The proposed study would identify microbial communities and metabolic profiles associated with stigmatized conditions such as idiopathic malodor or mental health.
Working with systemic malodor/PATM community provides unprecedented opportunities to explore biomarkers of depression, social stress, diabetes, inflammatory diseases, dental, cardiovascular, and digestive health, exposure to antibiotics, lifestyle & dietary... more »

I am a lay person and I cannot provide detail on study design. However, I am aware that there are millions of individuals world-wide who suffer from loss of smell (anosmia) and who feel socially isolated and fearful of dangers that the olfactory system helps to warn against. In addition, many people who are anosmic do not enjoy eating and are therefore not necessarily getting a nutritionally balanced diet. This could... more »

Anosmia, the loss of smell, affects approximately 5% of the population and can blight the lives of sufferers. The consequences to well being of those with this condition can be severe and include depression, anxiety, aggression, feelings of isolation as well as weight gain/weight loss. Within this group are people with parosmia, a condition where odors are so distorted that food becomes a nauseating ordeal. We need more... more »

Not only does complete loss of smell and taste ("anosmia") affect quality of life , but this condition also creates safety concerns - unable to smell during food prep, unable to detect spoiled food, unable to detect harmful fumes and the list goes on.

A good estimate could be based on a simple survey of health care providers (ENT or internist) as to the frequency of patients who exhibit this important disability. Depending on the results, more resources might be devoted to finding causes and ultimately treatments.

Goal:To identify the virus that causes Anosmia

Methods: survey of post-viral anosmiacs about the onset of the virus, it's timing, it's characteristics, duration, symptoms, and treatment .

Recruitment through Facebook groups, message boards and specialists. Control group could be identified through medical records

These are frequent antecedents in neurodegenerative disease. They may, in themselves, be early biomarkers and or demarcate a peripheral origin for the disease. However their onset is not well understood and they are not specific to neurodegenerative diseases. Understanding their natural history, and co-association with other midlife/old age symptoms coupled with omic data may help understand the role of these symptoms... more »

I have no clue how I would study it to be completely honest... But I have horrible body odor and terrible bad breath because of Trimethylaminuria (tmau). It is caused by a deficiency of flavin monooxygenase 3 (FMO3) secondary to mutations in the FMO3 gene. Please help me and others with this problem.