"Phantom odors": the alterations that COVID-19 causes in the smell

 

There are more and more cases of people who, after having gone through COVID-19, report experiencing a distortion or loss of smell. Someone may be drinking coffee and smelling a burnt tire, for example. Or eat a meat that looks tasty, but the taste is similar to squid. Cases of people registering an odor that is not present in the environment were also detected.

Stella Cuevas is an otolaryngologist, an expert in smell (MN: 81701), she said that there were patients who recovered their smell before the epidemiological discharge. Others did so partially, "and there was a group that had to go through a chapter linked to qualitative alterations," Stella commented on the GPS radio program that is broadcast on El Cordillerano Radio.

“Anosmia is a quantitative alteration of smell and is one of the cardinal symptoms of patients with coronavirus. The infected person loses their sense of smell abruptly, suddenly ”, he pointed out.

On the other hand, the specialist pointed out that parosmia is the qualitative alteration in the perception of odors and phantosmia, a disorder that leads a person to perceive "ghost odors", aromas that are not in the environment.

He recalled a very particular experience that he had to live with a patient. "He told me that he smelled jasmine and I told him that, in all, that was not so bad," he said. But the answer shocked her. He told her that the scent reminded him of the cemetery and of his mother who had died of COVID-19. "It is that smells evoke memories of places, situations and people," he pointed out, adding that it is not smelled with the nose, but with the brain.

Stella commented that in the wake of the pandemic, people began to consider a meaning that was historically undervalued. "It is a complex, mysterious, wonderful and necessary sense for everyday life since it allows you to detect if there is the presence of gas or smoke," he said.

Many times because the taste is altered, people who have experienced COVID-19 stop eating. Or they feel a very strong taste that causes a nauseous state, generating vomiting. "Smell is beneficial in life, patients feel frustrated when they lose it," he said.

The lack of smell can be treated and can be trained. The first step is to do a medical treatment because - he explained - you need to recover the receptor that was damaged in the patient. As the damaged cell is replaced, "we give antioxidants so that the air and odors pass through and there is nothing in the way that hinders it." For that vitamin complexes, vitamin A, D, red tea, green tea, seeds are used. And then an olfactometry. The last step is rehabilitation through odor exercises.