Anosmia is the loss of sense of smell. People unconsciously smell everything around them including people, nature, and gasses in the air. Because this is an unconscious process, it is hard to understand how much smell plays a role in our life until it is gone. People can have this condition naturally but cases really spiked through Covid-19.
Anosmia was a one of the most common symptoms of the disease and greatly impacted the quality of life of those infected with Covid-19. Not only does it diminish the effect of smell but it also lessens the taste of food because the two are so connected. This can lead to detrimental effects of malnutrition and weight loss because people stopped eating when they could not enjoy their meals.
A majority of people infected with the disease experience temporary anosmia. Anosmia is a pretty uncommon symptom for other respiratory diseases so this symptom was used heavily in preliminary diagnoses of Covid-19. Thankfully, anosmia as a symptom of Covid-19 was mostly temporary, not leaving long term effects, however, like people with long term anosmia, it severely impacted peoples quality of the life during the experience.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9798353/#:~:text=Anosmia%20may%20occur%20in%20the,electronic%20health%20records%20%5B18%5D.
This was very interesting to learn about. This happened to one of my family members and I know that it was a hard time to get through it for them but thankfully like you mentioned, it was temporary!
ReplyDeleteHi Makenna,
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to read about this and how it effects us even though we do not notice it often until it's gone. Especially as it effected multiple people in their quality of life after getting covid-19, whether it was permanent or not.