Can’t Smell These Items? You Might Have COVID-19

Losing your sense of smell is known to be one of the most common COVID-19 indicators. According to a New York Times article, more than 87 percent of coronavirus infected patients experienced the loss of smell and taste. Moreover, Vanderbilt University Medical Center has stated that about 25 percent of patients experience loss of smell as a first and only symptom. So if you feel like your sense of smell isn’t as strong as it was, chances are you’ve contracted COVID-19.

In fact, the loss of smell, or medically referred to as anosmia, is COVID-19’s hallmark that can be the main indicator of the disease. According to research, there are items that have a strong scent, so not being able to smell them might be a good indicator for diagnosis. The study was made in India, so the researchers found five scents that most Indian citizens have in their households at all times.

They have discovered that those who couldn’t properly smell peppermint and coconut oil were most likely to test positive for the novel coronavirus. Even though the researchers found 25 items for their study, five of them were proven to be the most efficient: coconut oil, peppermint, garlic, cardamom, and fennel.

More than 50 percent of asymptomatic patients couldn’t smell these five items, coconut oil and peppermint being the most misidentified items from the list. 36.7 percent of study participants misidentified peppermint, while 24.5 percent couldn’t feel its smell at all. Additionally, 22.4 percent misidentified coconut oil, while 20.4 percent couldn’t smell it.

Anosmia often occurs in COVID-19 patients because people experience congestion and drainage, causing the smell nerve to block the access. Moreover, according to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, “the virus causes an inflammatory reaction inside the nose that can lead to a loss of the olfactory, or smell, neurons.”

The researchers made the five-item list because they wanted to help those who feel like something is wrong, but they do no have COVID-19 symptoms. Nonetheless, smelling the items mentioned above might help you understand if you are infected or not. However, make sure you get tested as well in order to be 100% sure.

“Given the non-availability/expensive nature of testing kits, this test may enable us to perform rapid and wider testing,” the researchers explained.

“In addition to this, the test has the potential to be one of the preliminary scanning methods along with infrared thermometry at the entry points of hospitals, government, and private offices, shops, and other places of public dealing in order to have a safe cordon.”

To sum up, this is not a very accurate solution and it shouldn’t replace testing, but it can encourage people to take the test.

If you want to find out if you have COVID-19 or not, read on to find the five items that most Americans have in their pantry, items that could indicate a possible coronavirus infection!