We use to say that people that can’t see are blind… People that can’t hear suffer deafnes… But what about people that can’t smell…? Well, the right word is anosmia…
Anosmia is total loss of smell… If what we experiment is partially loss of smell or decrease in the ability to sense smells then we call it hyposmia…
What can cause anosmia? While not purporting to provide exhaustive answers, there are multiple reasons… The lack of smell at birth is referred as congenital anosmia, and unfortunately it uses to be permanent… An inflammation of the nasal mucosa (the most extended) can cause temporarily loss of smell… And a damage on the brain areas responsible of processing smells can cause either a permanent or temporal anosmia/hyposmia…
And this is the base of this article… If we injure a part of our brain participating in the smells process (for example, brain cortex), we can loss totally or partially the ability to smell…
Well, there is already an evidence (we can find a lot of bibliographic references about it…), that one of the early symptoms of covid-19 is partial (or total) loss of smell and taste… The sense of smell and taste are intimately related (all we have experienced that, when we have our nose blocked, then food doesn’t taste at all…!). Partial or total loss of smell affects directly to taste…
Despite that initially the thoughts were that covid-19 causes anosmia due to mucosa inflammation, increasingly there is an evidence that it is not overwhelmingly determinative… Seems that this virus affects somehow our brain (cortex) causing loss of smell and taste if we are infected by covid-19 and definitively nose blocked is not the reason (a lot of infected people don’t experiment a blocked nose whilst they loss the ability to smell, that is, they experiment temporarily anosmia while the virus is active…).
I was watching the other day a very popular Tv show and one of the most famous spanish chef (Dabiz Muñoz – who has 3 Michelin stars) confessed that either he and his couple (Cristina Pedroche) have been infected by coronavirus…
Well, the chef stated that the only symptom he experienced was a notable loss of smell and taste (hyposmia), can you imagine that? A super-chef that can’t smell or taste his food…!
The Olorama Digital Scent Technogy allows to develop automatic systems for the early detection of anosmia… Furthermore, it is the first scent product which supports voice-activated smells and/or interactive smell experiences…
We strongly encourage to all to follow the health care recommendations… We’re hearing that this hasn’t ended yet so please stay safe…
