UEA research suggests 'smell training' could help solve Covid symptom
It's thought it might help people who've lost their sense of smell due to coronavirus.
Last updated 24th Apr 2021
A study carried out by a team from around the world, including Professor Carl Philpott from the UEA, has found that 'smell training' could be an effective treatment for people who've lost their sense of smell due to Covid-19.
The research concluded that steroids, currently recommended as a potential treatment, should not be used, and smell training should be suggested instead.
The team found that corticosteroids, a class of drug that lowers inflammation in the body, are not particularly effective.
'Smell training' has been pitched as an alternative which would involve sniffing at least four different odours, twice a day, for several months.
Smell loss expert Prof Carl Philpott from UEA's Norwich Medical School, said: "The huge rise in smell loss caused by Covid-19 has created an unprecedented worldwide demand for treatment.
"Around one in five people who experience smell loss as a result of Covid-19 report that their sense of smell has not returned to normal eight weeks after falling ill.
"Corticosteroids are a class of drug that lowers inflammation in the body.
"Doctors often prescribe them to help treat conditions such as asthma, and they have been considered as a therapeutic option for smell loss caused by Covid-19.
"But they have well-known potential side effects including fluid retention, high blood pressure, and problems with mood swings and behaviour."
The team carried out a systematic evidence-based review to see whether corticosteroids could help people regain their sense of smell.
Prof Philpott added: "What we found that there is very little evidence that corticosteroids will help with smell loss.
"And because they have well known potential adverse side effects, our advice is that they should not be prescribed as a treatment for post-viral smell loss.
"There might be a case for using oral corticosteroids to eliminate the possibility of another cause for smell loss actually being a confounding factor, for example chronic sinusitis - this is obviously more of a diagnostic role than as a treatment for viral smell loss.
"Luckily most people who experience smell loss as a result of Covid-19 will regain their sense of smell spontaneously.
"Research shows that 90 per cent of people will have fully recovered their sense of smell after six months.
"But we do know that smell training could be helpful.
"This involves sniffing at least four different odours twice a day every day for several months.
"It has emerged as a cheap, simple and side-effect free treatment option for various causes of smell loss, including Covid-19.
"It aims to help recovery based on neuroplasticity - the brain's ability to reorganise itself to compensate for a change or injury,"
The research was led by researchers at the Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels (Belgium) in collaboration with the Univeristé catholique de Louvain, Brussels (Belgium), the University of East Anglia (UK), Biruni University, Istanbul (Turkey), Aarhus University (Denmark), Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (Canada), Geneve University Hospitals (Switzerland), Harvard University (USA), Aristotle University, Thessaloniki (Greece), University of Insubriae (Italy), University of Vienna (Austria), the University of Chicago (USA) and the University of Colorado (USA).