You can train your nose and learn 4 other surprising facts about your sense of smell

Would you give up your sense of smell to keep your hair? What about your phone?

AND 2022 US study compared smell with other senses (sight and hearing) and objects they personally value (including money, a pet, or hair) to see what people valued more.

The researchers found that smell was perceived as much less crucial than sight and hearing and valued less than many goods. For example, half of the women surveyed said they would prefer to keep their hair over their sense of smell.

Smell often falls into the background as one of the least valued senses. But this is one of the first sensory systems in vertebrates developed and is linked to mental health, memory and more.

Here are five fascinating facts about your olfactory system.

1. Smell is associated with memory and emotions

Why can a whiff of fresh baking bring back joyful childhood memories? And why can a certain perfume bring you back to a painful breakup?

Smell is directly linked to both your memory and emotions. This connection was first established by an American psychologist Donald Laird in 1935 (although a French writer Marcel Proust had already made him famous in reflection on the smell of baked madeleines.)

Odors are first picked up by special olfactory nerve cells located in the nose. These cells extend upwards from the roof of the nose towards the olfactory processing center in the brain, the so-called olfactory bulb.

From the olfactory bulb they form a direct connection with the brain limbic system. This includes almondwhere emotions arise and hippocampuswhere memories are made.

Other senses – such as vision and hearing – are not directly connected to the lymphatic system.

One 2004 study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to show that odors trigger a much stronger emotional and memory response in the brain than visual stimuli.

2. Your sense of smell is constantly regenerating

You may lose your ability to smell due to injury or infection – for example during and after a Covid-19 infection. This is the so-called olfactory dysfunction. In most cases, this is a ephemeral condition and returns to normal within a few weeks.

This is because every few months Your olfactory nerve cells die and are replaced by new ones by fresh cells.

We’re not entirely sure how this happens, but it probably involves the nose stem cells, olfactory bulb AND other cells in the olfactory nerves.

Other areas of the nervous system – including the brain and spinal cord – cannot regenerate and repair after injury.

Constant regeneration may be a protective mechanism because olfactory nerves are susceptible to damage from the external environment, including toxins (such as cigarette smoke), chemicals, and pathogens (like the flu virus).

However, after infection with the Covid-19 virus, some people may still experience loss of smell. Research suggests virus ia long-lasting immune response damages cells that enable the regeneration of the olfactory system.

3. Smell is linked to mental health

Around 5% of the world’s population suffer from anosmia – complete loss of smell. It is estimated that 15-20% suffer from a partial loss of health, called hyposmia.

Given that loss of smell is often the main and long-term symptom of COVID, these include: the numbers are likely to be higher since the pandemic.

However, the incidence of olfactory dysfunction is high in Australia remains surprisingly under-researched.

Loss of smell This has been shown to impact your personal and social relationships. This may, for example, mean you miss out on shared eating experiences or cause changes in sexual desire and behavior.

In older people, deterioration of the ability to smell is associated with: greater risk of depression AND even deathalthough we still don’t know why.

4. Loss of smell can support diagnose neurodegenerative diseases

Partial or complete loss of smell it is often an early indicator of a number of neurodegenerative diseasesincluding Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Patients they often report loss of smell years before any symptoms appear in the functioning of the body or brain. However, many people are not like that aware that they are losing their sense of smell.

There are ways to determine whether and to what extent you have lost your sense of smell. You may be able to go for a formal visit odor research center or do self-test at home, which assesses your ability to recognize household items such as coffee, wine and soap.

5. You can retrain your nose to smell

“Smell training” appears as a promising experimental treatment option for smell disorders. It has been shown to affect people experiencing loss of smell after Covid improve the ability to detect and differentiate odors.

Smell training (or “sniff training”) was first tested in 2009 in: German psychological research. It involves smelling mighty odors – such as floral, citrus, aromatic or fruity scents – at least twice a day for 10-20 seconds, usually for a period of 3-6 months.

Participants are asked to focus on the memory of the odor while smelling it and to recall information about the odor and its intensity. This is It is believed to help reorganize neural connections in the brain, although the exact mechanism behind this phenomenon is not clear.

Some studies recommend the exploit of a single set of fragranceswhile others recommend switching to a new set of fragrances after some time. However both methods show significant improvement in smelling.

This training has also been shown to alleviate symptoms of depression and improve cognitive decline older adults and suffering from dementia.

Olfactory training is thought to work similarly to physical therapy after a physical injury rehabilitation of the sense of smell. It retrains the nerves in the nose and the connections it creates in the brain, enabling the correct detection, processing and interpretation of odors.