, you know? If you start the medication

while your memory's still up here instead of

waiting for it to get down here,

you've saved all that.

NARR: Saving memories with a little

good old-fashioned peanut butter.

This is Inside Science TV.

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