Loss of Smell & Taste

Got covid last Christmas. Asthma was really bad for a few months after- not been that bad since I was a child. Bit weary about being out and about with the numbers so high really don’t want catching it again. Desperate times. Where will this all end?!

Loss my taste and smell on Friday. Took an antigen test and it was positive. PCR test confirmed it. So far the loss of taste and smell with a slight cough are my only symptoms. Hopefully they’ll come back. Eating just isn’t the same!

I've regained 80-90% of my smell now. Certain spices are still not 100% smellable, but fruity/herbal/floral/fermented smells are all back, as well as more unpleasant smells.

Keep the faith!

Not sure if it (or what) helped but this is what I did:

- Vitamin C, D and Zinc supplements

- Lion's mane supplement

- Olfactory training and in general i tried to eat and smell things i'm very familiar with, and that have strong flavours.

Sense of smell went for about a week, and took another week or so to return fully.

my taste went, got it bac after about 3 days. wasnt vaccinated, had mild flu symptoms.

wife lost her taste for about 6 weeks or thereabouts. she was vaccinated. she was a bit panicky it would never come back tbh.. we like our grub :)

I do think people confuse taste and smell a lot.

Your tongue can taste sweet, salty, bitter and savoury (umami) but everything else, like the taste of an orange or chocolate or a biscuit is actually your smell senses.

Apparently covid attacks the support cells that assist your olfactory cells at the top of your nose. Luckily covid does not attack the olfactory cells themselves, so your ability to smell is not permanently damaged.

I lost my sense of smell last Monday (Day 3 of symptoms). I've been lucky in that I'm vaccinated and therefore my covid infection has been rather mild since Monday and short lived compared to what I was expecting. While I lost 100% of my smell on Monday, I've been training it back since then. Smelling perfume, mint leaves, tea tree oil, tabasco, anything strong I can get a hold of. In my very unscientific opinion, I am of the view that my olfactory nerves are picking up the smell, but my brain knows that it isn't processing it properly. I'm hoping this will trigger the brain to produce more of the support cells, so that I recover my smell senses quicker.

It appears to be somewhat successful so far. I would say that I have about 20% of my smell senses back. I can clearly smell certain ingredients in my perfume, but since it still smells rather faint and completely different, I assume not all my support cells do the same job. I could faintly taste my coffee this morning, I can smell coconut and mint. No tea tree oil yet, or more subtler scents. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

My sense of smell is diminished but a lot of things smell like ammonia to me now esp perfumes, detergents etc.

Lost mine two months ago and still hasn't returned. Sometimes get the smell of strong scents but that's about it. Heard an "expert" on this particular covid issue on newstalk stating its nerve damage but will eventually heal and return.

This might be worth looking into a bit further if someone is struggling with smell, they're claiming "that patients who undertook the exercises recovered completely from loss of smell."

I know nothing about the subject just stumbled across it while looking for something holiday related..

https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/turkish-method-to-cure-post-covid-19-smell-loss-gains-traction/news