What Your Nose Knows After Covid

When will my smell sense return? My PCR of covid19 was positive and I lost my sense of smell before 3 days.

retired reference assistant at Cornell University Library

Haidar,

First, some good news “…in most cases, SARS-CoV-2 infection is unlikely to permanently damage olfactory neural circuits and lead to persistent anosmia, …, a condition that is associated with a variety of mental and social health issues, particularly depression and anxiety.”[1]

Now, the bad. Patience, however, will be required. A cursory survey of similar questions on Quora and on the web indicates that most patients regain their sense of smell or at least notice some improvement within 4 weeks of initial symptoms.[2]

“So why does smell not return in some cases? This is more theoretical but follows from what we know about inflammation in other systems. Inflammation is the body’s response to damage and results in the release of chemicals that destroy the tissues involved.

“When this inflammation is severe, other nearby cells start to be damaged or destroyed by this “splash damage”. We believe that accounts for the second stage, where the olfactory neurons are damaged.

“Recovery of smell is much slower because the olfactory neurons need time to regenerate from the supply of stem cells within the lining of the nose. Initial recovery is often associated with distortion of the sense of smell known as parosmia, where things don’t smell like they used to. For many parosmics, for instance, the smell of coffee is often described as burnt, chemical, dirty and reminiscent of sewage.” [ugh!][3]

There is something you can do about it: smell therapy! You can try this at home. “Think of it as physiotherapy for your nose. Smell training is not a cure, but a way of amplifying your recovery. Every time you do it, you are stimulating the olfactory nerves that help you smell. And this is what encourages them to heal.”.[4]

[This YouTube video https://youtu.be/x9rNrfv0SU0 is about 9 minutes long.]

The comments on the video are worth reading. Here’s one:

“Naomi McDonald

“I was tested positive for Covid and fully lost my sense of taste and smell in mid March, which did not start to return until end of May/June... which was extremely worrying but to my relief it just started to appear one day... so don’t give up! I was feeling so frustrated and defeated because it was just soooo long without my senses, but it eventually DID start to come back to my surprise. Sweet flavours returned more quickly. But very mild. And at first things seemed ok, but then I began developing a very horrible metallic/ blood/dusty smell in the air. Which I believe is very common. Then things started to smell kinda smokey, which was also gross. But over the next few weeks things became a bit more Pleasant. But still mild! My biggest issue is fresh foods like garlic and herbs and fresh vegetable, to me they all taste a bit ‘weird’ like mouldy/ dusty. I have found dried food like spices etc are stronger and normal to me. It’s not nice at all, and I can’t enjoy certain foods and scents (my perfume still smells rancid to me!), but I’m hoping with this scent training it will eventually get back to ‘normal’. Wishing everyone the best of luck.... I know how awful it is. Try to stay optimistic, as someone reminded me the other day, Covid is a vicious virus we have never experienced so we must allow for the healing process to take time. Hope this helps!! Love and peace to all.”

For more information, I recommend the following YouTube address:[5]

-Jeff

Footnotes

[1] How COVID-19 Causes Loss of Smell

[2] Many COVID-19 patients lost their sense of smell. Will they get it back?

[3] Coronavirus: scientists uncover why some people lose their sense of smell

[4] Smell training :: AbScent

[5] AbScent Anosmia Support

First answered by me on Quora:

Read Jeff Diver's answer to When will my smell sense return? My PCR of covid19 was positive and I lost my sense of smell before 3 days. on Quora;