Overview

The inability to detect scent or odour is anosmia, and it can be congenital or acquired, temporary or permanent. The process involves particles in the air travelling through the nasal canals to the nasal cavity, where olfactory receptor neurons extend from the olfactory bulb. These neurons facilitate the transfer of chemical signals to electrical signals, which are processed by the brain. Any blockage or destruction of this pathway may result in anosmia.

Causes

Anosmia can be caused by various factors, such as 

• Smoking 

• Medication side effects 

• Nasal congestion

• Aging

• Inflammatory and obstructive disorders 

• Head trauma and neurodegenerative processes

• Nasal and paranasal sinus disease

• Head trauma

• Damage to the olfactory bulb or cerebral cortex 

• Neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Lewy Body dementia. 

• Congenital conditions like Kallmann syndrome and Turner syndrome are also associated with anosmia. 

• Infectious conditions like COVID-19 and hay fever.

Symptoms

Your sense of smell could diminish gradually or unexpectedly. In the beginning, you could notice that familiar smells were off, such as your regular smell being weaker than before.

Ayurvedic View

Apinasa - it's a symptom in which a patient loses the ability to smell. This can be temporary, like when a patient suffers from a blocked nose, which is called anosmia. General factors which cause rogas of nasa are anila (excessive exposure to cold air), raja (exposure to dust), vata dosha gets aggravated and dries the excess kapha in nasa, this blocks the perception of smell temporarily and permanently, sometimes due to other causes. The Ayurveda approach is to bring dosha back to balance, improve the functioning (perception of smell) by the nose by Ayurvedic panchakarma treatment, which also builds immunity.