Anosmia / no sense of smell thread for me, Je55e, Stevie Wonder, anyone else

Now that I live alone, is it a really bad idea to own a cat AND not have a sense of smell at the same time?

how long does the smell of smoking pot stick around on your body/clothes?

no time at all if you cover it up with a cigarette afterward

it's a great idea to have a cat and no sense of smell, it can pee on the furniture all it wants and you won't be bothered

there should be a thread for people like me, with really strong senses of smell. i envy you guys who can, like, ride the bus without getting nauseous.

I puked on the bus once but that's because it was July in Tucson and the AC on the bus was broken. I felt bad for everyone else on the bus because WORD ON THE STREET is puke smells bad.

haha a subplot on tonight's 30 rock is about tracy jordan having no sense of smell!

:O

Anosmia: Norfolk clinic helps those without a sense of smell

Many also live with a major loss of taste as about 80% of what is savoured during meals comes from the sense of smell.

IDK congenital anosmic here but I still maintain I can taste stuff just fine.

what is savoured

Maybe I am not truly savouring things.

When the campers are gathered around telling ghost stories, Budnick tells the story of Zeke the Plumber. Zeke had his nose bitten off by a parrot in the Philippines and, as such, couldn't smell a gas leak created when he hit a gas pipe while digging a hole. He makes a big mistake and lights a match, causing an explosion. The only remain was his toilet plunger that now bears a curse. Zeke's ghost, it is said, wanders the camp trying to find his plunger and anyone who touches it will be haunted in their dreams. Telly and Michael, having touched the plunger, are told that Zeke wanders around camp in a mask. Michael and Telly both end up having nightmares where Zeke threatens to kill them. This convinces them to get back at Budnick by daring him to stay out in the woods at the historical location of the site of Zeke's death, as documented in camp records. Budnick sets up a host of traps around his station while Donkeylips wanders around blindly with a pumpkin mask over his head and the other campers (and Ug, dressed as Zeke) attempt to sneak up on Budnick, running into his traps. On the way back from catching Ug, Budnick runs into a spider web and starts screaming for help, to the amusement of the campers listening nearby.

i'm pretty sure i'm going to get endoscopic sinus surgery done, if i can. Not just for the anosmia (which comes with the exciting partner of 'phantom scents': today, burnt rubber) but also because not being able to breathe through my nose is really doing my head in. But i'm finding it hard to think about - i have never had surgery! I've only ever been in hospital to give blood and visit friends! this seems really selfish! idk.

"80% of what is savoured during meals comes from the sense of smell."
this sounds pretty bogus. there's also this thing about holding your nose and not being able to tell if you're eating an onion or an apple.

Hands up everyone who can finish a raw onion just by holding their nose!

It's not bogus (except for that exact number 80). Taste is mostly smell, but it depends on what you're eating. Some flavors don't depend on aroma. Others depend on it 100 percent. Onions aren't a very good example, since they physically gas you. Also, holding your nose doesn't block your smell. Aromas still waft up there via the mouth.

Sometimes I describe anosmia in terms of vision: if having a bite of food was the same as seeing a person walk into the room:

Normally you see them and, instantly, you know their sex and ballpark age. Then you figure out their clothes-style, attractiveness, etc, all that personality-intuition stuff.

For an anosmic, it's like there was a screen blocking your view, except for maybe the bottom six inches. You can tell someone just walked in, but you have no idea who. You might occasionally be able to deduce if they're male or female, or big or small, but not much else.

is there a way to induce it temporarily for comparison purposes if holding nose doesn't do it?

Not that I know of. But for many foods that dont have a giveaway like texture or sweet or spicy, it will be enough to block your nose. Have someone give you a blind test. We did this at school. Many items could not be guessed.

the funny thing is all the stuff, like onions, that you turn out to feel rather than smell - menthol, very spicy food, very vinegary food, which dry your nose out and make you sneeze or cough but without any warning scent.

if sweet/spicy/sour are all nose-optional, that's ... a lot! what about salty/unami?

Are you anosmic, B'wana Beast?

Anosmics can detect saltiness. In my case, many things seem too salty, perhaps because parameters of smell are no longer there to influence the outcome.

Quantity, how much or how many, is an incomplete way to view it anyway.

I am str8 up convinced I can taste just fine.

I mean maybe part of taste is smell in that I can eat (many but not all) foods w/a big stank factor and not really be bothered the stank that is making everyone else whine (eg fish sauce, but not durians, which have a death custard flavor).

I did kind of socially isolate myself in high school by eating a lot of (apparently stinky) shrimp-flavored rice crackers, and these dried apricot logs rolled in coconut which everyone said smelled like Yellowstone National Park (meaning sulphur, presumably). It probably didn't help that I was like 'eh what do you dumbos know.' I think I am getting a REALEr idea of flavors.

isn't there a good chance you probably have a heightened sense of taste, to make up for the lack of ability to smell?

it just seems like there's enough variation in how people taste anyway (cilantro-soap tasters, supertasters, etc...) that this smell aspect doesn't seem like a big deal.

these don't smell stinky at all BTW if this is what you mean
http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/img/prods/chips-cookies/01610-calpee-shrimp-chips-lg.jpg

Yes those are the ones, you'd think I was eating egg piss the way everyone acted.

ANyway what I liked about the BBC article is it pointed out there's not been a ton of medical research in this area. So, we can all hold off on being experts.

egg piss is the one in the green packaging with the cartoon egg peeing on everything.

Yeah Philip, I thought that was the sentiment you were leaning toward. I can only sigh.

Just1n3: I never thought of that. Though I'm sure it wouldn't go very far.

No on the real I have Daredevil powers.

re: SIGH, what do you feel you're missing as far as taste gradations go? for example, expensive truffle oil and plain old mushrooms taste the same to me.

thread title always reminds me of this

http://www.planetware.com/i/photo/new-york-ansonia-hotel-new-york-city-ny089.jpg

This would be kind of hard for me to explain since it involves infinite subtleties, and I'm typing on a phone besides. Can I just refer you to the visual metaphor I used several posts back? There's no vocabulary for specifics.

well, that metaphor brings to mind the idea that cucumbers and pickles would taste the same, or swiss cheese and cheddar cheese, but I'm guessing they don't?

Are wines particularly problematic? They mostly all taste like cough syrup to me, and I think my nose is okay... or is it? maybe I can't taste expensive things.

Well, pickles,... there's vinegar there which is citric acid I believe but whatever it is, is gassy. The cheeses would be harder. Really sharp cheddar might be detectable.

If we're going to do these direct comparisons let's try one with more subtle tastes. Take plain white rice, and plain baked potato. Both of them mostly starch, with a (relatively) delicate aroma. I'd have had no trouble telling them apart back when I could smell. Not now.

Ah, just as I suspected, you're wondering if you're missing something yourself, Philip?

Wines now taste all the same to me. They didn't used to. Not at all. Though I didn't pursue an interest in it.

maybe rice is delicate, but baked potato is not delicate -- it is a vulgar, masculine musk!

believe you me, baked potatoes do not smell like vulgar, masculine musk.

or taste

may your baked potato be a masculine potato...

i am having steroid treatment to remove the nasal polyps that among other things have removed my sense of smell, and so gradually and with concentration I am starting to be able to smell things again, and it is awful, did you know that everything STINKS?

A nose, MIA

grats on resmelling btw, embrace it imo