Who Nose?

            This morning I had a visit to my otorhinolaryngologist (ENT specialist) .  As I parked my car I took an outdated copy of The Economist to read while I was waiting.   As fate would have it, I opened it on an article on 'Longevity and the sense of Smell'.  I found out out that the loss of the sense of smell may predict a shortened life span.  It transpires that it may forewarn of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkingsons Disease, Alzheimer and certain other neurological disorders.
             My ENT guy is a young man and I thought it would be appropriate for me to quiz him as I had done to generations of family medicine residents during my academic days.
              "Did you know that low olfactory acuity portends a curtailed lifespan?" I asked innocently.
               He smiled, "yes it does, amazingly enough.  When  I  was in  training if someone became anosmic or hyposmic, we checked out their nose and if that was okay we reassured them and sent them away.  Now we usually investigate them extensively, up to and including a brain scan. 
               He rattled off a few of the possible diagnoses.   I was glad he passed my test!
               When I got home I looked up the list of differential diagnoses for loss  of the sense of  smell.
               There are 76  listed!