[KAY VIRT]

KAY VIRT  asked the Naked Scientists:

For 8 months or so my sense of smell has changed. This of course has changed the sense of taste. I used to love onions, can not stand the smell now. Also perfumes or shampoos. And fruit. I have been searching the internet but can not find an answer. I went to an ENT, and had a CT scan on my sinuses but that was ok. So why has my smell and taste sense changed?

Thank You

What do you think?

[Soul Surfer]

The sense of smell is quite fragile and can frequently be damaged by a very bad cold and can sometimes vanish completely.  I have had this happen several times over the years but usually it comes back in a few weeks as the smell detectors and the nervous system regenerate after the cold.  The longer the damage remains the poorer is the prognosis for a recovery.  My father in law lost most of his sense of smell after a bad cold and it never returned and he lived for many years after the loss.  My wife had her sense of smell damaged by a cold and did not like several vegetables for two or three years but thankfully she has now recovered and enjoys them.  I do not think that there is a great deal that can be done to help the body recover except to maintain the best possible health and refrain from sniffing things that are likely to damage the smell detectors in your nose and keep hoping that you will recover.

[blaze]

The loss of smell is likely caused from cell phone or cordless phone use - do you use one?

The rest of your symptoms sound like Multiple Chemical Sensitivities - your body's way of warning you that it is unable to rid itself of toxins efficiently in the presence of all these electromagnetic/microwave/radiowave fields.

[RD]

A list of some disorders associated with olfactory dysfunction is listed here...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/picrender.fcgi?book=cm&&partid=382&blobtype=pdf