Is a loss of smell an early sign of Parkinson’s?
The symptom has been in the spotlight because of Covid but, as was the case for Barrie Smith, it could indicate something else entirely
10 April 2021 • 5:00pm
Barrie Smith lost his sense of smell at 29 and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 18 years later
Credit: Andrew Fox/The Telegraph
Barrie Smith was 29 when his sense of smell suddenly disappeared almost overnight. “I kept smelling something like electrical burning, which was really weird,” he remembers. “And then within about two weeks, I couldn’t smell a thing.”
Smith assumed it was only a temporary problem. But his ability to smell never returned, and over the following 15 years, a constellation of new ailments kept emerging, from bouts of insomnia, to digestive issues, high blood pressure, and an episode of depression.