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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

#141

Post by Podgajski »

simondotau wrote: post #100
Podgajski wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well if your loss of sense of smell went away after your first infection how can you say the zinc did nothing? You could say the zinc cured your sense of smell.

He could also say the peanut butter sandwiches he eats in the morning cured his sense of smell. I mean they probably didn't, but there's as much evidence either way.

That is just ridiculous. There is a viable mechanism why zinc might have helped. You will not see the evidence if you do not look for it.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7781367/

There have also been multiple reports linking the loss of taste or smell to zinc deficiency, either due to chemotherapy and metal chelating agents [38–40], or due to nutritional deficiencies, especially in older populations [41,42], also caused by medical procedures such as dialysis [43]. As a result, zinc has been proposed in the treatment of taste disorders [44,45]; however, zinc supplementation for chemotherapy-induced loss of smell or taste, which is often transient, has not led to improvements in this condition

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

#142

Post by reportgunner »

mancerayder wrote: post #126

I'm someone with an extremely sensitive sense of smell. When I had COVID (the first time) at one point my sense of smell became corrupted. I didn't realize it at first. For days I smelled a tangerine smell in my apartment (where I was mostly holed up in those days). I kept thinking that they were cleaning the building carpets with some sort of new cleaner, and it was coming in the vents. After days of this I opened t…

I had the same, corrupted is the right word. During the period my smell and taste was corrupted there was a big set of foods and smells that smelled and tasted exactly the same, kind of like burning plastic but without being so disgusting.

At the same time I was oblivious to certain smells, I remember one time I was walking a dog with a friend and friend complained about heavy smoke smell in the air - I took a deep breath and all I could smell was fresh cold air.

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

#143

Post by JCharante »

Is there a way to temporarily invoke these effects? When I had covid the first time I lost my sense of smell & taste completely for 1 day. Eating food felt so weird. I really didn't want to eat. The next day my taste returned although I couldn't taste bitterness for a few months (espresso felt like warm water).

Has any company thought of taking away people's sense of taste as a weight loss method?

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

#144

Post by Ajay-p »

joecool1029 wrote: post #95
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.

Weird, I remember when there was an epidemic of anosmia caused by zinc containing nasal sprays/gels: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16467707/ Guess oral supplementation is ok?

No.. I got Zinc toxicity from taking it. I do not know its efficacy but it made me vomit when I got too high of levels and stopped.

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

#145

Post by dumbfounder »

mancerayder wrote: post #124
dumbfounder wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He probably doesn’t know how. But it’s an interesting point. I never thought about it before, but the event I went through had a similar link between taste and smell, and in hindsight I now don’t get why. In college I made a bet with a friend that I could hold dominos wings hot sauce in my mouth for 10 minutes. At the time, the wings from dominos were actually very spicy. It was painfu, I spent about 30 minutes washi…

It feels like damage like that is (speculation from reading about covid effects and causes) often neurological. Maybe the intense overload of the pain receptors triggered some immune reaction that damaged nerves as collateral damage?

Interesting… I now (nearly 30 years later) have a condition that is considered a vestibular/neurological condition called mal de Debarquement. I also believe I suffer from vestibular migraines, but that is not diagnosed yet (seeing a specialist next week). I doubt that dominos hot sauce was the cause, but maybe I am susceptible to such things? I never thought to link these two things before.

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

#147

Post by piuantiderp »

saalweachter wrote: post #34
piuantiderp wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely your body had built up immunity. It's unclear if later strains had less of an effect on taste or people were just better prepared.

Can we get that data from China's experience after dropping the zero-COVID policy in Dec 2022? If I understand correctly, at that time, only a tiny slice of the population had been exposed to previous COVID variants, and something like 80% has since gotten it. It looks like the vaccination rate was something like 90% at the time, but that should still be a pretty large naive population to look at, of people who were…

"to Omicron & later with no original/Delta exposure", unless they were in the ISS during Delta and then landed, this is practically 0.

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

#148

Post by froh »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #114
froh wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fascinating. the receptors for hot / chili are in your tongue and not in your nose. mind to elaborate how you can't eat chilly any longer?

In the name of science, go ahead and stuff some diced chilis in your nose and report back.

why on earth do you eat with your nose? don't do that! even for science, really just don't.

I don't either. in the name of science.

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

#149

Post by hinkley »

autoexec wrote: post #129
hinkley wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the rarer side effects of using Zicam nasal spray is loss of sense of smell. Somebody experiencing this reported that they accidentally restored their sense of smell by being exposed to pepper spray. There are nasal decongestants out there that are essentially dilute capsaicin in suspension in saline (as a sufferer of sinus infections I have tried most things at this point). It's not pleasant, but it's less un…

"Mace your boyfriend's dad" wasn't the medical advice I was expecting to see here, but I guess I can't blame anyone for being willing to try it. Not being able to taste anything for years would be terrible. I'm not confident that it works, but either way I look forward to seeing the videos if this 'one weird trick' catches on.

As I said, the sprays I found are not that intense. Rootbeer burps hurt more.

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

#150

Post by MrDrMcCoy »

hinkley wrote: post #94
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…

One of the rarer side effects of using Zicam nasal spray is loss of sense of smell. Somebody experiencing this reported that they accidentally restored their sense of smell by being exposed to pepper spray. There are nasal decongestants out there that are essentially dilute capsaicin in suspension in saline (as a sufferer of sinus infections I have tried most things at this point). It's not pleasant, but it's less un…

Something like this? https://sinusplumber.com/
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