If you lose your sense of smell, stay home
As information and anecdotal evidence is collected from around the world, more symptoms associated with COVID-19 have come to light. For example, if you’ve recently lost your sense of smell or taste, it could be a symptom of the novel coronavirus.
Up to now, we’ve only heard the alarm sound if you develop a fever, headache, shortness of breath or cough. But now, it is clear that the nose knows what’s going on (and possibly before the rest of your body).
For some people, it could be your only symptom, or it could be the first symptom to show up before the others. Either way, it’s your cue to stay home and take care of yourself. By that I mean ramp up immune support supplements (think of C, D, E and zinc), drink some natural herbal teas, but mainly, hole up at home for a couple of weeks so you don’t infect others.
These painless distortions of taste and smell often go under your radar until later, when a full-blown infection becomes more apparent.
You can have a reduction, or complete loss of these senses. These symptoms are commonly associated with other viral upper respiratory diseases.
Remember these symptoms the last time you had the flu? Appetite goes down, food is unappreciated and it’s impossible to smell anything even if you don’t have a stuffy nose! But after the shivers depart, you can smell again, and you want to eat.
There are other some medications that can cause it, such as nifedipine, certain decongestant nasal sprays and phenothiazines (used for nausea or hiccups).
The warning about anosmia is being taken quite seriously and it should be. I’m glad that anecdotal evidence has allowed us to quickly see this new symptom. It will serve to help us to know this as a population, as the pandemic continues to spread.
Before I sign off, I just have to make a point. You know I love natural medicine. It’s head-scratching that many hardcore conventional researchers and medical doctors suddenly believe in the “anecdotal” evidence accumulating about anosmia, but will completely dismiss anecdotal evidence about herbal medications that’s collected over centuries, and with great disdain!
Anecdotal evidence does matter, and we’ll be relying on more of it in the coming months.