The sharpest pushback we hear is simple:
“If interventions are modest, and compliance is low… aren’t you just getting better data on grandma’s decline?”
It’s a fair question. And it deserves a real answer.
The Real Baseline
The baseline isn’t “weak interventions.”
The baseline is no intervention at all.
Families and clinicians don’t notice sensory decline until it’s too late.
Half of impairments go unnoticed.
By the time cognition is impacted, prevention is almost impossible.
Mel’s Story
Mel was a physician.
He thought he had a taste problem.
He saw six ENTs. No resolution.
One sensory test reframed it as smell impairment.
That single reframe changed everything.
Delays matter. Years of missed signals lead to dual impairments and a 65% chance of major cognitive decline in five years.
The Science of Intervention
Olfactory training isn’t “weak.”
UC Irvine (2023) showed that nightly smell enrichment doubled — even tripled — memory performance in older adults.
MRI scans revealed actual brain changes.
Interventions stack — and they’re meaningful:
Smell retraining (olfactory enrichment strengthens memory, neuroplasticity, and daily function)
Audio cardio (hearing therapy, bone-conducting headphones, frequency training, protective cues)
Nutrition support (flavor perception restored → better appetite, diet quality, weight stability)
ENT & audiology care (hearing aids, balance correction, tinnitus management)
Cognitive screening (earlier detection of impairment → earlier therapy, planning, engagement)
Home safety measures (gas detection, spoiled food, fall prevention, medication adherence)
And when families see visible proof of decline, compliance skyrockets.
The Curve
Sensory decline isn’t linear.
Miss the early signals and the slope steepens — the prevention window slams shut.
Catch it early and you extend functional health by decades.
This is exactly how hypertension went from “weak interventions” to the single biggest public health win in history: systematic detection + longitudinal data.
The Bigger Picture
NIH has already reached out.
The dataset we’re building isn’t just tracking decline — it’s creating the evidence base for prevention.
That’s the moat: being the first to collect standardized, longitudinal sensory health data at scale.
The Answer to the Skeptic
So no — this isn’t just better data on grandma.
It’s awareness where there was none.
It’s action where there was nothing to act on.
And it’s the dataset that will finally prove what keeps people sharp for longer.