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- Two months after I contracted COVID-19, I started to smell a mixture of garbage and onions everywhere I went.
- I suffer from parosmia, a partial distortion of smell, which is usually unpleasant.
- An expert said it could take up to three years to regain my ability to smell again.
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When I completely lost my sense of taste and smell in March 2020, this is the first thing I noticed.
It was a completely surreal experience, especially since at the time, loss of senses or smell – otherwise known as anosmia – was not yet officially recognized as a symptom of COVID. -19.
So when my nose started to take on aromas three months later, I was delighted. Except this time it wasn’t the same and hasn’t been the same since.
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For over a year now, my nose has been plagued by what I like to call “the smell of COVID.”
“The smell of COVID” has nothing to do with what I have ever smelled before. But when I try to describe it to friends, I explain it as the stench of garbage, raw onions and sweaty armpits.
The scientific term for this distortion of the ability to smell is parosmia, “the impairment of the sense of smell, which is generally unpleasant and caused by damage to the olfactory neurons in the nerve center,” according to Health.com.
Living with this disease is incredibly frustrating and has had a huge impact on my daily life.
Take the onions and garlic. Both ingredients, when fried in olive oil, were once my favorite flavors to fill the kitchen. But now? Just a smell of COVID.
The comforting smell of a steaming cup of coffee in the morning. It sounds good ? Smell of COVID.
A gigantic rose bush in my local park was too beautiful not to smell the bouquet. Smell of COVID.
The smell of my partner when he hugs me. Smell of COVID.
Yes, the smell of COVID has tampered with my life, and while I’m grateful that I don’t have more severe long-term COVID symptoms – over 2 million adults in England still suffer from breathing problems or fatigue-related symptoms. 12 weeks after contracting the virus, it was not easy.
But I find comfort in knowing that I am not alone.
Parosmia – not to smell
Many other affected people have shared their own difficult experiences with parosmia caused by the virus.
A woman told The New York Times she was in therapy after her parosmia made her husband’s kiss unbearable. Another said she could no longer cook without feeling like throwing up, according to the BBC.
The precise number of people with parosmia is unknown, but a study published in July 2020 found that 89% of people with loss of smell due to COVID recover within four weeks, with the remaining 11% reporting loss of smell. continuous sense of smell or parosmia. Another review from February 2021 found that of the 47% of COVID-19 patients who exhibited changes in smell and taste, about half reported developing parosmia.
“When people are sick of food, it can become a major problem,” Carl Philpott of Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia told me. “Not only from a nutritional point of view where some people definitely go
losing weight
as a result of this … but it can also lead to feelings of depression and isolation. ”
Philpott established the Smell and Taste Clinic at James Paget University Hospital in Great Yarmouth, England, a pioneering NHS unit that helps people with anosmia or parosmia. He is part of a group of scientists who are studying the COVID-19 symptom.
There is reason to hope. A study published last month found that loss of smell from COVID-19 will eventually return.
Philpott says that if 90% of people regain their scent within weeks of infection, it can take up to three years for others like me.
“For people who experience such lasting distortions, there is a theory that some of these people experience a deeper brain invasion of the virus,” Philpott told me. This theory is largely based on post-mortem studies and previous research on the SARS virus.
“But the jury is still out on the exact mechanism that is causing this long distortion,” Philpott said.
Learning to smell can help recovery
While there is currently no treatment for parosmia, one way to speed recovery is to start scent training, he said.
Although not a cure, smell therapy is a form of physiotherapy for the nose. This requires you to work with different aromas to stimulate and amplify the nerves in your nose that are responsible for the scent.
Original studies show a clear link between scent therapy and recovery, including clover, eucalyptus, lemon and rose.
“Natural history shows that it will probably improve over time,” Philpott reassured me.
It’s been almost a year since I’ve had a distorted sense of smell and although I don’t know how long it will last, I can’t wait for that first morning where I can have my cup of coffee without holding my breath.
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