Taste & smell/Anosmia

Smell and taste problems can have a big impact on our lives. Because these senses contribute substantially to our enjoyment of life, our desire to eat, and be social, smell and taste disorders can be serious. When smell and taste are impaired, life loses some zest. We eat poorly, socialize less, and as a result, feel worse. Many older people experience this problem.
Smell and taste also warn us about dangers, such as fire, poisonous fumes, and spoiled food. Certain jobs require that these senses be accurate-chefs and firemen rely on taste and smell. One study estimates that more than 200,000 people visit a doctor with smell and taste disorders every year, but many more cases go unreported.

How Do Smell And Taste Work?

Smell and taste belong to our chemical sensing system (chemo sensation). The complicated processes of smelling and tasting begin when molecules released by the substances around us stimulate special nerve cells in the nose, mouth, or throat. These cells transmit messages to the brain, where specific smells or tastes are identified.
Olfactory (small nerve) cells are stimulated by the odours around us-the fragrance from a rose, the smell of bread baking. These nerve cells are found in a tiny patch of tissue high up in the nose, and they connect directly to the brain.
Gustatory (taste nerve) cells react to food or drink mixed with saliva and are clustered in the taste buds of the mouth and throat. Many of the small bumps that can be seen on the tongue contain taste buds. These surface cells send taste information to nearby nerve fibres, which send messages to the brain.
The common chemical sense, another chemosensory mechanism, contributes to our senses of smell and taste. In this system, thousands of free nerve endings-especially on the moist surfaces of the eyes, nose, mouth, and throat-identify sensations like the sting of ammonia, the coolness of menthol, and the "heat" of chili peppers.

We can commonly identify four basic taste sensations:

• sweet
• sour
• bitter
• salty

Certain combinations of these tastes-along with texture, temperature, odour, and the sensations from the common chemical sense-produce a flavour. It is flavour that lets us know whether we are eating peanuts or caviar.
Many flavours are recognized mainly through the sense of smell. If you hold your nose while eating chocolate, for example, you will have trouble identifying the chocolate flavour, even though you can distinguish the food's sweetness or bitterness. This is because the familiar flavour of chocolate is sensed largely by odour. So is the well-known flavour of coffee. This is why a person who wishes to fully savour a delicious flavour (e.g., an expert chef testing his own creation) will exhale through his nose after each swallow.
Taste and smell cells are the only cells in the nervous system that are replaced when they become old or damaged. Scientists are examining this phenomenon while studying ways to replace other damaged nerve cells.

Diagnosis and Treatment for the Loss of Smell and Taste

Years of experience of diagnosis and treatment for the loss of the senses has resulted in the following information:

The most common causative factor is loss of smell and to a lesser degree taste
Following respiratory infection. Often the patient will have experienced temporary loss following previous infections, but this time the loss has become permanent.

Another cause is loss following a fall or trauma due to accident.

Sometimes the side effects of medication can be responsible.

Deficiency of nutrients such as zinc and B12 may be a contributory factor.

Allergy to inhalants dusts, pollens, moulds and spores, and chemicals may be responsible.

Reactions to dental amalgams or dental implants have been implicated.

Treatment programmes following a full evaluation would include a combination
of homoeopathic, herbal, and nutritional  supplementation at an appropriate dosage, coupled with if required, electro acupuncture, or chiropractic procedures.
Allergy testing or dental material sensitivity testing may also be indicated.

Read articles on Anosmia

I could smell the freshly mown grass

I developed anosmia (loss or impairment of sense of smell) about 13 years ago. I just started to notice, as when you have a cold, that everything smelt the same, and that was it... read more

Without taste or smell, I became cut off from the world...

JUSTIN HAYWARD, 50, lead singer of The Moody Blues, has suffered from the occasional loss of taste and smell since he was a child. Then, seven years ago, he lost those senses completely... read more

The cure that smells sweet...

Treatment for the loss of the sense of smell is hard to find, discovers Alison Gould WITH fragrant summer flowers about to beguile our senses it can be a miserable time of year for those with an impaired sense of smell... read more

Putting the spring back...

Michele Brown, mid 40s, author, housewife and mother, investigates bio-energetic medicine at the Wimbledon Clinic of Natural Medicine. read more