How to regain your sense of smell (medical evidence)

Step-by-step clinical advice about how to get your sense of smell back. I am an ENT Surgeon and I had COVID a couple of months ago and I am working on getting my sense of smell back. I go through the sprays, tablets, supplements, training etc that the experts advise, then at the end I tell you about what has helped me especially with dealing with parosmia (distortion of smell).

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** Disclaimer - The information in this video is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content, including text, graphics, images, and information, contained in this video is for general information purposes only and does not replace a consultation with your own doctor/health professional. **

Camera kit

Audio kit

Lighting kit

Laptop

Software
Adobe Creative Suite - for talking head videos

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:37 Clear your nose
01:45 Omega 3
02:40 Vitamin A nasal drops
03:43 Zinc / B Complex vitamins / Vitamin D
04:09 Olfactory Training – Expert Advice
05:15 How to sniff
06:20 Time between sniffs
06:36 What to sniff
07:08 Jog your smell memory
07:24 Vik Veer’s Modifications to Olfactory Training
08:21 Question Spotting with the UPSIT
08:45 Give yourself more time
09:39 Become a research nerd
11:12 My plan for my parosmia
12:08 The Smelly Telephone Switchboard
13:08 How it helps me
13:33 Mega Sniffs
14:20 Understanding how long this will take
14:54 Conclusion

If you would like to see me on the NHS - please ask your GP to refer you to the Royal National ENT Hospital (part of UCL) in London, or at Queens hospital in Romford.

[good_to_be_gold]

As a foodie not being able to smell and taste was a nightmare. I’m glad it went away and I am able to enjoy life again

[anamchara]

Thank you for this. I lost my sense of smell entirely yesterday. It was really unsettling. I am going to try to view it more as a science project to get my sense back than a huge loss.

[ireneosborn]

This is the best video I’ve seen on regaining your smell! I’m 3 months out and I have some smell. I’m just ready to taste my coffee again!

[okra]

2021 I contracted COVID 19 (delta)from my mother who later passed from it.😢
Since having COVID, I have had no sense of smell (very little at times). I am going to start trying some of these things and praying 🙏🏼 for good results. Thanks for all the info!

[Wifemomnana]

Still smell confused and something’s and days nothing for 6 months…also sad to not be able to smell my husbands scent after he has showered and put on cologne…and the cologne mixes with his body oils…makes me the saddest…positive is not being able to smell poo most of the time and not smelling bad breath. I hate how off things smell. I hope everyone gets their sense of smell and taste. Your video is amazing and useful and thank you so so much!

[warriorzentennis]

I followed your advice Vik and I am happy to report that my sense of smell has returned. I've had to start sleeping on my back to avoid waking up with congestion, but it has been worth it. This last round of olfactory loss lasted five months and I was ready to just admit defeat and move on with my life. I did get some humor out of the experience when I went back to my essential oil training and as soon as I opened the bottle of peppermint the smell about knocked me to the floor. I could hardly believe I was inhaling that level of scent for 20 seconds at a time :).

[therealchayd]

Very useful video, thanks. I have have been without a sense of smell for the past few days thanks to COVID and you don't really realise how much the ability to sense smell impacts your life until you lose it. Will be giving some of suggestions a try. Thanks again!

[PhoenixBlack]

My sense of smell and taste has been gone for about 3 weeks now. Mind you I’m fully vaccinated, I also took the PCR and rapid tests just to make sure- both came back negative. I tend to be slightly congested at times. I’ve never had loss of taste or smell, It’s been really annoying. What I’ve been doing - I noticed when I eat marinated salmon from the grill it helps with my senses. I can’t taste orange juice nor oranges - I can smell the scent from the orange peel though, yes it’s weird. I take my vitamins, most of which are mentioned in this video. I’m also very active, I’m in the gym 5 times a week and I believe this helps as well, keeping myself hydrated, and cutting back on my preworkout intake. I started drinking lots of hot herbal tea with lemon, honey, cinnamon, this has also helped me. I also tried popcorn in the microwave - the process of the popcorn stimulates my sense of smell with the butter, etc. Chewing speriment or winter fresh gum may also help. My taste and smell has slowly increased since then. Bottom line - be patient and stick with a healthy routine. Good thing from this is it’s helped me to tone down a bit as I’m not eating hamburgers lol. Most importantly is prayer! Hope this helps and encourages anyone going thru the same thing as me. God bless!

[rosehuskey]

Appreciate your insight and objective/sciences based approach to this. As someone struggling with post Covid anosmia, this is encouraging.

[neishalandle]

Losing my sense of smell has been the most annoying and depressing thing. And I definitely can't remember how certain things smell. Tried the aroma thing and I wasn't consistent but ill give this a try. I underestimated how long this process is. Had no idea it takes this long to retrain the olfactory 😢. Have a bit more hope after watching this. For someone who enjoys fragrances, this is surely torture

[HILARI]

This was truly super-helpful !!!! BIG THAAANKS TO YOU, and to your wife.//I ALSO enjoyed your 1st video on this topic, it was reassuring when I was freaking out over new this video is even more helpful--- WONDERFUL ! ( I am already much better now, and on my way to full recovery soon.) //I ALSO did a lot of the same variations on the "usual protocol" that you do, was great to hear your process and get that confirmation.//THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL YOU DO !

[Rainbowmagic-mg]

The piano music in the background is so beautiful and relaxing 😌 thank you for the tips I hope I can get my taste and smell back soon

[susansinclair]

So glad I found your channel Vik... about 8 weeks ago I got what I identify with, as Covid... loss of smell happened quickly - went from full smell [including coffee] to no smell totally on certain things ... [also coffee!!] I now have an almost perpetual stench of sulphur/burnt matches in my sinus with reduced capacity to taste. Thank you for your bang-on advice [and thanks to your lady as well!] I identify with ALL you have mentioned, and it gives me some hope that I WILL regain it back again! BTW am experimenting with Binaural Sound Waves for this and am encouraged by the result! Many thanks and a big hug to all in this together...

[lindalambert]

Thank you for this information. II will try it as Ive been really depressed by the loss of smell and taste.

[candyapple]

I lost smell and taste for a few months due to chronic sinusitis and cured it naturally without buying any steroid spray. The best thing I used was all-natural sea salt and distilled water nasal rinses twice a day. Then I sniffed eucalyptus, rosemary, grapefruit and peppermint essential oils a few times a day. I also started adding honey and lemon to tea and drinking it daily. My taste and smell is pretty much back, thank God. At one point, I literally could not smell or taste a thing at all.

[TheLifeOnHigh]

I was in denial about my gradual loss of smell over the years, but there was no denying that I could no longer smell the very aromatic soaps I used during showers. Nor could I smell the malodors when I excused myself to the bathroom. I’m hoping these techniques will help me 😢

[SusanJoySchleef]

I just discovered your channel last week and have enjoyed several of your videos as they show up on my YouTube home screen. Thanks for sharing good medical information in a way that is easy to understand. I was especially curious about this video because I had heard of anosmia while studying aromatherapy for several years, even tho I have not had to deal with it myself. It's good to have a resource to share with others who may need a systematic way to approach regaining their sense of smell.

You mentioned a couple of times about getting a headache from sniffing the essential oils. From my studies, I learned that this happens most commonly with synthetic essential oils. I took a quick look at the two amazon links you shared for essential oils and I've never heard of those companies, so I can't speak to their quality. But I can tell you that the estimate I have often heard is that 90% of aromatic oils on the world market are partly or mostly synthetic! I don't know about the marketing laws in the UK, but in the US there are no legal definitions for terms like "100% Natural, " "therapeutic grade, " or "extracted from plants around the world." Those can be effective marketing phrases but tell you nothing about whether those oils are truly distilled from plants or made from petroleum by-products in a test tube.

As you might imagine, sniffing artificial scents created from petroleum is not going to do very much to heal your anosmia. In fact, artificial and synthetic aroma chemicals can have toxic side effects - including a tendency to deaden your sense of smell.

I don't want to add commercial links to your YouTube comments, but if you'd like some recommendations for a few of the companies I really trust, let me know. As a certified aromatherapy community educator, my best general guideline is to buy from smaller companies because they typically have tighter quality controls. The larger a company is, the more they need to purchase oils from a wide variety of producers around the world, making it much harder to manage quality controls for the dozens or hundreds of suppliers they may use in order to have enough source material to combine into their own bottling and labeling process to fill the needs of their large customer base. Essential oils are a completely unregulated industry so you really need to work at finding distributers you can trust.

[lisaholt]

This was actually very helpful. I am a NP and even though the smell retraining is obvious, i wasn't approaching it like a therapy. Just like all brain retraining, i think it is very helpful!!! I think, too often, we just accept someone telling us there is nothing we can about something, which is NEVER true😊Thank you again! Getting some vitamin A spray:)

[IslanderJerYT]

Hello! Great video. I just experienced Anosmia towards the end of my covid-19 ordeal.
I lost the sense very suddenly, within the space of 1-2 hours. I had taste when eating dinner, then I had a cookie later for a snack and it tasted of nothing. It’s super weird and gives you a different perspective on how taste and smell combine.
Anyway, I’m fortunate enough to now be recovering about 48 hours later and I have an interesting thing to report.
About an hour after eating a caramel square fudge (I swear my diet is way better than this sounds!!!) I noticed some scent very faintly, or what I thought was a scent.
There was a candle on the bookshelf close to me which is Sandalwood. It was so vivid in smell I couldn’t believe it! I can smell various things a bit better now (approx 4 hours later). I have a Warm Woods candle going which is nice to get the occasional whiff of. But I do still struggle with other scents. I can barely smell lavender or cacao, and I just had an Indian for dinner which was exceptionally bland.
This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever experienced and I am incredibly lucky to not be more affected than I have been.
I will be going to a health shop tomorrow to buy some essential oils & vitamins/omega-3 to aid the recovery process. Thank you for this video and all the best to you.

[crabbyhayes]

I lost my sense of smell suddenly about 15 years ago. I experienced bad smells for about a day or two, and then nothing. About 5 or 6 years ago, I went to an ENT, who put me on steroids and performed sinus surgery. It did help a little bit, and I could rarely smell something, but the times became less frequent. I have also tried smelling various essential oils with no success. For me, the worst experience has been losing my sense of taste - apperently about 80% of what we taste is due to our sense of smell. As a result, sweet and salty are about all I have left, since they seem to stand alone.