Saliva (also known by its less elegant name ‘spit’) is a part of our physical functioning that we rarely think about. When we do comment on it, it usually elicits such reactions as “eww!” and “ick!” Needless to say, it’s a poor conversation starter at the dinner table. Yet it’s important to recognize the vital role that saliva plays when it comes to our health. Besides the unpleasantness of having to cope with a case of dry mouth, without saliva we wouldn’t be able to digest food properly. If that wasn’t enough to elevate the status of this oft-ignored secretion of our salivary glands, new research now also indicates that it may have the added benefit of being used for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease.

You may be wondering what gives saliva this special function as it relates to Alzheimer’s. The answer is a protein called Amyloid βeta. Scientists have found that high levels of Amyloid βeta proteins in one’s saliva could be used to diagnose Alzheimer’s or a high risk of the disease.

So what does this salivary-focused research mean in the larger battle against Alzheimer’s? The effects of Alzheimer’s can be more effectively treated when discovered in the early stages or when it is known whether a person is at high risk, and testing one’s saliva is a non-invasive method of providing that early warning system. Saliva, it turns out, may be highly underrated after all!