Covid survivors say they experience “strange” tastes and odors months after the infection has cleared.

After recovering from COVID-19 (New Coronavirus Infection), Some survivors say they are experiencing, they are experiencing unscented or distorted, misplaced odors and tastes.

The patient’s experience during a pandemic has spurred new research into how viruses and other conditions affect this little-studied sensation.

Scientists have hypothesized how COVID damages odors, but further research is needed on the long-term effects of the virus and possible odor treatments.

One patient said New York Times The coffee tastes like gasoline and the onions, garlic and meat are described as “rotten”.

Unlike conditions such as blindness and deafness, which are widely known and understood, people usually do not expect to lose their sense of smell.

Still, the scent has received more attention in the past year, thanks to the crossing of sensations with COVID.

The virus causes thousands of COVID patients to lose their sense of smell altogether and, in some cases, experience strange distortions when they regain their sense of smell.

Anosmia, or a complete lack of the sense of smell, Estimated 2 million Americans Before the COVID hits-although the true prevalence of the condition is difficult to estimate because it is not measured often.

People can be born with anosmia due to a genetic condition or, more generally, lose sensation due to brain or nerve damage caused by an accident or disability.

Head trauma, chemotherapy, Alzheimer’s disease, and all other conditions can lead to loss of the sense of smell.

Loss of smell can also be caused by another viral infection, such as a cold or COVID.

Anosmia is now understood to be one of the most common symptoms of the disease-some scientists say COVID test development Use this symptom for diagnosis.

For many COVID patients, the sense of smell has returned as a natural part of recovery. But for others, the smell came back in a strange, confusing way.

These patients suffered from parosmia-a disorder that distorts the odor, and objects that should elicit a pleasant scent often do the opposite.

One such patient, Brooke Viegut, said the Times had lost their sense of smell after getting a COVID in the spring of 2020.

“Before she completely regained it, parosmia began and she couldn’t tolerate garlic, onions or meat,” the Times reports.

“Even broccoli smelled chemical at some point earlier this year, she said.”

Another patient, Marcel Kuttab, explained that coffee smells like “gasoline.”

She shopped at the grocery store and looked for food that she could tolerate with a sense of confusion.

A third patient, Janet Marple, said coffee, peanut butter, and feces all “smell vaguely like burning rubber.”

“I literally hold my breath when shampooing my hair, and washing is a terrible experience. Even freshly cut grass is terrible,” Marple told the Times.

Thousands of patients suffering from anosmia and parosmia found each other during a pandemic. The Facebook group, organized around this topic, has over 10,000 members.

The odor problem was also very widespread and was noticeable in candle reviews. In November, artist Terry Nelson pointed out on Twitter that “there were angry women everywhere on the Yankee Candle site, and they reported that the candles they got were completely odorless.”

The tweet caught the attention of Kate Petrois, a psychophysiology researcher and PhD student at Stanford University. I scraped and analyzed candle reviews Visualize this clear trend.

However, odor problems can also be dangerous.Waco, Texas Family I barely avoided the fire After 3 out of 4 family members suffering from COVID could not smell the smoke.

The growing attention that olfactory dysfunction suffered during COVID has led scientists to study how the virus affects the senses.

Researchers are currently focusing on a piece of tissue called the olfactory epithelium. This is the nerve center inside the nose that detects the sense of smell and sends a message to the brain.

When you catch a cold, the nerve centers are easily blocked by mucus and your sense of smell is impaired. The situation becomes even more complicated during the match against COVID.

Studies show that coronavirus Cause a molecular reaction At its nerve center, it prevents it from sending odor messages to the brain.

Second, if nerve cells self-repair during the patient’s recovery, the nerve cells may not connect properly, leading to parosmia. This phenomenon is compared to “a damaged piano with missing wires or connected to the false note”.

All five patients spoken to the Times began to experience scent mixes in the spring and summer of 2020-they are seeing some recovery, but a year later they feel completely normal. No one got it back.

One option for patients with anosmia and parosmia is to try “Smell training” -Smell version of physiotherapy. Patients regularly smell a strong scent for the prescribed period to stimulate the nasal nerves.

Further research is needed to analyze this treatment and develop other treatments.

At the beginning of 2021, the National Institutes of Health $ 1 Billion Initiative Study long-term COVID symptoms, including odor.

Other researchers have begun testing parosmia-often supported by a group of patients with olfactory dysfunction. The patient group formed before COVID has seen thousands of new members and followers.

New scientific interests and funding are encouraging for both COVID survivors and patients with long-term olfaction disorders, and we hope that their condition will soon be well understood.