The smell of freshly roasted coffee in the morning is truly one of the little pleasures in life that we would not exchange for any amount of money in the world. From the smell of luxurious designer fragrances to the incomparable smell of blooming flowers in the spring, our olfactory receptors truly give meaning to our lives.
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The effects of COVID on the nose
But since the emergence of the coronavirus early last year, people reported having lost their sense of smell and taste. At the onset of the pandemic, COVID-19 symptoms extended to a fever and persistent cough. But sometime in May of 2020, the UK government officially recognized the loss of smell and taste as a hallmark of the coronavirus.
While most people fully recover from this flu-like virus, some have been stuck with lingering after effects that weeks post exposure to the virus have left them unable to smell or taste properly. In fact, according to data from the ZOE COVID Tracker app, around 12% of British COVID patients suffer from symptoms upwards of 30 days. More concerning is that one in 200 report experiencing symptoms lasting longer than 90 days.
Research also showed that one in five people were still unable to regain their full sense of smell eight weeks after contracting the virus. Thankfully, a study conducted by the University of East Anglia (UEA) found that 'smell training' is much more effective in regaining one's sense of smell than corticosteroids—a drug used to decrease inflammation in the body.
What is smell training?
Essentially, this technique involves sniffing at least four different odours twice a day for several months in order to build one's sense of smell back up. Carl Philpott, a smell loss professor from UEA's Norwich Medical School, explained that
Corticosteroids are a class of drug that lowers inflammation in the body. Doctors often prescribe them to help treat conditions such as asthma, and they have been considered as a therapeutic option for smell loss caused by COVID-19.
And added:
What we found that there is very little evidence that corticosteroids will help with smell loss. And because they have well known potential adverse side effects, our advice is that they should not be prescribed as a treatment for post-viral smell loss.
