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New pill helps Covid smell and taste loss fade quickly

nature.com

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Re: New pill helps Covid smell and taste loss fade quickly

#61

Post by canucker2016 »

dannyphantom wrote: post #23

Oooh yes yes - this is such wonderful news! Literally weeks before the world changed my boyfriends dad had begun to explore the world of cooking; he was so happy when we would bring him to niche little grocers to try things he had never known about before and trying all the food - but after his infection, and for the last 2 years - nothing. No taste. No smell. We try to make up for it by encouraging him to make stuff…

this is one of the plot lines in the 1994 Taiwanese film "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_Drink_Man_Woman , though the father/chef character lost his sense of smell due to another reason.

Re: New pill helps Covid smell and taste loss fade quickly

#62

Post by dEnigma »

kuschku wrote: post #19

My sense of smell hasn't recovered ever since my infection in November 2022. I had a really fine sense of smell before, and I really miss cooking fine meals :( I'm really looking forward to drugs like these.

After completely losing my sense of smell and taste during COVID it took around two months for it to return to a level that was bearable, but more than a year (maybe even two in total) until I really felt like my sense of smell had mostly recovered. So don't give up hope yet, even without new medication.

Re: New pill helps Covid smell and taste loss fade quickly

#63

Post by callalex »

op00to wrote: post #55
llama052 wrote: post #24

Girlfriend has lost her entire sense of smell after covid, I'm really hoping the future has an answer to that. It's taken the joy out of a lot of things she enjoys, especially cooking. She's seen a few ENT doctors and they all claim it's not coming back without any clear solutions.

Some times I wish food was less enjoyable so I’d eat less of it. Not discounting your girlfriends experience - that’s horrible - but being able to switch off my sense of smell would help with sticking to my caloric intake!

It didn’t work that way for me. I was doing pretty well with my diet but when I lost taste/smell I ended up seeking out fried crunchy things for the interesting texture, as well as rich heavy foods that give that post-thanksgiving feeling just in order to feel something/anything from eating.

Re: New pill helps Covid smell and taste loss fade quickly

#64

Post by cameldrv »

I think that this study was conducted a couple of years ago when this was a more common symptom.

My guess is that any antiviral is going to have similar effects since they all do the same basic thing which is to inhibit viral replication.

I'm surprised more people aren't getting Paxlovid. In my experience it worked great, and there is a study out that shows that it reduces the chances of long covid.

Re: New pill helps Covid smell and taste loss fade quickly

#65

Post by nyokodo »

op00to wrote: post #55
llama052 wrote: post #24

Girlfriend has lost her entire sense of smell after covid, I'm really hoping the future has an answer to that. It's taken the joy out of a lot of things she enjoys, especially cooking. She's seen a few ENT doctors and they all claim it's not coming back without any clear solutions.

Some times I wish food was less enjoyable so I’d eat less of it. Not discounting your girlfriends experience - that’s horrible - but being able to switch off my sense of smell would help with sticking to my caloric intake!

> Some times I wish food was less enjoyable so I’d eat less of it

Ozempic and similar medications have an even more subtle effect. Food is still just as enjoyable but the attraction to that enjoyment is gone.

Re: New pill helps Covid smell and taste loss fade quickly

#66

Post by smcl »

GeekyBear wrote: post #40

The first time I realized I had Covid, I was doing laundry and noticed that the bleach I was using had no smell. However, over time my sense of smell did return. The current Covid strain spreading in the US no longer has the loss of the sense of smell as such a common symptom. > only around 10-20% of her Covid patients lose their sense of taste or smell now, compared to around 60-70% early in the pandemic. https://ww…

I had the same thing - I was making something spicy and couldn't understand why it had absolutely no taste. This was just as Covid was taking off in Europe and I was quarantined at home after a trip in Austria. I had about 3 days without any taste whatsoever before news began to circulate that loss of taste/smell was a common symptom and that's when I became one of the first couple of hundred in the country I live in to test positive for Covid.

Re: New pill helps Covid smell and taste loss fade quickly

#67

Post by nyokodo »

Baeocystin wrote: post #26
Daviey wrote: post #2

I've now had Covid 3 x times. The first time I had incredible taste and smell loss, taking in excess of 4-5 months to recover, perhaps not even fully. The other times, I had no loss of taste or smell. I do wonder why it only impacted me the first time. Different Covid variant, or something biologically changed in me, causing it to impact me differently?

I am reasonably certain I had covid in January 2020; felt like I had been hit by a truck, and recovery took weeks. As far as I know, I haven't had it since, but did get the vaccinations. Do you (does anyone here) know if there is a test to see if you did have it, or does the vaccine response swamp that signal?

> I am reasonably certain I had covid in January 2020

Probably not, there were nasty flu strains circulating then that are much more likely an explanation. It had already spread somewhat, but not enough to be a likely cause until March even in the areas with early outbreaks like Italy and NYC etc. Exponential growth means that not long before everyone has it, the vast majority don’t have it.

Re: New pill helps Covid smell and taste loss fade quickly

#68

Post by smcl »

kilbuz wrote: post #60
Ajay-p wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The saddest burrito in my life was when I had COVID. My doctor said I should take Zinc but that did not make it come back any faster.

I was cooking tacos for my family knowing I had COVID (we all had it at the time). I remember not smelling the seasoning, and threw a small handful of chopped raw onions in my mouth to confirm the bad news... Luckily it came back in about a week. Beer and wine tasted awful for a few weeks, and I am a fan of both. Luckily a year on, and all seems well for now.

Yeah I had a dram or so of cask strength (60% iirc?) whisky per day when I had no taste just because I wanted to have some kind of taste-adjacent feeling even if that was just a bit of burning. I was so happy when I realised it was coming back slowly every day. Nose is still not 100% but I am fine with that, I can enjoy food and drink so I'm lucky and thankful

Re: New pill helps Covid smell and taste loss fade quickly

#69

Post by hedgehog »

Baeocystin wrote: post #26
Daviey wrote: post #2

I've now had Covid 3 x times. The first time I had incredible taste and smell loss, taking in excess of 4-5 months to recover, perhaps not even fully. The other times, I had no loss of taste or smell. I do wonder why it only impacted me the first time. Different Covid variant, or something biologically changed in me, causing it to impact me differently?

I am reasonably certain I had covid in January 2020; felt like I had been hit by a truck, and recovery took weeks. As far as I know, I haven't had it since, but did get the vaccinations. Do you (does anyone here) know if there is a test to see if you did have it, or does the vaccine response swamp that signal?

I got pretty sick at the end of February 2020 and sent my sample in to the Seattle Flu Study along with the COVID opt-in. As far as I know the test was negative. There are lots of other viruses with similar symptoms that circulate around that time so not unlikely you (and I) had one of those.

Re: New pill helps Covid smell and taste loss fade quickly

#70

Post by Shekelphile »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #3

Sounds like this was only an effect in 2020 and 2021 covid. Since then, it's seemed to lose those symptoms.

I've had COVID 5 times since mid 2022 and have had total loss of taste and smell 3 times. The only reason I think two of those infections were mild is because they were almost back to back (3 infections within 10 weeks at the start of this year).
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