How Essential Oils May Be the Answer to Anosmia
Imagine having no sense of smell.
It's hard, because we actually use our sense of smell for much more than we realize. For example, without a sense of smell, it's impossible to taste what we're eating.
A sense of smell is necessary to enjoy ice cream...
.. or a spring morning
.. or a flower
.. or the scent of fresh baked bread.
Now, imagine going in for an operation and waking up after the anesthesia with your sense of smell gone.
Completely vanished.
And it doesn't come back.
That's exactly what happened to Birthe.
Anosmia
There's a term for not having a sense of smell. It's called anosmia.Although I was aware some people suffer from anosmia, I'd never really given it much thought until I met Birthe, who told me a fascinating account of how she got her sense of smell back by a rather unusual method.
She used essential oils.
"Essential oils? Must be some kind of alternative voodoo method," some might think.
But no.
It was in fact Birthe's regular doctor who recommended she use 4 specific essential oils to help restore her sense of smell.
She was instructed to open and sniff each bottle 3-6 times a day for 3 months.
The oils:
- eucalyptus
- lemon
- clove
- geranium
This precise choice of oils represents 4 distinctly different categories.
- eucalyptus = woodsy
- lemon = citrus
- clove = spicy
- geranium = floral
Anyone with a sense of smell would be able to distinguish the difference. Not so much a person with no sense of smell.
Birthe struggled with the task she was set.
'I couldn't tell the difference from one to the other in the beginning. I had the bottles so close to my nostrils that the skin got irritated - and I still couldn't smell a thing.'
But she was determined to give this a chance, so she continued. And after a few short weeks, she began to be able to tell the difference between them.
And it just kept getting a little easier every day after that.
Today, she says her sense of smell is 'pretty much back to normal'.
Is it true?
Can essential oils really help restore the sense of smell? I was fascinated by Birthes story and did a bit of digging around.It does indeed look like it's true that essential oils can help restore the sense of smell.
Not only that, but science seems to be taking an in-depth look at the human olfactory system and what it means to have a functioning sense of smell.
Did you know certain odour compounds can even impact our skin function and influence stress levels?
This is definitely one area of research I will be following with interest. Meantime, I have a new appreciation for the many functions my nose performs on a daily basis.
Do Tell
Do you know anyone with anosmia? I'd love to hear about it in a comment below!Info and Links from Readers
Thanks to those of you who have taken the time to contact me via my website or placed a comment with information.Diabetes Council - article on sense of smell and diabetes
Check Facebook for these groups*.
Anosmics of the World
Living Well with Anosmia
*The groups are both closed and you will have to ask to be added
A Few of The Places I Found Info
Altered taste and smell after anestesiaPhysiological effect of olfactory stimuli in humans
Essential oils and fragrance compounds in single healthcare
Assessing the impact of anosmia - Steve van Toller
Anosmia - Wikipedia
Anosmia what it is and how it impacts humans - WebMD
Comments
Feeling hopeful:)
Thanks for this info.......
Chantelle
I have a VERY sensitive since of smell, most times a GOOD thing...... Sometimes not so good.lol But reading that article after the radiation, terrified me! Because I was not sure what it would do to me later on! I have always had ear and sinus issues too.....so bad that I have gotten pneumonia. I lost my sense of smell AND much of my hearing too. Me, NOR my family understood why I had the TV all the way up, laying on the floor in front of it. I have to have a shot every 5 yrs now. ALERGIES in Spring and fall.......and MOLD SPORES, living near the beach, has caused ALERGIC ASTHMA also. I was 26 the first time that hit. I didn't even realize I could barely breath, till very very ill. My 34 yr. old, was also hit with it @ 10. He woke with blue lips and black eyes. Dr. said he was not to walk or play. It takes 3 months to heal from it.
My advice to ANYONE with just the ALERGy Attacks, do your best to keep your nose dry and blown. It is while you are sleeping, that all that infection can go into your lungs. And literally, you don't know how sick you really are, especially your children. That literally kept me scared to death, till the Dr. said he could play again.
But my sense of smell remains at about 5-10% of what it used to be. I have started using therapeutic grade essential oils for other issues like headaches and insomnia. I know they work. I am so excited to give this a try. Living without smell is challenging. Since I have become accustomed to the constant smoke smell in my nose, I cannot detect actual smoke. Same goes for any spoiled food, the smell of natural gas... I never realized how many memories are tied to smells. Life feels so much emptier. Ah, and I forgot to mention that it also affects the sense of taste. My taste is currently limited to sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Most of the time I have a bitter taste in my mouth. I am going to get started on this regimen right away and hope to be able to report back with good news!
i am from Indonesia so i’m sorry if my english so bad,
i’m doing my final paper to become an otorhinolaryngologist about olfactory testing and training / smell training for patients with rhinosinusitis wheter it is acute or chronic, or vasomotor or even allergic
i need information about smell training / olfactory training,
1. is there any special store that i can buy the odorant of essential oils for my thesis?
2. is there any specific percentage of odorant / essential oils, i mean for example 70% or 95% or something specific numbers of the essential oils that can be used for professor Hummel method olfactory / smell training?
3. if don’t, is the essential oils that maybe i can found in bodyshop/perfume shop can be used for this smell / olfactory traning?
thank you very much
Haryogi Pramuditya, MD
resident of ENT department
Medical Faculty of Brawijaya University
Malang, East Java, Indonesia
+6281233445677
To my understanding: the oils are used pure and sniffed directly from the bottle
Be sure you are using pure essential oils - NOT a dilution and NOT a perfume. Best of luck with it.
well, now I know that I have to find essential oils, and NOT the DILUTED essential oils, thank's for your advice!
there's one more thing that bother in my mind,, where can I find the Sniffin' Stick Test?
i am looking and keep asking everywhere in my country, Indonesia but i cannot find any of them :(
Thanks. Linda
After a very bad cold, sinus infection and bronchitis I lost my sense of smell/taste. It has been 7 weeks now and I am starting an essential oil therapy regimen to try and regain my senses. I am 59 years old and am hoping and praying This therapy will work. I consulted with a specialist at Johns Hopkins and he recommended trying the essential oil therapy. I have had chronic sinusitis and allergies for many years, but I have never experienced anything like this. I will keep posting updates. The doctor started me on steroids for severe sinus inflammation and I have started using a few oils. My question is: how long do I sniff each of the oils, and how often? I also have sleep apnea and was wondering if it would be safe/effective to add a couple of oil drops to the CPAP humidifier reservoir. Has anyone asked about this? Thank you for having this blog. I am very encouraged by the posts and have faith that my senses will eventually be restored.
Thanks you for sharing your story. I do hope you find help with this. If you scroll up and check the comments in this thread, you should find answers to your questions. You may also wish to join three Facebook group that is mentioned in one of the comments so you can share your experiences with others in the same situation. I hope this therapy works for you.
@Linda K - It sounds like enjoying a meal is a real challenge for you. I am so sorry to hear this and hope you are able to find some relief!
I've just come across this story and read your comment on here about having no smell. Im 45 next week and dont ever being able to smell. I'm curious to know if you did try the method of oils in the above story and if you had any success? I look forward to hearing how you went with it.
J!
I experienced a three month anosmia after a particularly nasty bout of flu last year - and as my work requires a sense of smell it was an absolute nightmare! I was horribly upset when I first realised but then fascination kicked in, because it gave me a different perspective on the world. I hadn't realised how acute my sense of smell had always been, because it was normal for me. Without it, the world seemed very one-dimensional, as I have always linked emotions and my other senses with smell. For example, a turquoise sea lapping at a sandy beach on a sunny day smells very different than a silvery UK sea lapping on a pebbled beach on an overcast day - even allowing for the fact that different temperatures make the air smell different.
There is so much I want to say in response to a lot of the comments - but I must preface that I haven't yet looked up the test you refer to.
The main thing is, I absolutely disagree with the idea that you should sniff these (or any) oils directly from the bottle - particularly close up. Whilst I understand the reason for these particular choices of oil, strength! of course, but also familiarity, that same strength makes them "dangerous". I am not surprised that at least one person developed skin lesions. Smelling strips are better, but should be wafted at least a couple of inches away from the nose. Nose bleeds are also a potential issue of unregulated deep inhalations of such strong oils.
That said, I don't believe essential oils are dangerous when used correctly - I just get upset when I see them being used incorrectly as this ultimately has the effect of discrediting essential oils when things go wrong! Essential oils have so much inherent "magic" and so much potential for good. I'm going to stop talking and go investigate this "treatment" in more depth now. Maybe there will be a suitable space for me to discuss more suitable oils, that could potentially heal whatever damage has gone on, much faster!!!
Thank you for bringing this "treatment regime" to my attention. I do love being fired up!
Thanks for all the posts and comments.
I will definitely give this a try. I am a skeptic though. I also tried some oils for motion sickness, didn't seem to work on me and the smell bothered everyone else but me because I couldn't smell it.
I never knew there was a word for having no sense of smell and it's really great to have a place to talk about this! I like essential oils, mostly because people hold them in such high regard honestly. I recently learned how magically medicinal they can be and want to try this experiment to see if I can learn the difference between smells!
Each morning I take a drop of peppermint oil and put it on my wrists and neck for refreshment and energy:)
Do you know whether anyone has had success using the four oils mentioned?
I recently joined Young living and begin using essential oil’s. I happened on to your blog today and have decided to try this method of smelling the different oils and try and restore my sense of smell.
Right now, I cannot till one from the other. The only one that I can smell is peppermint. I actually had to resign from my position with the wine bar because I was so discouraged having lost my sense of smell and taste.
We will see how it goes. Thank you for posting this.
There have been over 12 peer-reviewed research papers to date that suggest smell training is of benefit to patients with post-viral smell loss. Some research suggests that brain injury patients are also helped. The main criteria is that you must have some minimal function of the olfactory nerve. This might mean you experience "white noise" type smells that do not really give you information about what you are smelling. The olfactory nerve does indeed regenerate, but slowly. Recovery is activity dependent. To help the nerve regrow, you must stimulate it. How do you stimulate the olfactory nerve? Through smell training. Is smell training a "cure"? No. But it is a helpful therapy, like physio for people who have had a stroke. Smell training is brain training.
For other types of smell dysfunction, such as polyps, chronic rhinosinusitis and of course idiopathic anosmia, the picture is less clear. More research is being done. The role of smell training in patients with Alzheimers and Parkinsons, which is ongoing, will be of particular interest.
The original essential oils described by Professor Hummel, of the University of Dresden in his 2009 paper on the subject (the first mention of smell training in the scientific literature) were lemon, rose, clove and eucalyptus. The important point is that the usefulness of the essential oils comes from their role as a stimulant for the nose, rather than any benefits that might be assigned to them in an aromatherapy context.
Anyone wishing to have more information about smell training is encouraged to join the Facebook/groups/smelltraining page. I also run an instagram page devoted to food issues: #smelltraining.
When I first was diagnosed, I saw went to the University of Pennsylvania Taste and Smell Center. The specialist there had suggested use of alpha lipoid acid for 6 months (which I used) and he also told me to sniff bottles of some of my favorite scents, 3 or 4 times a day, for 3 months. I used vanilla, lilac, and lemon, as he did not give me more explicit instructions. He also told me, at time of his diagnosis of total anosmia, that if I did not regain my smell after 1 year, that it would be a permanent condition.
This condition may seem minor to folks who do not have it, but it has been severely depressing for me at times. The sense of smell is truly vital to ones sense of well-being. I have withdrawn from social situations involving food, as I become upset listening to folks describing how delicious the food tastes, etc.
Today I did a search on whether essential oils can benefit a person who has anosmia, that is, who cannot smell the oils. And I found your page. I am truly interested in learning about smell training. I do not use instagram, but I am an avid Facebook user and I will join the group on smell training. Please advise, if you feel there are any other channels I can explore.
Thank you Kindly,
Robbin Sneddon
Forked River, New Jersey
Thanks to all for their very helpful posts.
Carolee
Carole
He has other issues of course he is working on, but the sense of smell can give such pleasure.
Thank you for your work in this area.
Grace from Milwaukee WI
oil information and sources. There are several USA providors. I believe you can replace the rose essential oil with rose geranium as this will be more pocketbook friendly. I truly hope this method is of help to your mom. If I could promise you this method will work, I would, but I am unfortunately unable to do that. If you read the comments here you will get an idea of the different kinds of responses people have had as well as the names of some support groups on Facebook.
The original scientific research on smell training used rose, lemon, clove and eucalyptus. They weren’t chosen for any particular properties of those oils, but because when used in smell training, they *stimulated* the smell response. You could use any oils you like. People generally want to use what was recommended in the many studies that have been done since then, but don’t be afraid to make substitutions. The instructions on how to make a kit (above link) make an important point about smell training with jars rather than straight from the bottles, especially if the person is new to smell training.
You ask if smell training is a cure. The answer to that is sadly no, but smell training can have a very positive effect on how quickly people recover. It also depends on how your mother lost her sense of smell. If she lost it after a virus or a blow to the head, smell training should be used. If her smell loss just came on its own, that’s a harder call. Here’s a link to an article about who might benefit from smell training: https://abscent.org/blog/would-i-benefit-smell-training. Good luck to you and your mother. PS we have a closed FB forum for discussion on all things to do with smell loss. You’d be most welcome. Best wishes, Chris
I know how your mom feels Danny. It really is no fun.
Best of luck with it and I hope you can get back with positive news after trying this method.
Pamela