Dr Yousuf Ali Al mulla
It is known that humans are somewhat unaware or indifferent to their sense of smell. For instance, if I asked you whether your sense of smell is better or slightly worse than yesterday, you will not notice any slight changes! As our sense of smell fits in with the phrase we all know -Not noticing how important it is until you lose it!.
Of course during coronavirus pandemic, many questions have been circulated and asked, as people have concerned about their loss of sense of smell. Perhaps a number of patients who were infected with COVID-19 have developed this worry mostly from the possibility that they have experienced loss of smell during their COVID-19 infection and are concerned about fear of losing smell.
However, loss of taste and sense of smell are among the most uncommon symptoms of COVID-19, which are symptoms at least 20 times more to predict a positive test for coronavirus than symptoms like fever and cough.
Therefore, many people who have suffered from it, are still asking whether these senses will return to normal and when? Unfortunately, the weak sense of smell or losing it (anosmia) is an invisible obstacle and it is psychologically difficult for a number of people to live with, which is the price that some people pay after surviving the coronavirus, where some people may face long term inability to smell or even losing the sense itself and this sadly represent 10% of the cases.
On other hand, studies are still going on about coronavirus and how it adheres to cells via a specific enzyme, as an entry point for the human body, making the cells that contain this enzyme the most vulnerable. Not to mention that, people who recover more quickly from coronavirus, here the virus may have affected only the cells lining their noses, while people who recovered more slowly, the virus may have affected the nerves related with the sense of smell. Hence these neurons take a longer time to repair and regenerate!
Surprisingly, In spite of what has been mentioned and many ongoing research, I am optimistic with the latest study that confirmed, that the permanent loss of smell does not always happen, because the sensory neurons responsible for detecting the scent and sending it to the brain are not exposed to the coronavirus. Instead the cells that provide support for neurons are infiltrated by the virus and lead to a temporary loss of smell or anosmia. It is really hard to know who will regain their sense of smell and who will not.
The only thing I can say, is that if the patient starts for instance, during the period following his improvement from coronavirus in the same year noticing some betterment, this will be a good and promising sign.
Certainly, I do not think that anyone can appreciate the suffering of these patients, because the loss of smell here may means changing the relationships of the survivors of coronavirus with the people, the food and the environment around them, which definitely will complicate the path of their recovery and may reach the stage of depression and isolation.
So, if you could imagine with me how some people might lose interest in preparing food, as they had a weak smelling or lost it permanently or that mother who could not smell her infant scent !
Interestingly, I would say here that we are shocked when this sense disappears and you might lately realize that we use this sense every day and if you lost it you might not discover the danger when it occurs. As such some individuals may not anticipate the matter and smell something or even smell a gas leak or a fire at home.
On the other hand, there are certain diseases that may lead to loss of smell, from simple cold and allergy that cause weak or temporary loss of smell, to serious conditions that affect the brain or nerves which ends up with a permanent loss of smell.
However, the temporary loss of smell after coronavirus infection and its illness may not need specific treatment with the improvement of the sense. But when such weakness or loss of the sense persists beyond two weeks, it may be reasonable to consider treatment. Here it is good to know that the effectiveness of the treatments currently for patients with loss of smell caused by coronavirus is unknown to date!
Moreover, here I find that undoubtedly starting training the sense of smell for such cases may be appropriate, as it does not have side effects and is not expensive. It is repeated with a number of smells such as lemon, rose or clove for a period of at least three months, besides other additional treatment that are recommended by a specialist in such cases, knowing that such defect in the sense of smell may indirectly cause problems with the taste as they are related!
At end, training the sense of smell is a marathon rather than a race in trying to improve it. People who practice smell training have witnessed better results than those who do nothing and of course it is not guaranteed to restore the sense.
However, temporary or permanent loss of smell due to coronavirus appears as a strange phenomenon, but it may be devastating for some people who continue to have such loss, ending sometimes with a serious psychological results. So, do not pay the price for ignoring health instructions and fall prey to the coronavirus and its health complications!
Dr Yousuf Ali Al Mulla is a physician, medical innovator & writer
