Lessons from Anosmia: Smell and Taste

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Bok
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Tue Jul 06, 2021 8:08 pm

theredbaron wrote:
Tue Jul 06, 2021 6:25 pm
I am not giving up, but had to adapt my tea drinking habits. I do hope that one day my proper sense of smell will come back, and that i can enoy tea the way i did before.
That is the one thing I have been afraid the most to find out during this pandemic – if I ever got it, would I be one of those to lose my senses, or not, And if, would it come back?

So far the reporting back from others seem to be discouraging, too many which haven't got it back after over a year's time.
I have read reports that early recovery exercises might be needed in order to avoid long-term damages. That report suggested smelling exercises among other things.

I feel for you, Redbaron, it must be truly devastating...
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Balthazar
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Wed Jul 07, 2021 12:52 am

@theredbaron: I hope it returns to normal soon!

Did you have a look at this thread? Some good tips there that might provide some inspiration.
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wave_code
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Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:00 am

theredbaron wrote:
Tue Jul 06, 2021 6:25 pm
My favourite - good Yancha, i have not been able to taste at all. Only a few days ago i managed for the first time to get some good taste out of a mid range Yancha.
Aged Sheng, soso, i won't waste my good ones.
Japanese tea seems to be somewhat OK.
The teas i seem to be able to taste better are Liu Bao and Red Teas. At least something.
That sounds very unpleasant - good luck and I hope you can recover more over time. I haven't had covid or lost my sense of smell, but having dealt with long term chronic conditions before two things helped me majorly. One was tracking things over long periods of time, maybe write it down - it can be hard with slow changes to feel like there is actually any improvement over time, especially if it goes back and forth, but having a record over time can be a helpful way of looking back and seeing where you are generally at a given time vs two months ago, six months ago, a year ago - it can help prevent discouragement when maybe all you are having is one bad day. The other thing is managing and re-shaping expectation which can be a lot harder- trying not to measure against a past condition/self or hold yourself to old expectations, especially since those tend to become idealized and exaggerated in our mind when we get frustrated or saddened by a loss of some ability. It sounds like you are on your way to that already though - looking for what you can enjoy and focusing on that. Maybe complex aromas aren't accessible or just don't work for you now, but it sounds like if liu bao, red, and japanese greens are good then maybe teas that have more focus on body, mouthfeel, and umami sensations, or how the teas feel in your body is a good place to focus for the time being - finding a complexity in somethings simplicity/directness. Be patient and easy on yourself, and good luck.
theredbaron
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Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:26 am

Bok wrote:
Tue Jul 06, 2021 8:08 pm

That is the one thing I have been afraid the most to find out during this pandemic – if I ever got it, would I be one of those to lose my senses, or not, And if, would it come back?

So far the reporting back from others seem to be discouraging, too many which haven't got it back after over a year's time.
I have read reports that early recovery exercises might be needed in order to avoid long-term damages. That report suggested smelling exercises among other things.

I feel for you, Redbaron, it must be truly devastating...
Indeed, this is for a tea drinker a very scary effect.

I am sort of hopeful. Especially that some smells are confusing is a good sign that sense of smell might be returning. For example, when my wife hangs up the laundry washed wish some scented softener, it smells really bad to me, like stuffy old laundry. But then, last week i was in the sauna, and when the sauna master poured strongly scented water over the hot stones, i smelled almost nothing at all. In many ways i have to get used to smelling again, in slow steps. Other smells are muted. This morning for example, i smelled the coffee spoon, and got a very strong scent of coffee, but when i hung my nose into the cup, i only got a very light scent of coffee.

I do feel some improvement in being able to taste some teas. The other day, for example, i have been drinking a new red tea - 'Bada Manle' - i ordered from Honza, and i got a vast range of taste profiles which only a few weeks ago i would not have been able to capture.
theredbaron
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Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:31 am

wave_code wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:00 am
Be patient and easy on yourself, and good luck.
Thank you, and yes, i am generally a cup is half full type of a person. I am glad when i see some improvements, and work towards that, and try not to get too hung up on past glories. Going angry through life is a waste of time.
One of the things i am doing is that i am always hanging my nose into the wind trying to capture familiar smells from my memory back and when i get a whiff, try to concentrate and work on that.
Last edited by Victoria on Wed Jul 07, 2021 9:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Mod edit: cleaned up quote
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wave_code
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Wed Jul 07, 2021 5:41 am

doing these kinds of exercises and having your positive attitude sounds like the best thing you can do. maybe just coincidence but it sounds almost like based on those things you can smell... maybe temperature has something to do with it? if the hot water or a hot coffee has little to no smell, but indirectly smelling with a spoon, or laundry or things on the air... like if hot evaporated particles in the air overwhelms the system while something more diffuse or cooler is accessible. I wonder if you made some yancha or sheng, poured it in a gaiwan and let it cool down a lot, almost to room temperature if it would change things?
theredbaron
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Wed Jul 07, 2021 5:56 am

wave_code wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 5:41 am
doing these kinds of exercises and having your positive attitude sounds like the best thing you can do. maybe just coincidence but it sounds almost like based on those things you can smell... maybe temperature has something to do with it? if the hot water or a hot coffee has little to no smell, but indirectly smelling with a spoon, or laundry or things on the air... like if hot evaporated particles in the air overwhelms the system while something more diffuse or cooler is accessible. I wonder if you made some yancha or sheng, poured it in a gaiwan and let it cool down a lot, almost to room temperature if it would change things?
Interesting, i should give it a try and concentrate on that. I haven't thought about that possibility yet. Thanks.

A long time ago my tea teacher gave me a lesson on the change of taste when cooling down tea, where letting the tea sit in the cup until it cooled down opened new taste profiles.
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Baisao
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Mon Jul 12, 2021 10:03 pm

@theredbaron, I am sorry you are going through this but encouraged by your positive attitude and the progress you have made.

I think @wave_code and others have offered sound advice. I think you and @Bok may be on to something. I’ve noticed that my ability to smell is significantly reduced when flooded with water vapor.

I read “Neurogastronomy” by Gordon Shepherd after my experience with anosmia. It was a recommendation from @Tillerman, earlier in this thread. I recommend the book in the hope that it offers some clues that could help your recovery. It’s a great book for anyone interested in how our senses of smell and taste works.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/124 ... gastronomy

I am hoping that there is an increase in therapies for people who have lost their sense of smell to Covid-19. The change of perceiving pleasant aromas as unpleasant is troubling but may may indicate a kind of plasticity wherein these can be remapped.

There’s a lot we don’t know about this sense.
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Baisao
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Mon Jul 12, 2021 10:34 pm

On a minor and incidental note: I had an interesting sensory experience this weekend. I was hiking with my family through an area near my childhood home in the woods. It’s an incredibly diverse area of dense, primordial forest.

The mosquitoes were large and plenty but they mostly ignore me. I don’t usually get a skin reaction from them either. There’s probably something to that since I grew up on a subsistence farm there in the bayou, surrounded by them every time I stepped off the porch. However, they were swarming my wife and son so they sprayed themselves with mosquito repellent.

They were walking behind me on the trail and all the wonderful forest aromas of my childhood came to me. Sweetbay, pine, mosses, and the apple-like scent of composting magnolia leaves surrounded me. It’s an aromatic wonderland.

Then my wife passed me because a cloud of mosquitoes were following her.

At that point all I could smell was her mosquito repellent with all its lemon and herbal components. The forest seemed to disappear. I could see it but it was a fraction of what it had been moments earlier.

This is what surprised me the most: my experience of the forest felt cut in half by being cloaked with mosquito repellent. I waved my arms in amazed frustration as it literally felt as though the forest was disappearing before my eyes.
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Bok
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Mon Jul 12, 2021 11:31 pm

@Baisao it sure looks beautiful, I can almost smell what you are describing, although probably tainted by my own childhood memory forest.
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Victoria
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Tue Jul 13, 2021 5:19 am

Yes, Baisao I can smell the bayou through your storytelling, even though my experience was mostly canoeing in the swamps of northwest Florida and Mississippi full of big black alligators and mosquitoes definitely enjoying themselves on my skin.
theredbaron
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Tue Jul 13, 2021 7:12 am

Baisao wrote:
Mon Jul 12, 2021 10:03 pm
theredbaron, I am sorry you are going through this but encouraged by your positive attitude and the progress you have made.

I think wave_code and others have offered sound advice. I think you and Bok may be on to something. I’ve noticed that my ability to smell is significantly reduced when flooded with water vapor.

I read “Neurogastronomy” by Gordon Shepherd after my experience with anosmia. It was a recommendation from Tillerman, earlier in this thread. I recommend the book in the hope that it offers some clues that could help your recovery. It’s a great book for anyone interested in how our senses of smell and taste works.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/124 ... gastronomy

I am hoping that there is an increase in therapies for people who have lost their sense of smell to Covid-19. The change of perceiving pleasant aromas as unpleasant is troubling but may may indicate a kind of plasticity wherein these can be remapped.

There’s a lot we don’t know about this sense.

The last few days i have seen a marked improvement, enjoying teas i haven't been able to enjoy in about 8 months since my infection. There are first reports that vaccines could possibly lead to an improvement in long covid symptoms (a UK questionaire suggests that 45% have responded that after their vaccination their conditions improved), and scientists are right now researching if the is some explanation for that. We have been vaccinated with Pfitzer/Biontec about 4 weeks ago, so there could be an effect.

And yes, smelling forests... and farmers making hay... :)
I regularly go into the mountains which are just an hour's drive from my home here.
So far i have been able to smell some, but much more muted than before, and i really had to concentrate. But that some is there means that there is a chance for improvement.

Positive attitude is essential, the glass has to be half full ;)
tolean
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Sat Nov 12, 2022 3:23 pm

Hello there, i have now COVID and lost my smell. I found some related topics to smell loosing but nothing concrete. I am not sure, maybe it's somehow prohibited by rules. If yes, please close it, if there are other topics please share them here.
I lost my smell gradually in 2 days, i felt it by drinking tea. I don't feel anything strange, just some kind of dusty feeling. I feel Temperature, i still have normal taste, and some far far far away kind of smell feeling if i smell smth strong.

Can you please share your experience ( if you had it) how did it start, for how long, did you do anything to help. Did your smell come back fully or partially?

Any input is welcomed!

Thank you and stay healthy))
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debunix
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Sat Nov 12, 2022 4:08 pm

Wish I had something useful to say. Sympathy here and good luck…
Andrew S
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Sat Nov 12, 2022 4:42 pm

Sorry to hear that; there are probably a lot of people who went through similar experiences.

Here's something that may help: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=208

I lost my sense of smell at the start of the year, despite taking precautions, wearing masks, etc. I can't remember how long it lasted, but at least several weeks, and I think that it wasn't quite right for up to around two months.

That led to me drinking no more yancha, and only cheap old puer, since the former has lots of interesting aromas and flavours which disappeared, whereas the latter is just a smooth and relaxing drink for me. You may want to adjust your tea habits similarly, to avoid teas with bitterness and astringency, and focus on things that have a pleasant mouthfeel and which make you feel comfortable.

I recall my sense of smell coming back in bits and pieces. I first noticed that I had been infected when something didn't smell the way that it should in the morning, and then I could no longer detect any smells by the end of that day. At the start, I'd smell absolutely nothing; later, I'd get a 'glimpse' of an aroma, which would then disappear; that was frustrating, but encouraging. Eventually I started 'glimpsing' more aromas more often and for longer periods, until it seemed to get back to normal.

I've read about people who didn't recover for many months; fortunately that didn't happen to me. I also seem to recall reading that people have recommended training yourself to recognise aromas once they start to come back. I don't know anything about that, though; it's probably something to ask a doctor.

Andrew
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