CORONA No taste or smell

Cyclonemom

Veteran Member
Here's a list of recipes made for us with anosmia.

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Recipes for loss of smell, taste after COVID-19
Try these strong-scented, flavorful recipes to help restore tastebuds after a bout of COVID-19

Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies and a Ginger Lemon Apple Cider Vinegar Shot can be ways to help “retrain” a sense of smell or taste lost to COVID-19. (Bill St. John, Special to The Denver Post)

Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies and a Ginger Lemon Apple Cider Vinegar Shot can be ways to help “retrain” a sense of smell or taste lost to COVID-19. (Bill St. John, Special to The Denver Post)
By BILL ST. JOHN | Special to The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: October 6, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: October 6, 2021 at 11:48 a.m.
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We’re told that SARS-CoV-2, like its cousin the common cold virus, will be with us for a long time. How odd that it remains the “new” coronavirus, two years on.
And that means that, for certain people, its symptoms will occur for a long time, too. For the cook, the most telling symptom is the way COVID-19 sometimes wipes out a person’s sense of taste or smell, sometimes both.

This came home to me because, over the past two years, both my son, Colin, and one of his closest friends, Dan Murray, a Denver small business owner, both suffered total losses to their senses of smell and taste. In both cases, they also attempted to “retrain” those senses by using strongly flavored and -scented food.

“After about two weeks,” said Murray, “I got back around 25%. In probably six weeks, 80%. At first, all I could feel on my tongue was texture — no taste. It was like wearing a surgical glove on my tongue

“I did two things,” said Murray. “I ate (the candy) Hot Tamales and, every morning for weeks, I went to an organic juice shop near work and got a shot of their ginger-apple cider vinegar juice. It was daily training.” He used it as a test, he said, “until I made a ‘bitter beer face,’ a kind of ‘squinty tart face.’ ”

For his part, Colin, quarantined in a hotel room in Philadelphia for more than a week, just happened to purchase “a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter at a nearby CVS,” he said. “I stuck my nose in the jar all the time to see if I could smell something. In time, it got faint, like someone eating peanuts 10 rows behind you at a ballgame.”

Colin’s taste wasn’t merely gone “for a good ten days”; it also was skewed when it crawled back. “A Miller Lite at the airport tasted really bad,” he said, “acrid, just bitterness and alcohol; no malt, no floral notes. It wasn’t beer.”

Dr. Jennifer Reavis Decker at the UCHealth Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic has helped her patients, some of whom are children, to retrain their sense of smell by using strongly scented essential oils (especially the four of citrus, floral, fruit and spice). It is called “olfactory retraining.”

“The sense of smell is closely linked to memory,” she says, “especially pleasant memories.” That’s why using peanut butter or peppermint candy with children makes more sense than something like the odor of clove or jasmine, of which they typically have little memory or, surely, pleasant ones

Decker also says many smells are perceived via “the rear nasal pharynx, after a swallow” when the tongue “lifts” air into that passage and onto the olfactory globe where we smell smells. So, attend to the memories that that may evoke for you if you retrain your sense of smell (and the sense of taste that goes with it) after losing it.

Decker also points out two important considerations: first, that “your best shot at improving your sense of smell is during the first six weeks after losing it,” and that, second, “the best way to avoid losing your sense of smell (to COVID-19) is to get vaccinated.”

The cookie recipe here is peanut buttery but not overly sweet, so it is not to distract the palate from tasting sweetness over the nut butter’s aroma. The ginger-based “shot” is powerfully aromatic and flavorful. When swallowing, be sure to push some air up through the rear nasal cavity so that you get a strong smell of it, too.

Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies
From thefirstyearblog.com. Makes 8-12 depending on size. Although the recipe states that “the cookies won’t spread much,” they do. Tested at high altitude.
Ingredients
  • 1 cup quick-cooking oats
  • 3/4 cup peanut butter
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1 egg
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the oats in a blender or food processor and pulverize for 30 seconds to make oat flour. In a large mixing bowl, combine the oat flour, peanut butter, baking soda, salt, vanilla, honey and egg. Use a hand mixer (or heavy wooden spoon) to combine; the mixture will be thick.
Scoop dough balls of about 1 1/2 tablespoons in volume and place on a silicone- or parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Press the dough balls down using the palm of your hand. Create a crisscross pattern on the top of each cookie by pressing a fork into the dough. If the fork sticks to the dough, wipe the fork on a paper towel sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Because the cookies won’t spread much, you can place them closer together and probably fit all the dough on one baking sheet.
Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes. The cookies will be soft and tender when they come out of the oven; allow them to cool and firm up on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.
Store the cookies in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3 days. These cookies can also be frozen. Wrap them in bundles of 3-4 cookies in plastic wrap then place inside a zippered plastic bag and place in the freezer.


Ginger-Lemon-Apple Cider Vinegar Shots
A very healthy tonic, but not for the faint of heart. Makes about 12 ounces (1 1/2 cups).
Ingredients
  • 8 ounces fresh ginger root
  • 1 large lemon, zested and juiced
  • 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1/8 teaspoon fine sea or kosher salt
Directions
Peel the ginger: Using a dull-edged spoon or knife, scrape and rub away the skin on the ginger, getting into the nooks and crannies as best you can. Chop the ginger into 10-12 pieces and pulse, then pulverize, them in a food processor, scraping down the bowl from time to time, until the ginger is nearly a paste.
Add the zest and juice from the lemon, the vinegar, honey and salt and
 

psychgirl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Do you have any sense of taste/smell back yet?

I've come down with it this past week. Unbelievable how difficult it is to cook like this, let alone eat.

I guess now is the time to start focusing on weight loss....
Oh Gosh!! Did your work employees all test positive, too?

Please let us know how you’re doing, and the same with the OP!!
Take your supplements and drink a lot of water!
 

Cyclonemom

Veteran Member
Oh Gosh!! Did your work employees all test positive, too?

Please let us know how you’re doing, and the same with the OP!!
Take your supplements and drink a lot of water!
Luckily enough, I was on a pre-planned stay at home vacation, so no one at work should have been exposed from me.bMy vacation is getting extended, though. Not going back tomorrow.

Unfortunately, all the things I was supposed to do at home haven't been done yet.
 

psychgirl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Luckily enough, I was on a pre-planned stay at home vacation, so no one at work should have been exposed from me.bMy vacation is getting extended, though. Not going back tomorrow.

Unfortunately, all the things I was supposed to do at home haven't been done yet.
Your home chores will still be there.
You need to rest!
 

magnetic1

Veteran Member
Do you have any sense of taste/smell back yet?

I've come down with it this past week. Unbelievable how difficult it is to cook like this, let alone eat.

I guess now is the time to start focusing on weight loss....

I felt so bad that I hadn’t been feeding the guys that I finally dragged my butt out of bed about day 5 and made a family fave garlic dip. I tasted it and thought how bland so added more spice! Guys said don’t ever cook again if you can’t taste because the dip was so bad they burped garlic for hours and hours….Oops. I still can’t taste or smell quite right almost a year later so I am very cautious with seasonings still
 

psychgirl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Did you all have fever?
If not, How did you know to get tested. Did you just feel bad?

That sounds like a stupid question but I’m really curious.
I’m trying to decipher what happens if you just feel weird and crappy, vs full on fever and flu symptoms.
 

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
Did you all have fever?
If not, How did you know to get tested. Did you just feel bad?

That sounds like a stupid question but I’m really curious.
I’m trying to decipher what happens if you just feel weird and crappy, vs full on fever and flu symptoms.
The thing is... COVID can present as any of that! The two little girls here had it their mom caught it from fully vzxxed coworkers. They were mildly cranky for 2 days, had sniffles and a minor cough. No fever.

Some adults get the whole fever, aches, etc... some don't even know they're sick..

Summerthyme
 

Cyclonemom

Veteran Member
Did you all have fever?
If not, How did you know to get tested. Did you just feel bad?

That sounds like a stupid question but I’m really curious.
I’m trying to decipher what happens if you just feel weird and crappy, vs full on fever and flu symptoms.

Mine started with a headache to rival a migraine, but with no other migraine symptoms. Then a sore throat, then extreme lack of energy. Then I got a phlegmy cough, then fever A couple days later. Fever has been come and go. Acetaminophen has been working the best. Aspirin did nothing for fever and seemed to enhance body aches. Ibuprofen wasn't much better. Loss of smell/taste was the last for me.

I refuse to test unless it is absolutely necessary, but if you feel you should, then any sudden loss of energy, REALLY bad headache, or fever symptoms would be good triggers.

Fwiw, I am on a daily regimen of 10k iu Vit D, turmeric/pepper, zinc 50mg , vit c 1000mg, k2, omega 3's, and elderberry (sambucol).
 

Hogwrench

Senior Member
Did you all have fever?
If not, How did you know to get tested. Did you just feel bad?

That sounds like a stupid question but I’m really curious.
I’m trying to decipher what happens if you just feel weird and crappy, vs full on fever and flu symptoms.

My doc specifically said that if I lost taste then I did not need to get tested. No fever at all. Only symptom was loss of taste.
 

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
After beginning the Ivermectin my taste and most of my smell has returned. My taste is fine but I still notice that unless the smell is strong I cannot smell it. I'm happy with the improvement and hopefully the rest will be restored soon.
I'll add you to my (mental) list of those who have found benefit from ivermectin for various post COVID symptoms. The stuff 8s a blessing!

Summerthyme
 

Babs

Veteran Member
I'll add you to my (mental) list of those who have found benefit from ivermectin for various post COVID symptoms. The stuff 8s a blessing!

Summerthyme

How long are people that you know, typically staying on the Ivermectin? I did the 5 day regime and then stopped. We got the Regeneron after that. I still don't quite have my smell sensitivity completely back and I was wondering if I should get back on the Ivermectin. The thing is, Ivermectin destroys my appetite.
 
I'm using Ivermectin so I guess now I just wait. Thanks!
I've been taking Ivermectin for about 11 months now as a preventative. Horse paste cuz can't afford pills -- BUT I just ordered 30 of them for $50 total. Save for emergency. So I take the horse paste in apple sauce now 2x a month on the 15th and 30th. Just took some today. Started In Dec 2020.

Sometime in Jan my old mechanic got covid, but we didn't know at the time. Lost his appetite and very weak. No cough. Fever I don't know. Don't think so. I was around him cuz I went to the store for him. He didn't tell me he lost his taste and smell till he got all better. I was there in his house a few times. Never got it. I am type O blood too.

I think it's best to take ongoing as a preventative.
 

L.A.B.

Goodness before greatness.
Salt… I kept it by my bedside as I was taking sweat baths twice a day, afterwards wrapping myself in a thick cotton quilt I would soak it to very damp within the following couple hours.

My wife made me the ginger-turmeric-lemon-apple. Kombucha shots later.

The first food I wanted at the end of July upon recovery was two over-easy eggs, and salt.

Smell and taste return in time. Chips, then hot & spicy, sweet last.
 
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Capt. Eddie

Veteran Member
In my case smell/taste went away completely overnight and came back completely exactly 5 weeks later. Like flipping a switch, from no taste at all to normal overnight.
 

foreverkeeps

Veteran Member
I've been exposed 3 times in the past two weeks! Yesterday my throat started hurting. Today, I am coughing up a little congestion and I have red bumps that look like a bunch of red polka dots on the back of my tongue! Did anyone get these red spots? I didn't notice them when I had COVID in October.
 

L.A.B.

Goodness before greatness.
Late July, no red spots.

Also, no congestion, just labored breathing.

To [STOP] bacterial infection in the lungs, I used a Mypuremist with a drop of Oregano oil in the mask itself. Don’t put oil into the distilled water-saline tank. It might mess up the vaporizer.

 
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zookeeper9

Veteran Member
With this "new" variant sore throat is one of the symptoms. Of my 10, 6 had it at some point. No sure about the red spots, though, I know for other viruses I have had them so it does make sense to me.
 
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