The sense of smell
Sense of smell- do we lose it or is it just the virus?
A different number of genes can encode smell receptors. Information is processed by our olfactory bulb, placed above the nasal cavity, and further by our CNS. People have a different number of genes and less or more sensitive neurons responsible for collecting data about odors. This can be affected by a variety of causes. The most recent event with pandemic caused that many people lost their smell, either permanently for a couple of weeks/months or permanently up to some level. Research shows that people returned up to 70% of their previous ability to smell and now we wonder is it because neurons are affected and if it is like that, can we do anything to repair it? As it is known, neurons are the type of cells without the ability to regenerate, although they can make new connections and make responses. Change is not avoidable and now people notice how differently they smell something or even like/dislike something in comparison with the time before covid-19.
This is not the only reason. Humans lose smell gradually over years, it is believed to be an evolutionary trait since humans are now dominantly visual beings. In addition to this, there are fewer experiences with different smells while we grow, people live mostly surrounded with the same type of odors around and get used to many-like detergents, typical types of food, even perfumes are made of similar components and don’t allow us to train our senses.
The next perspective is that humans are more of indoor people these days and this fact lowers the number of possibilities to train senses too but also makes our immune system weaker. After that, every nasal infection can cause more neuron cells to decay.
Allergies are one of the major causes of temporary smell loss and can lead to more severe results.
With this unfortunate circumstance, we are unable to detect potentially dangerous situations, like gases present in the air, or the smell of our odor pointing to health problems. Finally, but not less important, losing the ability to smell can be a difficulty in choosing a partner.
