Distorted sense of taste and smell

[kaliki_kila]

About 6 months ago, my sense of taste/smell gradually became distorted. I took a shower one morning and noticed that my soap smelled "smokey" so I threw it out. Then, my coffee tasted awful and made me sick to my stomach, so I had to store my coffee maker away and stop using it. I went to open a can of clam chowder one day and the smell was so horrendous that it went right in the garbage. It was like a snowball effect of more and more things smelling and tasting bad.

It hasn't gone away since then and my diet has been very limited because of it. I can eat white bread, most fruits and veggies, cheese, tea, and a few other things. Everything else smells and tastes awful to me - especially popcorn, chocolate, soda, meat, and prepackaged foods.

You can imagine how this has affected my life. I don't go to the movies because popcorn smells like poison to me now. I don't go to restaurants anymore. I stayed home on Thanksgiving. I avoid pretty much any get-together where there will be food.

I have been seeing my doctor about this since the symptoms first started. At first, she told me to just wait for it to go away. Then, she ran bloodwork on me and everything came back fine. I got an MRI and it was also clear.

I joined a yahoo group for this and everyone else on the group has their doctors stumped as well. The only "cure" for this is to have a surgery done to remove your sense of smell.

My only comfort is that the women in my yahoo group who have had children say that it goes away during pregnancy/breastfeeding but comes right back again after weaning.

By the way, the name for it is Parosmia. There are two types of Parosmia - most members of my yahoo group have Phantosmia - which is a constant bad smell. I seem to have something called Troposmia - where certain things smell or taste unpleasant.

I read about Homeopathy in the recent issue of Mothering. I was wondering if anyone knows of any remedy I might try? I don't know very much about Homeopathy, but my own doctor has not been able to help and I am willing to try anything.

Does anyone have any insight or any rabbit trails you might lead me on? I don't know where to go from here to get help for this.

[ramlita]

Wow! That must be so frustrating!

I've only heard of distortions happening after head injuries.
Including my friend who cracked her skull as a toddler, and hasn't had any sense of smell since!
This is a website I've found useful for homeopathic remedies for lots of things, http://www.truestarhealth.com/Notes/healthnotes.asp
...but no luck with those terms.

I'd say, go see a homeopath or an acupuncturist. My acu's been able to help/fix all sorts of odd things I wouldn't even bother mentioning to an MD (because they'd just shrug or laugh at me)

[kaliki_kila]

I hadn't thought of trying acupuncture. Can you tell me more about this?

[Panserbjorne]

THe main symptoms of zinc deficiency are altered or loss of smell and appetite. Don't know if that helps you at all. Have you had your levels tested? IT's pretty easy to test yourself. Just put some liquid sinc in an aqueous solution in your mouth. IF you don't taste anything you are deficient. Good luck and keep us posted.

[ramlita]

Originally Posted by firefaery

THe main symptoms of zinc deficiency are altered or loss of smell and appetite. Don't know if that helps you at all. Have you had your levels tested? IT's pretty easy to test yourself. Just put some liquid sinc in an aqueous solution in your mouth. IF you don't taste anything you are deficient. Good luck and keep us posted.

That is very interesting! I struggle with both low appetite and a dull/selective sense of smell!

kaliki,
I always say Try Acupuncture! when the Western approach to healing isn't helping. The Eastern ways of looking at how our bodies function and heal are so very different, I find that my beloved acupuncturist can solve things for me when an MD would look at me blankly, lacking even a name to describe what I'm experiencing.
On my more cynical days, I describe it this way:
Western medicine is based on knowledge gained from maybe a couple of centuries of dissecting dead bodies, while Eastern practice is built on thousands of years of closely observing live ones.

(disclaimer: not to say that Western medicine doesn't have a role to play...)

[kaliki_kila]

Originally Posted by firefaery

THe main symptoms of zinc deficiency are altered or loss of smell and appetite. Don't know if that helps you at all. Have you had your levels tested? IT's pretty easy to test yourself. Just put some liquid sinc in an aqueous solution in your mouth. IF you don't taste anything you are deficient. Good luck and keep us posted.

One of the first things I did when the symptoms started was to start taking zinc and B vitamins. It didn't help... I know lots of people in my yahoo group have also tried the zinc with no luck. Lately, we have been speculating that this was caused by exposure to some chemical, maybe we all had a unique reaction to a chemical in cleaning supplies? We have taken formal and informal surveys and we are all so different - we can't find a single thread that ties us all together.