Let's say you were hypothetically hit by a truck and your five senses are messed up really badly(Yes this is daredevil) but instead of turning into a blind vigilante that beats up drug dealers and human traffickers in the dead of night you have actual consequences and you can somehow only save 3 senses ( Yes this is unrealistic but just go with it). Which 2 would you say Bye-bye to. Now I'm sure you are thinking, this is easy I definitely keep sight and hearing and touch. They are the most important and you can probably live without tasting your aunt’s horrible cooking or having to smell the disgusting aftermath of spicy beans and corn from your friend who keeps denying it. But I am going to use this episode to prove to you that these 2 senses are more important than you think.
The sense of taste and smell are actually connected. So if one stops working it usually affects the other one. And it affects a lot more people than you think. Loss of smell is called anosmia and loss of taste is called ageusia. They can be caused by head trauma, infection, by covid or you can be born like that. And it is hard-hitting as well. Prof Barry C. Smith co-director and founder of the Centre for the Study of the Senses. said and I quote "Studies have shown that people who lose their sense of smell end up more severely depressed and for longer periods of time than people who go blind” "Smell is such an underrated sense. Losing it doesn't just take the enjoyment out of eating, no place or person smells familiar anymore. It is also linked to memory." Sue Mounfield, who lost her sense of smell due to flu said and I quote "It's things like smelling my children, my home, and my garden. When they're gone you realize just how comforting and precious these smells are. They make you feel settled and grounded. Without them, I feel as if I'm looking in on my life but not fully taking part." It can also be dangerous because the sense of smell warns us of many dangers that our other senses can’t pick up. It almost had serious consequences for Alan Curr, who lost his sense of smell after knocking himself out in a gym lesson when he was eight.
"He was at university when someone left the gas on by accident. He was home all day but never noticed. At about 3 pm His flatmates returned and He was in a bit of a daze but had no idea why. They smelt gas as soon as they walked in the door."
Both taste and odor stimuli are molecules taken in from the environment. The primary tastes detected by humans are sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami. Umami wasn’t considered an official taste until recently. It was identified in 1908 by Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda while he worked with seaweed broth, but it was not widely accepted as a taste that could be physiologically distinguished until many years later. The taste of umami, also known as savoriness, is attributable to the taste of the amino acid L-glutamate. In fact, MSG is often used in cooking to enhance the savory taste of certain foods. The adaptive value of being able to distinguish umami is that savory substances tend to be high in protein.
All odors that we perceive are molecules in the air we breathe. If a substance does not release molecules into the air from its surface, it has no smell. If a human or other animal does not have a receptor that recognizes a specific molecule, then that molecule has no smell. Humans have about 350 olfactory
receptor subtypes that work in various combinations to allow us to sense about 10,000 different odors. Compare that to mice, for example, which have about 1,300 olfactory receptor types and, therefore, probably sense many more odors which do make ratatouille a bit more realistic if you think about it. Both smell and taste use chemoreceptors, which essentially means they are both sensing the chemical environment. This chemoreception in regards to taste occurs via the presence of specialized taste receptors within the mouth that are referred to as taste cells and are bundled together to form taste buds, and these 10,000 taste buds, form the papillae. These receptors are activated when their specific stimulus (i.e. sweet or salt molecules) is present and signals to the brain. In addition to the activation of the taste receptors, there are similar receptors within the nose that coordinate with the activation of the taste receptors. When you eat something, you can tell the difference between sweet and bitter. It is the sense of smell that is used to distinguish the difference. Although humans commonly distinguish taste as one sense and smell as another, they work together to create the perception of flavor. A person’s perception of flavor is reduced if he or she has congested nasal passages. so when people think they lost their sense of taste they have actually lost their sense of smell. Also if someone tells you that you have different sections of taste on your tongue don’t take it seriously, it is a myth. Different receptors distinguish different tastes but they are evenly spread across the tongue. Speaking of not being taken seriously, There are some doctors that think anosmia and ageusia don’t really affect people badly. Sufferers agree they are regularly turned away by doctors who dismiss the loss of smell as trivial. Because you're not in pain many doctors basically just tell you to live with it, especially since there is no known treatment. Which I find crazy because losing your sense of smell or taste is like losing a part of you and doctors just say it is a trivial problem. The physical consequences can also be extreme. People often lose weight because they no longer enjoy food. Duncan Boak who lost his sense of smell in 2005 says he has been contacted by people who have been hospitalized because they find eating so difficult. Whether or not anosmia can be cured depends on the underlying cause. Smell can improve for some people but never return for others. It can come back but odors might have been re-coded by the brain so things don't taste the same. Like that sweet donut could smell like bitter lemon. You can try and train it to improve but it can’t be 100%.
Duncan Boak created The UK’s first anosmia support group called the fifth sense. Tickets for the 2021 Fifth Sense national conference are now available. It will include a focus on the future of treatment and research into smell and taste disorders with talks from Prof. Carl Philpott, Fifth Sense Director of Research and Medical Affairs, and Dr. Steven Munger, Director of the University of Florida Center for Smell and taste. If you want to learn more about it or you have questions you can check their website at https://www.fifthsense.org.uk or their mail at info@fifthsense.org.uk. It is also in the description If you want to donate. I think it is really important to learn about these things and help people like this and I hope there are more groups like this in the future.
You can also listen to this podcast Here.
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