What the Smell Happened?

What the Smell Happened?

Loss of smell is a real thing. It can be temporary or long term. The first time I heard of loss of smell was years before Covid-19 struck. A friend said she had a pretty nasty cold that affected her taste and smell. Although she said it wasn't unusual for her to experience such things while sick, she was concerned when she got better but her sense of taste and smell didn't. Panicking, she went to her doctor and was told it was a condition called "anosymia" and that only time would tell whether it was temporary or long term. It took six weeks before her taste buds started registering sharp tastes such as salt and lemon. It took nine months before she was able to smell the garlic in her spaghetti.

Covid-19 made us get too familiar with the scary phenomenon of loss of smell and diminished taste. However, there are other illnesses that can also cause these issues. The common cold, flu, allergies, hay fever, and sinus infections can all affect the olfactory system. Additional conditions that can disrupt smell and taste are physical conditions like tumors, nasal polyps, Alzheimer’s disease, brain aneurysm, brain surgery, cancer, chemotherapy, chemical exposures to insecticides or solvents, and diabetes, just to name a few.

Whatever the cause of the loss of your sense of smell, what, if anything, can you do about it?

What to do when your nose goes blind

First, you could take the "turn lemons into lemonade" approach and celebrate all the nasties you'll never smell again like:

• Your mate's morning breath (or yours)
• Arm pits and body odor
• Foul socks and undies in the laundry
• Soured milk that didn't get used up fast enough
• Poots, toots, and butt blasts also known as farts
• Dirty feet and smelly shoes
• Litter box

Read this writer's humorous story about her loss of smell

You can take the "hide and watch" approach -- basically wait it out and see if things resolve on their own.

How long to wait is anybody's guess. It could take days, weeks, months and.... never. After a brief celebration on all the nasty things I couldn't smell, I would begin to miss other smells. Because a loss of sense of smell also affects taste and therefore diminishes enjoyment of food, I would find the approach of waiting very difficult. I LOVE my food and the delight of flavors so I would only suffer a smelless (is that a word?) life a short time before I would wanted it to go away.

That brings me to the "take the bull by the horns" option and attempt to retrain your olfactory system

It's an odd thought to think that our olfactory system could be retrained because we were never aware that it was trained in the first place. And what a complex system the olfactory system is. Until you need to know and start digging and reading, a person probably has no idea what it even is or exactly how it works. Have you ever heard the phrase "it tastes like shi#$# smells?" -- or is that said just in my working class family? LOL But, it's true, there are molecules that pass through to the back of our throat when chewing and swallowing. For those who want to get all up in the whats and whys of how this all works, check out this article on Wikipedia.

So, if you want to "retrain" your sense of smell, how do you even do it? Essential oils have been touted as beneficial. Most of what I read (don't you just love Google?) indicated that many medical professionals were suggesting regimens of smelling four different essential oils such as "rose, eucalyptus, cloves and lemon twice a day for 10 seconds at a time" . Although you can chart your course alone and on your own, experimenting to see what works for you and what doesn't, you could also consult with an ENT physician to prescribe you a regimen based on your personal circumstances.

***********

So, if you find yourself in a "what the smell happened" situation, just know that your loss of smell can be short term or long term, might resolve on it's own or be boosted back to normal with the use of olfactory retraining.