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Covid Survivors Smell Foods Differently - The New York Times

Covid Survivors Smell Foods Differently - The New York Times

Covid Survivors Smell Foods Differently - The New York Times
Jun 17, 2021 2 mins, 44 secs

Marcel Kuttab of Chelsea, Mass., has experienced parosmia, a distortion in the senses of smell and taste, since contracting Covid in March 2020.Credit...Katherine Taylor for The New York Times.

Onions and garlic and meat tasted putrid, and coffee smelled like gasoline — all symptoms of the once little-known condition called parosmia that distorts the senses of smell and taste.

Of five patients interviewed for this article, all of whom first developed parosmia symptoms in late spring and early summer of last year, none has fully regained normal smell and taste.

She believes she caught Covid in March during a quick business trip to London, and, like many other patients, she lost her sense of smell.

“There are daily reports of recovery from long haulers in terms of parosmia improving and patients being left with a fairly good sense of smell,” Professor Hopkins said.

Nearly all members had lost their sense of smell because of Covid; they escaped, but the house was destroyed.

The loss of taste, or ageusia, can also be a symptom.

Before Covid, parosmia received relatively little attention, said Nancy E.

In 2020, parosmia became remarkably widespread, frequently affecting patients with the novel coronavirus who lost their sense of smell and then largely regained it before a distorted sense of smell and taste began.

An article last June in the journal Chemical Senses, based on questionnaires, found that 7 percent of post-Covid patients experienced smell distortion.

A later study based on an online survey in Britain found that six months after Covid’s onset, 43 percent of patients who initially had reported losing their sense of smell reported experiencing parosmia, according to an article in the journal Rhinology.

Franklin, a outpatient occupational therapist, said she lost all sense of taste and smell in early April 2020, immediately after contracting Covid.

The women are now working to get it nonprofit status, with guidance from the Monell center, to raise funds for studies of smell and taste disorders.

Boeteng, 31, of Plainfield, N.J, lost her sense of smell more than 12 years ago, from an upper respiratory infection.

“People are so desperate about their smell loss, because, after all, your sense of smell is also your sense of self,” said the charity’s founder, Chrissi Kelly, who lost her ability to smell for two years after a sinus infection in 2012.

She also experienced parosmia.

She was infected with Covid in April 2020 and developed parosmia again five months later.

Several other groups have emerged in Europe over the years, including Fifth Sense, also in England, founded in 2012, and groups in France and the Netherlands.

The pandemic also spawned the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research, which is conducting surveys in 35 languages about the link between taste and smell loss and respiratory illness.

Online sites are awash with homegrown cures for parosmia and other smell disorders, although experts urge caution.

Patel has treated patients who sprayed zinc into their nostrils, which can cause an irreversible loss of smell.

The process involves repetitive sniffing of potent scents to stimulate the sense of smell.

Kuttab has a collection of essential oils, and almost all of them smell normal, which she finds encouraging.

Tracy Villafuerte developed parosmia about a year ago, and just as her sense of smell started coming back, the scents of coffee and other food turned rancid.

Summarized by 365NEWSX ROBOTS

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