Temporarily losing your ability to smell when you have a virus is normal, but sometimes this symptom can linger even after the rest of your body recovers. Patel says that age and pre-existing conditions play a role in how likely you are to develop post-viral olfactory loss—as does the aggressiveness of your virus. It’s still too early to say how likely the coronavirus is to cause long-term smell issues. However, if you, or someone you know, has recovered from the disease but still struggle to catch a whiff of your favorite scent, it’s something you should take seriously. One accessible tool that does seem to be helpful for olfactory training? Essential oils. In one 2017 clinical trial, Patel and a team of researchers found that patients who “smell trained” with essential oils were twice as likely to improve their sense of smell3 than those who did not. This is because essential oils tend to have one distinct odor molecule. Smelling them can be a way to focus your attention on what that specific scent used to mean for you and what sorts of memories it drums up. “What we’re doing by using the essential oils in olfactory training is using the memory of them as a pathway—a sort of map through which the correct synaptic connection can be made again,” Patel explains. Since the olfactory nerve is unique in the way it travels directly through the memory center of the brain, smells have a special way of evoking of memory. When you smell oils from a variety of families—floral, fruity, aromatic, and resinous are some biggies—you are stimulating multiple facets of odor to come back. “What’s important is that you focus your memory specifically on what that smell used to smell like for you,” she adds. “By focusing that way, you’re actually trying to recreate a new synaptic pathway back from the olfactory epithelium that’s in your nasal cavity at the top all the way back to the olfactory cortex.” Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,000 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes. She’s spoken about the intersection of self-care and sustainability on podcasts and live events alongside environmental thought leaders like Marci Zaroff, Gay Browne, and Summer Rayne Oakes.
