The prevailing wisdom is (that post-Covid) parosmia is a good thing – a sign of the neurons regenerating but failing to make their connection, like leads in the wrong port. But, [Barry Smith of the Global Consortium of Chemosensory Research] tells me, it’s not a simple “miswiring”. There appear to be certain volatile molecules, such as those found in coffee and roasted meat – which in high concentration would be quite toxic – that set it off, perhaps triggering a kind of warning alarm.
“It’s a bit like tinnitus in the ears,” Smith suggests, in that the brain is struggling to modulate the signals it receives; my nose is whining, always at the same high pitch.
— Read more in Searching for sense: what we lose when smell deserts us at New Statesman.
My dad had no sense of smell, none. Before I was born he’d had several sinus surgeries that permanently damaged his sense of smell. For the rest of his life he was thin, eating was no longer a pleasurable experience, and he was hyper aware of cleanliness. He showered twice a day, brushed his teeth multiple times. Because he couldn’t smell sweat or breathe, he was always vigilant. Not to the point of being an issue, just aware. He told me once that no longer smelling the world made it a very dull place. No spring flowers, no perfume my mom wore, no food, but sometimes he could remember smell in his dreams. The smell of hay in the barn, bacon frying, mostly things from his childhood.
Yes, it’s a sad thing to be without smell; I can’t even imagine such a world. But really a sad thing to lose any of our senses (my own Dad was a brilliant musician who lost his hearing over time).
Yes, that is also tragic! I think when people “rate” which sense they’d rather lose, they aren’t thinking it through. You’d miss any of them…
My cousin lost her sense of smell from Covid-19 in November, and while it has come back in part, it is far from normal. I really hope the condition proves temporary in all cases, or that they figure out how to treat it (and make said treatment available to everyone).
Oh, good luck to her!