What Happens When You Lose Sense of Smell
- 11 years ago
Learn what happens when you lose your sense of smell.
Losing one’s ability to smell things, a condition called anosmia, doesn’t just sound like a sad state of being, the condition has actually been linked to depression among its sufferers.
Interestingly, people afflicted with depression have also reported the onset of diminished capabilities in the smell and taste departments.
The relationship between the two is a complicated one, often resulting in confusion about which appeared in patients first.
Scientists in Tel Aviv believe that auto-antibodies are to blame as their presence in the body can be linked to both disorders.
Other researchers have found causal links to the brain chemicals serotonin and noradrenaline. Depleted quantities of them are associated with depression, and the scientists reasoned that because both chemicals are also present in taste buds.
They gave their test subjects various kinds of antidepressants and found increasing a patient’s serotonin level restored sensitivity to sweet and bitter tastes. Replenishing the brain’s noradrenaline boosted the ability to detect sour and bitter flavor profiles.
One professional pointed out that anosmia can often be treated with inexpensive drugs.
Losing one’s ability to smell things, a condition called anosmia, doesn’t just sound like a sad state of being, the condition has actually been linked to depression among its sufferers.
Interestingly, people afflicted with depression have also reported the onset of diminished capabilities in the smell and taste departments.
The relationship between the two is a complicated one, often resulting in confusion about which appeared in patients first.
Scientists in Tel Aviv believe that auto-antibodies are to blame as their presence in the body can be linked to both disorders.
Other researchers have found causal links to the brain chemicals serotonin and noradrenaline. Depleted quantities of them are associated with depression, and the scientists reasoned that because both chemicals are also present in taste buds.
They gave their test subjects various kinds of antidepressants and found increasing a patient’s serotonin level restored sensitivity to sweet and bitter tastes. Replenishing the brain’s noradrenaline boosted the ability to detect sour and bitter flavor profiles.
One professional pointed out that anosmia can often be treated with inexpensive drugs.