People who after three months of overcoming the coronavirus persist with a lack of taste and smell must perform specific exercises to recover them, such as smelling a set of common aromas in different concentrations, eating foods with different textures, using colors in the combination of food or prepare sauces to accompany meats.
The infectologist Fernanda Rombini indicated that among the common symptoms that appear in people who have suffered from the virus “are anosmia and ageusia, loss of smell and taste, respectively, which can last days, weeks or longer.”
He specified that these conditions “they can last a few days or several weeks, but in some cases it lasts much longer” and explained that “45% of patients recover their sense of smell in two or three weeks, but there are 7% of those affected who They need more than three months.
Why is taste and smell lost?
He explained that studies carried out with patients who have suffered from coronavirus disease conclude that the loss of smell “is produced by two possible mechanisms.”
“One is the local inflammation of the nasal mucosa that makes it difficult for the particles of the different odoriferous substances to reach the roof of the nose and the affectation that occurs directly at the level of the olfactory membrane in the olfactory bulb, which makes it difficult for the brain to discriminate and identify one odor from another,” said the doctor from the Vittal company.
Rehabilitation of smell and taste
Rombini stressed that if after three weeks, after overcoming the disease, the patient has not recovered his sense of smell, “it is advisable to go to a specialist since there are resources for the rehabilitation of smell and taste.”
“One of them, he indicates, consists of a set of very common odors that are offered to the patient so that he can smell them at different concentrations,” he specified.
Meanwhile, the loss of smell is related to the loss of taste, which may be due to involvement of the taste buds.
“In general, this condition refers to a distortion of taste perception rather than a complete loss,” says the infectologist.
To promote the recovery of taste, Rombini stressed that “meals can be prepared with different textures, use color in the combination of foods, prepare different sauces to accompany meats, which are the ones that mainly produce an unpleasant metallic-type taste.”
