Podcast Summary
Loss of Smell in Long COVID: A Restaurant Critic's Personal Experience: Long COVID's loss of smell can greatly impact daily life, especially for professionals. A restaurant critic shares her recovery journey, crediting a viral TikTok remedy for potential aid.
The loss of smell, a common symptom of long COVID, can significantly impact daily life, especially for those whose profession revolves around taste and smell, like a restaurant critic. Teja Rao, a Times restaurant critic, shares her personal experience of suddenly losing her sense of smell and the challenges she faced in regaining it. She tried various methods, including a home remedy from a viral TikTok video involving charring and consuming an orange with its peel and pulp. While she can't definitively say it was the orange that helped her regain some smell, she believes it played a role in her gradual recovery. The experience highlights the importance of addressing even seemingly minor symptoms of COVID-19 and the significant impact they can have on individuals' lives.
Exploring the Connection Between Smell and the Brain: Understanding the link between the brain and sense of smell can impact overall health and well-being. Traditional remedies, like roasting oranges, may restore lost senses, and research shows emotions play a role in how we perceive smells.
The sense of smell and its connection to the brain can have a significant impact on our well-being. The story shared the experience of a person attempting to follow a TikTok video's instructions to roast oranges to regain a lost sense of smell. Despite initial failure, the conversation with the video creator and his mother revealed the traditional use of the orange remedy in Jamaican culture to restore taste and scent. This led to further investigation, resulting in the discovery of the Monell Chemical Census Center in Philadelphia, where research is conducted on the relationship between emotions and smell. The brain's connection to the nose is crucial, as the loss of smell is often due to congestion preventing the molecules from reaching the receptor area. The research scientist, Dr. Pamela Dalton, also emphasized the role of emotions in changing the way we perceive smells. This anecdote and research findings illustrate the importance of understanding the connection between the brain and the sense of smell and how it can impact our overall health and well-being.
Understanding the Complexity of Regaining Smell After COVID-19: Regaining smell after COVID-19 isn't as simple as turning a switch back on due to the brain's connection to memories and the constant regeneration of smell neurons. Olfactory training can help reconnect the central input with incoming molecular signals.
COVID-19 is unique in causing a sudden loss of smell without nasal congestion, but the process of regaining it is not as simple as turning a switch back on. Our sense of smell is connected to our memories, moods, and feelings, and is identified by our brain through a complex system of 400 smell receptors. These neurons are constantly regenerating, allowing for potential olfactory retraining. However, if the sense of smell has been gone for an extended period, the connection to memories may be lost, making it more challenging to regain. Olfactory training, or smell training, involves stimulating the brain with specific scents to help reconnect the central input with incoming molecular signals. It's not about what the nose does, but rather what the brain does with the stimulation. The online community of individuals who have lost their sense of smell due to COVID-19 or other causes has grown significantly, with resources and research available to help guide the process of olfactory retraining.
Experience the therapeutic power of smell training: Effective smell training requires a quiet, focused environment, tiny 'bunny sniffs', immersion in the moment, and patience for those with impaired sense of smell.
A smell training session is more therapeutic than expected and requires a quiet, focused environment to be effective. During the session, it's important to take tiny "bunny sniffs" of the aromas and pause before taking another breath. Don't judge the experience or yourself, and try to fully immerse yourself in the moment. Familiar scents can be particularly helpful, as they may take longer for those with lost sense of smell to fully recognize. Smell training is a process of listening and waiting, as the receptors and brain take longer to receive and process the information for those with impaired sense of smell.
Exploring the Power of Smell Training: Smell training is a long-term process to adjust and learn to live with smell loss, engaging cognitive functions and evoking memories and emotions, with small victories and confidence-building essential for progress.
The act of smelling and recognizing different scents, like cardamom, can evoke powerful memories and emotions. This process engages cognitive functions in the olfactory brain, similar to catching a familiar tune on the radio and remembering the associated memories. Smell training, or SMAIL, is not about recovering from an injury, but rather about adjusting and learning to live with the new reality of smell loss. It's a long-term process, not a quick fix, and can be challenging and tedious at times. However, the small victories, like smelling a new scent or recognizing an old one, can make the journey worthwhile. Confidence-building is an essential aspect of smell training, and it's important to remember that progress may not be linear, but rather a series of adjustments and learning new ways to experience the world.
Two mass shootings in a week leave 18 people dead: President Biden plans to propose a $3 trillion infrastructure bill, which may be funded through corporate tax increases and Senate reconciliation
There have been two mass shootings in the United States within a week, resulting in the loss of multiple lives. In Colorado, a gunman killed 10 people, including a police officer at a grocery store. The motive for the shooting is still unknown. In Georgia, 8 people were murdered at spas. The President, Joe Biden, is preparing to propose a $3 trillion infrastructure plan that includes investing in roads, bridges, broadband Internet, charging stations for electric cars, and the construction of 1 million affordable housing units. To fund this plan, Biden may raise taxes on corporations and use a legislative process called reconciliation, which requires only 51 votes in the Senate instead of the usual 60. Republicans are already expressing resistance to this tax increase plan. The daily episode was produced by Tina Antolini, edited by Wendy Dore, engineered by Corey Schreppel, and contains original music by Dan Powell. The host, Michael Barbaro, expressed his expectation that the infrastructure plan will be passed using this legislative process due to the lack of enthusiasm for tax increases among Republicans.
