MAY WE RECOMMEND--
Matters of Taste and Smell

items worth a trip to the library

by Alice Shirell Kaswell, AIR staff

These research reports have something to do with taste and/or smell.

What Sort of Men

"What Sort of Men Take Garlic Preparations?" H.F. Thomas, P,M. Sweetnam, and B. Janchawee, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, vol. 6, 1998, pp. 195-7. (Thanks to Neil Martin for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, who are at the the MRC Epidemiology Unit in South Wales, conclude that:

Men who take garlic supplements are generally similar to non-garlic users.

Sweet Results

"Life is Sweet: Candy Consumption and Longevity," I-Min Lee and Ralph S. Paffenbarger, Jr., British Medical Journal, vol. 317, December 19, 1998, pp. 1683-4. In a study of 7841 men conducted over meny years, the authors find that "non-consumers of candy" suffer mortality higher than those who indulge in moderation, and higher even than those who stuff themselves with sweet things. The authors are at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Physician, Sniff

"Scratch and Sniff. The Dynamic Duo," W.Z. Stitt and A. Goldsmith, Archives of Dermatology, vol. 131, no. 9, September 1995, pp. 997-9. The authors point out a gross deficiency in modermn medical training:

Are odors diagnostic? In this age of polymerase chain reactions, in situ hybridization, and immunohistochemical staining, is there any room left for the nose in diagnosing disease? Long ago, and perhaps far away, smell was crucial to describing an illness. Infectious diseases were known by their characteristics odors--scrofula as smelling like stale beer; typhoid, like freshly baked brown bread; rubella, like plucked feathers; and diphtheria, as "sweetish"...

© Copyright 2001 Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)

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