One day, we may be able to sniff out a disease instead of running a long list of invasive tests to get a diagnosis. Our bodies produce a wide array of molecules depending on our lifestyles and overall metabolic condition, some of which turn into gases that could be caught and analyzed to help us understand our health without a blood draw.
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Germany collected and tested odors from participants’ belly buttons, inner nose, and outer ears.
In their study, published in Scientific Reports, they showed that the scent profiles of healthy people and participants with either Parkinson’s, mild cognitive impairment, or COVID-19 differed from each other, which could one day help us fine-tune the technology for a new noninvasive diagnostic tool.