Smell Training: How Can it Help COVID-19 Patients Recover Their Loss Senses?

Survivors of Covid-19 who are still struggling with their sense of smell for weeks after recovering from the sickness are being encouraged to try and reeducate their brains. This procedure involves sniffing varieties of odors over a period of months to aid them in identifying various smells.

The Smell Training Cure

Experts believe engaging in 'smell training' is an easy substitute for being treated with steroids and free from future side effects. A Professsor from the UK's University of East Anglia's Norwich Medical School, Carl Philpott, was among the group of international scientists reviewing current proof said: "Fortunately most people who go through smell loss due to Covid-19 will spontaneously recover their sense of smell."

In a paper released in the journal International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology, the experts focused on the 'smell training' cure. This has to do with sniffing four things that have an easily recognizable and well-known smell - for instance, mint, coffee, garlic, or oranges - two times a day for some months.

Prof Philpott said research reveals that 90 per cent of people retrieve their sense of smell fully after six months. If it doesn't come back, he says 'smell training' assist in retraining the brain's smell pathways to identify various odors."It aims to aid recovery centered on neuroplasticity - the ability of the brain to reorganize itself to give compensation for an injury or a change," he said.

Major Symptoms of Coronavirus Infection

An alternative use of steroids can lead to side effects like high blood pressure, fluid retention, and also problems with behavior and mood swings. A loss of smell is one of the major symptoms of coronavirus infection, accompanied by a fever and a continuous cough. About one in five people disclose they are still having problems eight weeks after the sickness.

Experts are only beginning to grasp the broad array of health issues caused by the strange coronavirus, some of which may possess persisting effects on health systems and patients for years to come, as stated by doctors and infectious disease experts.

Besides the respiratory problems that make patients gasp for breath, the virus that led to Covid-19 attacks many organ systems, GDN reported. The virus can also lead to neurological issues that range from headache and dizziness, followed by the loss of taste or smell, to seizures and confusion.

Post Covid-19 Syndrome

A Bahrain medic has reported Covid-19 as a 'strange disease' with exhausting long-term symptoms, post-recovery. A lot remains to be discovered and understood about Covid-19, as stated by Dr. Jakeer Hussain Shaik, Bahrain Specialist Hospital (BSH) specialist and pulmonologist.

"When symptoms continue for more than three weeks of illness, they are called Long Covid-19 Syndrome or Post Covid-19 Syndrome and this condition prevails for one to six months with nearly all organ systems affected," he informed the GDN earlier this year.

Also, women in their 40s and 50s seem more at risk of long-term issues following hospital discharge after Covid-19, with many suffering months of continuous symptoms like breathlessness, 'brain fog', and fatigue two UK research discovered.

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