Anosmic reversal--can you smell again?

October 24, 2008 7:33 PM

Are you or your child anosmic? As in can't smell anything? Have you found a way to reverse your condition?

My son can't smell anything. He is now ten and can't remember ever smelling. It doesn't bother him, but it does affect his eating habits. Fruits and vegetables "taste like cardboard," with the exception of Granny Smith apples and broccoli (anosmic faves). His condition is not genetic, it is apocryphal. Is there anyone out there who has grown up this way and seen a reversal?

posted by emhutchinson to health & fitness (23 comments total)

There was a story in a fairly recent (<1 year) episode about a young woman who completely lost her sense of smell. The planned on going to culinary school, but instead became a writer or something. I think she eventually got it back. I can't find it on the Google but I'll keep looking.
posted by HotPatatta at 7:56 PM on October 24, 2008

This territory is rife with quackery and folk remedies. I'd say it wouldn't hurt to try them, except that it costs you time and hope. See a doctor. Oh, and to answer the questions in your header: yes; no.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 7:59 PM on October 24, 2008

I think I heard it on American Public Media's "The Story," hosted by Dick Gordon.
posted by HotPatatta at 8:03 PM on October 24, 2008

Here you go.
posted by HotPatatta at 8:08 PM on October 24, 2008

i had a friend with this condition. he claimed acupuncture helped him regain his sense of smell.
posted by jazzybelle at 8:13 PM on October 24, 2008

Anosmics tend to fall into two categories: those who through illness or trauma lose their sense of smell, and those who never had one (that they remember) to begin with. The latter group, including my son, do not mourn their loss so much as express curiosity about what smell means to those who have it. Those who had it and lost it often experience a whole range of emotional/psychological upheaval from lost appetite to depression.

One of the most poignant posts I read (sorry, can't find it now) was from a new mom who lamented her inability to share in the "newborn smell" experience of the other women in her support group.

My son was four before I really understood that he truly couldn't smell anything. I thought maybe he had a stuffy nose. Many, many children think that if they can't smell things now, maybe they will later. They go along with their older siblings and say "Eww!" when they drive by the feed lot or the sugar refinery. They think that smelling is something that comes with age.

This is why I am asking if anyone has ever managed to reverse this condition. And yes I know there's a lot of quackery out there. I am pretty quackery-proof, even if I do live in Northern California.
posted by emhutchinson at 8:25 PM on October 24, 2008

My father has no sense of smell. He is 62 years old and I doubt he knows any of the technical usage you are using in your question, though he is an educated man. He has told me that his parents were in disbelief when he told them that he could not smell. I have never heard him lament upon not having a sense of smell; more to the contrary, actually. IOW, he does not know what he is missing. My father mentions that when he tried smoking ciggarettes, his sense of taste would be worse. (tastes like rubber) He cautions, though, that a sense of smell can warn you of danger: smoke, chemicals, etc., so to invest some time in education and extra smoke detectors for the home. He also says that many people, esspecially in the Navy, would test this no sense of smell phenonmenon. (insert flatulence gag here)

Hope that helps in anyway, and no, he has not heard of a reversal.
posted by captainsohler at 8:56 PM on October 24, 2008

My dad also has no sense of smell - he's 60 - and although he's never had one, he still has a fairly normal sense of taste. He was tested by Dr. Alan Hirsch in Chicago (Dr. Hirsch appeared on Oprah a few times to talk about the role of smell in our lives) and at that time, at least (15 years ago) there was no way to reverse it.
posted by queseyo at 9:10 PM on October 24, 2008

I don't have a sense of smell. As far as I know, I never had one. When I was younger, I thought that it was quite normal, and that most descriptions of 'smell' were greatly exaggerated...

It became apparent that I was "different" when I was quite young (about 8?) and I have to say that it bothered my mum more than me at the time. :)

I am now 24 and have had no negative experience due to my "disability"-- other than leaving the gas stove on once. I do have to be more vigilant in a gas-cooking kitchen, and I'll never smell flowers, but at least I don't have to smell farts!

I enjoy my food. Fruits and vegetables don't taste like cardboard to me now. When I was younger, I might have been more picky about my food, but I don't remember. I do remember that I didn't like capsicum because it tasted "soapy". But I grew out of that. I think what helped was having a variety; of food, and in my food. Visual appeal and nice texture is also something I like in my foods, but I think that is more idiosyncrasy and less amnosic. I also really like to cook, although the subtle effects of herbs and spices are lost on me.

There are areas where it would have been useful to have a sense of smell. I have to be aware of things like body-odour and bad breath. Because I can't tell if I am grossing people out (when they are too polite to say so), it's better to stay on top of these things.

But honestly, other than that, I have never missed a sense of smell or wished that I had one. It has never been a disadvantage. Tell your son that he can be an astronaut if he wants to-- when you fart in space, you can't open a window.
posted by roshy at 9:34 PM on October 24, 2008

I have been anosmic on and off for twenty years due to nasal polyps. The combination of polyps, bad sinus surfaces and multiple surgeries have severely damaged my ability to smell. Over the last two years I've gotten some of it back by using a steroid sinus rinse. In particular, I use a solution of triamcinolone and saline, delivered with one of these, god's gift to people who have to snort things.

I know it's the rinse, because when I don't comply with my doctor's orders, my sense of smell is diminished.

Dunno how the kid will feel about snorting salt water, or how you feel about steroids, but it might be worth a look.
posted by Gorgik at 9:38 PM on October 24, 2008

I've recently realized that my sense of smell has diminished -- I don't know if it's the result of having smoked for years, or because I had my sinus polyps removed a few years ago or what. But I realized it a few months ago when I was making dinner one night (chicken) and my boyfriend walked in the front door and yelled, "jesus, what died?" I had no idea what he was talking about. Turns out the chicken had gone bad and I had absolutely zero sense of it -- I couldn't smell it even when I literally put my nose into it, and he could smell it two rooms away. Ever since then, I just don't start to cook till he's checked the meat or fish to make sure it's OK. (My sense of taste seems fine -- I enjoy food as much as ever.)

Funny thing, I can smell food perfectly well as it's cooking, and I smell other scents (perfume, flowers, etc.) fine. I just apparently can't smell putrid scents very well. The other day at work there was some sort of mystery smell (chemicals or something) that was evidently so bad that it made several people go home early, and for the life of me I couldn't smell a thing. So the practical side of it for me, I guess, is that I have to rely on others to signal if there's any danger scent... and double-check (and triple-check) that I haven't left the gas on when I leave the house.
posted by scody at 10:18 PM on October 24, 2008

I suppose I would be "mostly" anosmic; a smell has to be REALLY STRONG for it to register. As in, on the scale of "driving through a restaurant district" or something. (Oddly enough, once I'm actually IN a restaurant, it's back to smelling nothing again. Weird.)

According to everyone else, the house now entirely smells like "dog" (you know... general dog smell?) and sometimes cat litter. And I can't smell either. Well, cat litter... MAYBE, but you'd have to put it in my face, and it'd have to be right after one of the cats used the litterbox. Also, (human) body odor and farting doesn't register with me, either.

And for reasons I will never understand, this also leads to what I call "phantom scents," smelling things that don't exist or are something else entirely. The most common occurrence is me thinking that someone is making garlic bread, when it's actually, like... pot roast or something. (When someone actually makes garlic bread? Doesn't register until it's right in front of me.)

Nobody really knows what caused it. Unofficially, I think one of my doctors claimed "deviated sceptum" but it was never entered into the record.

Also, I cannot consistently breathe out of my nose.
posted by Yoshi Ayarane at 10:32 PM on October 24, 2008

There was some controversy about Zicam causing anosmia a few years back. Then there was this story where a capsaicin-based sinus spray reversed it in one case.
posted by O9scar at 10:53 PM on October 24, 2008

Reading Captainsohler's comment reminded me of something else. It might be wise for your son not to discuss this too much with his friends.

And he should know that if casually asked about the smell of something, the politic thing to do is deflect, or be vague, or lie outright. Really. Conversationally, anything else is a derail, and a dreary one at that: it always goes the same way with the same questions and dud ending.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 11:13 PM on October 24, 2008

As a kid I couldn't smell *most* stuff unless it was really strong. Or specific.

Most of the time, if people asked "What's that smell?" I couldn't tell what they were talking about. Even if food was burning on the stove. I thought they were making up the ability to smell based on taste and sight, etc.

Nowadays, I have gained more and more of a sense of smell, and continue to do so. This is particularly so, having moved to the US and finding that my year round allergies have gone away apart from two months of the year.

However, the specificity of which smells work and which ones don't continues.

So although I find it difficult to tell if some food is burning on the stove, I can smell insects that burn themselves on lamps really easily. Mmmm.

Also, I can only barely smell skunks, and it's a nice smell.
posted by blue_wardrobe at 6:48 AM on October 25, 2008

Just saw Rich Smorgasbord's comments, and while I wouldn't condone lying about it, it has been difficult at times.

My parent's never believed I couldn't smell stuff, my wife still has problems believing it, and my kids outright think I'm joking about it.

So I generally agree it might be useful to deflect or be vague. If someone asks if I can smell something, I find a couple of sniffs (as if to smell), and a "Hmmm..." will deal with it.
posted by blue_wardrobe at 6:51 AM on October 25, 2008

I lost my sense of smell when I was very young, and my ENT (as an adult) recommended zinc supplements. They definitely helped, but I stopped taking them because being able to smell things, after 20 years of not having a sense of smell, was completely overwhelming. It made me incredibly uncomfortable and I just could not process all this new olfactory information.
posted by Ruki at 9:15 AM on October 25, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

A friend of mine has no sense of smell (he said it's due to an extra kidney, which sounds hokey to me). He said he can catch a faint scent only if it's really strong and up close to his nose. He seems to do just fine in tasting; I've seen him drinking hot chocolate and loading up eggs with salt and pepper like it's totally nothing, so I assume he has a sense of taste. I don't think he's doing anything actively to gain some bit of normal sense of smell.
posted by curagea at 11:35 AM on October 25, 2008

I have a 30 year old friend with no sense of smell. He's been that way since he was a kid. He says it doesn't cause him any trouble, and can even be an advantage doing things like traveling by bus in Mongolia or India.
posted by MsMolly at 1:12 PM on October 25, 2008

I have a very intermittent sense of smell— sometimes pretty acute, sometimes almost zero— plus occasional "phantom scents" as Yoshi Ayarane describes. Zinc supplements seem to help slightly, but mostly it just comes and goes. For the most part it's not a big deal, but if I happen to be eating particularly good food during a period when my sense of smell is weak, I'm sad that I'm missing out on that extra dimension of tastiness. I do sometimes have to ask someone else to smell the meat.
posted by hattifattener at 1:56 PM on October 25, 2008

I guess I'm semi-nausmic, or barely-nausmic. So is my brother who successfully deceived our entire family and a couple ear, nose, and throat specialists (including one who broke smelling salts under my brother's nose) into believing that he was totally anosmic until he was about 17 at which point he walked into the kitchen one day and said, "That smells great!" and we all stared in shock and then anger.

In my case I run fairly allergic and have enlarged adenoids which I guess contributes to the "problem". I actually dont' think its a problem. Sometimes I notice friends smelling fragrances and feel a little sad that I can't smell them too, but it's not really a big deal. Oddly, I love to cook and eat, even though I guess I'm not tasting much of what I'm eating. I have nothing to compare this state to so I don't know for sure but I certainly can't take a bite of something and say, "Oh, is that lemon-thyme?" with any accuracy unless there is some extremely powerful flavor.

My daughter seems to have inherited my extremely poor sense of smell and never comments on smelling anything. She doesn't seem to notice smells that other kids her age like or are repelled by. But she's a great and lusty eater. If the lack of smelling doesn't bug your son, my more-or-less unsolicited advice is to not worry about it. Lots of kids don't like vegetables, I don't think the nose thing probably has much to do with it.
posted by serazin at 8:38 PM on October 25, 2008

Ooh! I have those phantom scents too! So glad to hear someone else has them.
posted by serazin at 8:39 PM on October 25, 2008

I have never had a sense of smell, and the only time I have ever perceived anything like what I assume to be smell is in the presence of what others find to be overpowering odours; when I was young, I worked in a movie theatre, and to clean out the popcorn machine (a big plastic cube the size of an oven) we would empty out the popcorn and spray down the interior walls with vinegar before wiping them down. Sticking my head in there while a mist of vinegar was covering the walls and floating in the air led me to detect something kind of acrid going on, but that is about it.

Curiously, I seem to have almost no odour either. People who are in a position to both notice and be truthful have told me that they cannot smell anything from me -- no body odour, no bad breath, nothing. It's only immediately after something sizable like eating a slab of raw onion that my breath smells like anything, apparently. And (as with one or two people upthread) my concerns that I might smell bad and not notice have made me possibly cleaner than others. On the other hand I have not used deodorant in at least twenty years, and it has never been a problem.

The girl tells me that if she inhales deeply off a sweaty t-shirt I have worn through a workout, she can smell me a little bit, but that seems to be it.

Having a sense of smell seems to me to be faintly magical; it is as remote any mysterious to me as telepathy. Still, I have never been telepathic either but I still manage to live my life okay.

Does the condition bother your son or is this parental concern?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:09 AM on October 27, 2008