Tag: anosmia

Loss of Smell Went Unnoticed as Delta Wave Symptom

Woman smelling jasmine
Photo by Elly Johnson on Unsplash

The loss of smell and taste with a COVID infection during the delta wave was a prevalent symptom and wasn’t prevented by vaccination, suggests a new study is published in the journal Med.

The small Ohio State University study also found that some people with the earliest COVID infections were continuing to experience loss of these senses months later without realising it.

In participants with active infections during the delta surge, a majority (22 of 25) had been vaccinated. Objective screenings found that 100% were experiencing a diminished or lost sense of smell – but only 54.5% self-reported any problem with odour detection.

“We’re getting this quick communication out as an early warning. We need to continue to take a closer look at COVID infection’s impact on smell and taste,” said Dr Kai Zhao, associate professor of otolaryngology in Ohio State’s College of Medicine and senior author of the study. “Even if COVID doesn’t cause death or hospitalisation, it can have long-lasting effects on some of our sensory functions.

“A lot of people are potentially suffering, which is probably not appreciated by society.”

Data for this study emerged from an earlier project the researchers started to test the use of hard candy as a screening tool for the loss of taste and smell in populations at risk for exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

As part of that work, the team used an existing objective screening tool to collect sensory function data from 123 never-infected control participants and 65 people who had previous or active COVID infections. During the delta surge, the researchers became alarmed by what they found.

“At that time, there were a lot of speculations about whether smell loss is associated with the delta variant and whether the vaccine could protect against these symptoms. So we decided to do this interim data analysis,” Dr Zhao said.

In addition, about three-fourths of participants whose mostly mild COVID infections had occurred before delta’s dominance reported no ongoing smell and taste losses – however, over half of those participants were found by the objective screening, conducted between 102 and 785 days after their infection diagnosis, to have a loss of smell. 

“Many people who had COVID in the past, probably with the original variants of the virus,  underwent some degree of smell loss, even if they didn’t think they did,” said co-author Susan Travers, professor of biosciences in Ohio State’s College of Dentistry. “This suggests the long-term impact on sensory function isn’t captured by self-reporting.”

Beyond these silent smell and taste losses, there were also people who reported that they hadn’t regained taste or smell function for longer than six months, said first author Kym Man, a graduate student in food science and technology. 

“We’re still collecting data on these long haulers, some of whom have been experiencing smell and taste loss for over a year,” she said. 

Effects on the senses include diminished or complete loss of smell and/or taste, disordered smell and/or taste and, least common, smelling odors that are not present at all. 

The sensory function screenings were conducted with a National Institutes of Health tool consisting of a 9-item scratch-and-sniff odour identifier and an intensity rating of bitterness in a sip of quinine. The odour-detection results were adjusted for age – in general, smell sensitivity declines with age, Dr Zhao said. 

Beyond affecting the quality of life, the loss of smell and taste has health ramifications that include negative effects on nutrition intake and a reduced ability to detect danger – such as a fire or spoiled food.

“The disease’s impact on smell and taste is underreported. This is a public health concern that there may potentially be some broader impacts of COVID that we don’t realise are there,” Dr Zhao said. 

Source: Ohio State University

How Air Pollution Causes Loss of Smell

Photo by Kouji Tsuru on Unsplash

Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have studied how long-term exposure to air pollution causes loss of smell, or anosmia, to better understand how it can rob someone of the ability to smell and taste.

Anosmia can severely impact a person’s quality of life, making it extremely difficult to taste foods, detect airborne hazards in the environment, and other functions. People with anosmia may experience weight concerns, decreased social interaction, depression and general anxiety. Loss of smell has been linked in some cases to death in older adults. 

“We included participants from a variety of areas in our study; however, most lived in urban areas where pollution levels are highest,” says lead author Murugappan “Murray” Ramanathan, MD, rhinologist and associate professor of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “We wanted to assess how their exposure to PM2.5 air pollution—inhalable, particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size or about 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair—might cause them to lose their sense of smell.”

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), PM2.5 (the PM stands for ‘particulate matter’) is the term for a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air, and are smaller even than pollen grains. PM2.5 can be made of many materials depending on the location, such as dust, dirt, soot, smoke, organic compounds and metals. These particulated have been linked to cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, cognitive decline, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and premature death. Previous studies have suggested PM2.5 is a likely culprit in loss of smell—a connection that Prof Ramanathan and his team decided to explore in greater detail.

In their study, the researchers examined data for 2690 people, aged 18 years and older, who were evaluated by otolaryngologists between January 2013 and December 2016. Of these, 538 were diagnosed with anosmia, with an average age of 54, the majority being men (63%).

The EPA’s Air Quality System provided air pollution data for the study. The researchers entered the data into a detailed computer simulation to estimate the PM2.5 pollution levels within the participants’ residential ZIP codes. The model was created by Zhenyu Zhang, a Johns Hopkins Medicine otolaryngology postdoctoral fellow.

The researchers found that long-term airborne exposure to PM2.5 nearly doubles (a 1.6- to 1.7-fold increase) the risk of losing one’s ability to smell. They believe this may occur due to the location of the olfactory nerve—which contains the sensory nerve fibres associated with the sense of smell—being directly in the path of inhaled PM2.5 materials.

“Based on this result, we feel that long-term exposure to high levels of PM2.5 represents a common risk factor for the loss of sense of smell, especially in vulnerable populations such as older people—but also one that is potentially modifiable if sources of PM2.5 components can be better controlled,” says Ramanathan.

The researchers next steps are to study anosmia patients’ socioeconomic factors to find out if they affect the chances of exposure to PM2.5 air pollution. They also hope to evaluate other air pollution components that may contribute to loss of smell, such as ozone.

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Zhenyu Zhang et al, Exposure to Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Anosmia, JAMA Network Open (2021). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.11606

South African Perfume Expert’s Smell Recovery Breakthrough

A perfume bottle. Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

A South African perfume expert has developed a treatment to help people who have lost their sense of smell due to COVID.

Loss of smell and taste is one of the most prominent symptoms and after-effects of COVID infection. A meta-analysis of 27 studies showed that 48.47% of COVID patients reported loss of sense of smell, and loss of taste was reported in 20 studies with a prevalence of 41.47%.

While some people only experience a minimal loss of smell, others, especially those who have experienced prolonged COVID infection, may wait months for their sense of smell to return, if it all.

For those patients who battle with their sense of smell after recovering from COVID-19, it is a disheartening experience. Luckily Scenterprises Inc founder, Sue Phillips, has found an amazing way to help these patients smell all the wonderful things in life again.

Phillips is a renowned South African fragrance expert and a self-proclaimed ‘scentrepreneur’, with over 40 years’ experience in the fragrance industry. She is a vocal advocate for the amazing qualities of fragrances and is the author of a book, titled The Power of Perfume.

In an interview with Cape Talk, Phillips described her breakthrough discovery – the role perfume can play in helping those who have had COVID regain their sense of smell.

A perfume is made up of a complex blend of notes – the top, middle and base notes, explained Phillips. She said that she met with a woman who had lost her sense of smell for over a year due to COVID. The woman was unable to identify the lighter, or top notes of the perfume. However, the woman was able to pick up on the stronger notes.

“Suddenly we had a breakthrough and she was quite emotional. She finally said, and she was crying, ‘Oh my goodness, I can finally smell something beautiful’,” Phillips told Cape Talk.

Phillips observed that as they continue with the process, more and more fragrances can be identified by patients.

The perfume expert is now offering Zoom sessions educating people about this process and is producing ‘scent kits’ to help patients battling with their sense of smell.

Source: The South African