Transcripts

Dr. Alan Hirsch:
When you go to your physician's office for instance for just a physical exam, they may check your vision or your hearing but I would predict they won't check your sense of smell. Yet smell loss can have a major effect on your life and smell loss could be due to all sorts of diseases.

Doctor Alan Hirsch, Neurological Director of The Smell and Taste Research Foundation in Chicago, says your sense of smell is more important than you might think.

About ninety percent of what we call taste is really smell so if you hold your nose when you eat chocolate, it tastes just like chalk - there is no taste at all. If you hold your nose when you're eating an apple and an onion or even a carrot and potato, they taste the same.

Different people, says Dr. Hirsch, have different levels of smelling ability.

Korean Americans have a better ability to smell than white who are better than black who are better than Japanese. As you get older your sense of smell drops down about half for those over the age of sixty-five and three quarters of those over the age of eighty have a reduced ability to smell. Women have a better ability to smell than men. And when you are hungry your sense of smell is better than when you are full. And the first thing in the morning is when your sense of smell is best.

It's very common for people who lose their sense of smell to gain weight. And smoking and drinking will often reduce your sense of smell. And the best way you can protect your sense of smell…

Always wear your seat-belt - because the number one cause of smell loss that we see is from head trauma from motor vehicle accidents.

At somethingyoushouldknow.net I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.