Experts recommend ‘smell training’ for recovered COVID patients

An international group of 20 olfactologists is recommending “smell training” as a treatment for the millions of people suffering smell and taste disturbances as a symptom of COVID-19.

“We agreed that the best treatment is smell training and that vitamin A drops may also be a treatment option to consider,” one of the experts, Carl Philpott of England’s University of East Anglia wrote in TheConversation.com.

Smell training is easy to do at home, and is already a proven therapy for people who lose their sense of smell as a result of viruses, such as the common cold, Philpott noted.

Traditionally, patients work with four strong, different smells — clove, rose, lemon and eucalyptus.

Nutmeg, mint, ground coffee, coconut, vanilla — anything with a distinct but familiar smell also works, he said.

Patients are to sniff each of the four scents every day, morning and evening, for ten seconds at a time over the course of 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, the four scents should be changed.

“Smell training stimulates the turnover of the specialized nerve cells [involved in smelling], helping to restore smell function,” he wrote.

“Further research also shows that the longer the training continues, in terms of the number of weeks, the better,” he added.

“So keep going as it’s not an instant result.”

The 20 experts’ statement is here.

More than six million people around the globe are estimated to have experienced persistent loss of smell due to their COVID-19 infection, a debilitating — and sometimes dangerous — side effect.

source: nypost.com