An estimated 700,000 people have lost their sense of smell due to COVID-19.
Eating and cooking and life are less pleasurable if not shockingly less textured when we cannot use our sense of smell.
Though most people regain their sense of smell within a year after losing it, not all do. And some would appreciate hastening this sense of smell back sooner than waiting an entire year.
How to possibly help? Olfactory training. With essential oils.
Olfactory training involves smelling essential oils regularly to "challenge" the nerves responsible for sending smell messages to the brain.
Those “smelling” nerves can heal and regrow.
This process is called neuroplasticity.
This Mayo Clinic study included 275 people ages 18 to 71 who reported a loss of smell due to COVID-19.
Participants sniffed rose, lemon, eucalyptus, and clove oils for 15 seconds. With a 30-second rest in between odor exposures.
The olfactory training went on for 3 months.
One group used the above scents,
another group sniffed four scents that they selected themselves from 24 scent options.
A third control group did not participate in olfactory training.
A final subset of people in the study were shown images of the scents they smelled.
Allowing patients to select their own scents (and adding visual cues to olfactory training) seemed to help the most.
The authors say they cannot rule out a placebo effect, ha.
References:
The Mayo Clinic: "Olfactory retraining after COVID-19."
JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. Published online December 29, 2022. doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2022.4112 "Efficacy of Combined Visual-Olfactory Training With Patient-Preferred Scents as Treatment for Patients With COVID-19 Resultant Olfactory Loss, " "Assessing Efficacy Using Variations of Olfactory Training for COVID-19–Related Smell Loss—Would a Rose by Any Other Scent Smell as Strong?"
Essential Oils May Help Restore Sense of Smell After COVID - Medscape - Jan 04, 2023.