3 minute read
How to Get Your Smell and Taste Back After COVID-19
By Shellie Wass
The social media videos on eating strange combinations of food to get your sense of taste back may not be as crazy as they seem. The first sign of COVID-19 is often the loss of taste and smell, also known as anosmia, and even those without other symptoms have experienced this. Not being able to smell or taste your food can be an alarming realization, but this doesn’t typically last long, and you can help decrease these symptoms from home. Dr. David Rosen, an otolaryngologist at Jefferson Health, spoke with us on why this is happening and how to get your sense of smell and taste back after recovering from COVID-19.
Understanding the loss of taste and smell
Smell loss during and after a respiratory virus isn’t new. Typically, post-viral smell loss includes a runny nose or nasal symptoms. This is not the case with COVID, where the smell and taste loss arrive before any respiratory symptoms. COVID is a unique type of respiratory virus with quick access to the nervous system. Dr. Rosen says that this means that the virus easily travels up the nose and attaches itself to the olfactory nerve, which is at the top of the nose and responsible for conveying sensory information related to smell to your brain. Dr. Rosen says the most common complaint of those recovering from COVID is that they can smell fine but have lost their sense of taste. After smell testing these patients, they’re only able to smell some of the scents, and they realize they, in fact, don’t have a good sense of smell. “Generally, people can identify tastes, like sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (savory), but if you can’t smell, you can’t tell the difference between something like cherry or grape. It just tastes sweet,” Dr. Rosen says. So, most people are having smell loss, which leads to their loss of the sense of taste. When you eat food, the aroma goes to the base of the tongue, and then it goes up into the nose for you to say, ‘Oh, this is cherry.’”
How to get taste and smell back after COVID-19
Many videos have surfaced online of people trying to trigger their sense of taste with aromatic foods like blackening oranges and eating them or biting into onions like they are apples. While some of these attempts may seem absurd, they may actually work. These unique exercises are similar to those of olfactory training.“Olfactory training actually utilizes the body’s neuroplasticity, which is the body’s ability to form new nerve pathways. These methods help the body create new neural pathways and help recover the sense of smell,” says Dr. Rosen. There is no wrong time to start trying to trigger your sense of smell and taste to return. If you have COVID or have recently recovered but still have smell and taste loss, Dr. Rosen recommends starting early smell exercises. Alpha lipoic acid, vitamin A supplements, and over-the-counter steroid nasal sprays may be helpful.Olfactory training can easily be done at home and has been the most helpful in promoting smell fibers to start working again. Dr. Rosen recommends smelling readily available items around the house and slowly mastering new smells. It’s good to begin smelling coffee, perfumes, citrus, or different types of essential oils—master identifying these and then move on to a new scent. There is no downside to doing these tests, and data has shown that it helps patients recover quickly. [Editor’s Note: Read how Dr. Rosen is helping patients like Nancy Damato regain their sense of taste and smell through a clinical trial.]
