According to scientists, smell exercises can help people whose sense of smell has been damaged by Covid

Smell training has been recommended for the approximately 90,000 people whose sense of smell has been damaged by Covid-19.

Scientists from the University of East Anglia have shown that exercises such as trying to distinguish between a lemon and rose smell, done twice a day, can repair the olfactory damage caused by the virus.

Although the government waited weeks to take notice, the main symptoms of the virus emerged as disturbances in taste and smell. For many sufferers, this means that previously pleasant smells like chocolate become unpleasant and may smell more like rotting cabbage.

The UEA team worked with 143 post-viral volunteers, encouraging them to try sniffing at least four different smells twice a day for several months.

Their study, published in the journal Laryngoscope, found that exercises improved the sense of smell through neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to reorganize itself after an injury.

Professor Carl Philpott, of UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “Some degree of smell loss is believed to affect up to a quarter of the general population. 19 and we know that the pandemic is leaving many people with long-term loss of smell or distortions of smell such as parosmia – this could now be up to 90,000 people in the UK.

“For people with parosmia, the smell of certain things – or sometimes everything – is different and often unpleasant. So, for example, someone with parosmia might smell a cinnamon stick, but to them it would smell like something. horrible, maybe bad food or worse.

“We found that the presence of parosmia and worse olfactory performance in odor identification and discrimination tests was associated with a clinically meaningful recovery of olfactory function for people suffering from post-viral smell disorders. This means that training smell can help the olfactory pathways begin to regenerate and recover.

“We also found that older people, in particular, were more likely to start regaining their sense of smell and that the greatest improvements occurred in those who had lost most of their olfactory function in the first place.”

The research was conducted before Covid-19, but the researchers said the findings could be useful for people who have lost their sense of smell due to the virus.