Find out how smell loss impacted a super-taster and what he did to regain it.
It was 9:40 a.m. when he poured himself a cup and brought it under his nose.
That’s when he speculated that he had contracted COVID-19.
After a few months, Crippa’sageusia and other COVID-19 symptomssubsided.
Every morning, before opening his eyes, Crippa prayed not to smell that awful scent.
But all he could smell was wet cigarette ash.
Eventually, in December 2020, he entered a new phase, calledparosmia.
Historically there have been treatments available for those experiencing issues with their sense of smell.
Simply put, this should cause the sense of smell to return with time.
He went a bit further than smelling flasks of distilled scents to awaken his olfactory bulbs.
He tried to harness his memory of smells to reactivate his olfactory system.
“I can now smell vanilla,” he said victoriously.
“Can you think of it?”
“That’s something,” he said with a smile.
He welcomed me in his father’s architecture office, in the basement of his family’s house.
Usually, theolfactory sensory neuronsin our noses detect odor molecules from food or other things around us.
The neurons then send a signal to our brain.
Genovese told me that smell works like a keyboard wired to a computer.
An hourglass filled with red sand stood between the two, waiting to be flipped.
To put them at ease, Crippa began his class by sharing his own experience with smell distortion.
“And the problem is that others do not understand what you are going through,” Vergnanini added.
Have you smelled that great perfume?"
Not a doctor, nor a therapist, Crippa made sure they understood his role as an educator.
He was aware of the psychological strain that people in his situation suffered.
Nothing worked, but a lot of money was spent, he said.
For his classes, Crippa borrowed a tool supported by years of statistical analysis called aSensory Box.
The box contains 20 numbered flasks filled with common aromas, like truffle and honey.
“Sensory analysis is the description of the measurement of what you perceive.
And, according to Crippa, each culture shares a specific set of those odors.
They both got a few smells right, left a few blank and filled in with memories for others.
It was not that Vergnanini was smelling urine, but his brain was incorrectly decoding the signal for honey.
Iannace filled in “breakfast with friends” for the coffee smell.
Then, Crippa distributed a sheet with the names of the 20 flasks.
You are making shortcrust pastry.
How do you make it?
Bring your mind to your childhood, school, games, candies, moments of joy and happiness.
“Ahh, wait …” Iannace said.
“I think it’s butter.”
“Look into that memory of eating a lemon granita in Sicily with your grandparents,” he said.
“And then, with time, you might find lemon again,” he said.
The scientific community acknowledges that smell and memory are closely connected, per a 2022 article published inNature.
That said, there is currently little scientific explanation for what Crippa is experimenting with.
But she believes that training and stimulating the olfactory neurons might help recover the lost smells.
With her team, she’s looking forward to giving a more scientific context to Crippa’s trials.
But it is a novel approach.
You will have to look into five aromatic families: flowers, fruits, spices, toasted and vegetables.
In the family of vegetables, pick products that give a fresh sensation like mint or pine.
In the family of toasted, use aromas like ground coffee and chocolate.
Try using two products per aromatic family, so you will have about 10 products in total.
see to it to make them airtight by using plastic wrap, a tight-fitting lid or a cork.
By preserving them correctly, you’ll be able to use them for more sessions.
Step 1
Uncork the jar and smell the product for 3 to 6 seconds.
Leave at least 45 seconds between smelling one product and the next.
By noting down each training, you will be able to go back and check eventual improvements.
The more consistent you are, the more likely you will witness some results and progress.
