Coping with the loss of smell and taste – . Health Blog

When I was cutting a lemon wedge for my tea one morning last March, I found that I couldn't make out the familiar citrus hiss. It also turned out that I couldn't taste the peach jam on my toast. Overnight, my smell and taste seemed to be gone. In the days before I had body aches and chills which I attributed to a late winter cold – nothing, I thought, an analgesic and some downtime couldn't take care of it. But later that day, I saw a newspaper article about loss of smell and taste in patients with COVID-19 and realized that I was likely infected with the virus. Although I was fortunate enough to eventually recover from it without going to the hospital, or worse, months after testing COVID negative, my senses of smell and taste are still not fully restored.

I know that I'm hardly alone with this. According to US News and World Report, 86% of patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 – over six million people in total – reported problems with their sense of smell, while a similar percentage had changes in taste perception. (Taste and smell work together to enhance the perception of taste.) This is on top of the 13.3 million Americans diagnosed with anosmia – a medical term for odor loss – associated with other respiratory viruses, head injuries, and other causes . For many of us, the improvement has been slow.

Loss of smell affects our health and quality of life

Our senses – smell, sight, hearing, taste and touch – are bridges that connect us to the world we live in, to life itself. If you turn off two of the five bridges, 40% of our sensory input is gone. The senses give richness and texture to everyday life. They are closely related to our emotions. The loss of smell or taste may not seem as drastic as the shortness of breath or debilitating fatigue many other people have experienced after COVID, but the effects can still be quite demoralizing. You can no longer smell the familiar scent of loved ones or try your favorite dish. The author and poet Diane Ackerman describes these special tastes and smells as the "intoxicating succulence of life".

Loss of smell and taste can also affect our health, leading to loss of appetite and unwanted weight loss. Patients with anosmia may not be able to eat enough or skip meals. It can even pose an existential threat by putting us at risk from discovering fires, gas leaks, or spoiled food.

All of these effects explain why recent studies have linked the post-COVID anosmia to depression and anxiety. The jury is not yet sure whether this has to do with the loss of smell or taste itself – or with the influence of the virus on the central nervous system. But we know one thing for sure: mood and sense of smell are closely related. The more than 5,000 members of the Facebook group for post-COVID anosmia sufferers can confirm this. The feelings expressed in their contributions range from mere sadness to full-blown sadness.

Recovering from the loss

The good news is that olfactory neurons are capable of regeneration. The bad news is that not everyone will return to their pre-COVID level of functioning. And unfortunately, some of us may never regain our sense of smell or taste. According to some experts, patients with postviral odor loss have about a 60% to 80% chance of regaining some of their olfactory function within a year. Because the sense of smell usually decreases with age, recovery in older adults may take longer and not be complete.

Enjoy what you can experience and involve the spirit

To re-awaken the olfactory nerves, most specialists recommend olfactory training, a daily routine of sniffing essential oils like lemon, eucalyptus, clove, rose and others. If you suffer from loss of smell, don't be discouraged if some of the essences smell different than expected: distortions related to loss of smell (troposmia) are not uncommon.

The principle of mindfulness plays an important role here. If you can't smell the essence at all, try to remember the smell. In other words, keep your mind busy creating the sensation. If you can't try all of the flavors of a dish while eating, pay attention to the basic ones – sweet, bitter, sour, salty, or umami – as well as the texture of the food and the feel on the palate. This helps you focus on what you can still taste instead of what you can't. For example, when I eat dark chocolate, I can only taste the bitter and sweet; I still have to rely on my memory for the taste of the cocoa bean.

The old adage "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger" takes on a new meaning when applied to the losses associated with COVID-19. These losses challenge us to become more mindful and confident and ultimately more resilient. We also need to learn to be patient and appreciate incremental progress. The other day I caught a hint of citrus in my tea for the first time in months. Lemon never smelled so sweet.

Tips and coping strategies

In my practice with patients with post-COVID losses and in my own recovery, I have found the following coping strategies helpful.

• Acknowledge your feelings about the loss.
• Contact an ear, nose and throat specialist.
• Adjust your cuisine in favor of spicier foods.
• Keep hope of recovery.
• Develop a sense of gratitude: you survived a potentially fatal disease.
• You can get further help from a counselor or support group.