how to get your taste buds back after a cold

Amy Edwards, infectious disease specialist and assistant professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. “The smell of burning is one I hear a lot from patients, some say everything smells the same no matter what they are smelling,” revealed Dr. Vanessa Wu, at the University of California at Irvine (UCI) Health Post COVID-19 Recovery Service. “The changes to smell and taste associated with COVID-19 infection and long COVID include complete loss of smell and/or taste, decreased smell and/or taste, and changes to smell and/or taste,” explained Dr. Research suggests five percent (around 27.5 million individuals) of global COVID-19 infections have resulted in smell or taste impairment lasting at least six months. The prevalence of smell and taste loss in COVID-19 patients Furthermore, they stated, ‘patients should be reassured that recovery from smell or taste impairment may continue for many months after the onset.’ The researchers noted that their findings of full sensory recovery in the majority of patients contradict some other reports. Indeed, the study highlighted that the newer Omicron variant ‘has been observed to less frequently and less severely affect chemosensory function.’ The loss of smell and taste appears to have been a symptom that was more common earlier in the pandemic when other variants of SARS-CoV-2 were spreading. Meanwhile, 11 people (9.2%) noted a decrease in symptom severity, and three individuals (2.5%) reported no change or worsening of symptoms.Īll patients in the study experienced the initial COVID-19 variant rather than the more recently emerged Omicron strain and subvariants. In these, they monitored the same set of 119 COVID-19 patients who had reported a loss of smell or taste - and continued to assess the prevalence and intensity of their symptoms at four weeks, eight weeks, and six months post-infection.Īt the two-year mark, 105 individuals (88.2% of the participant sample) who had experienced altered taste and smell at four weeks post-infection reported a complete resolution of symptoms. The research follows previous studies conducted by the team, which began in 2020.

The study, conducted by researchers in Italy and the UK, found that around 90 percent of mildly symptomatic COVID-19 patients who experienced a loss of taste or smell (or both) fully regained these senses within two years. However, new research is now offering a more definite answer. Researchers have struggled to figure out how long it takes for these senses to return has been somewhat inconclusive. And it soon became clear that, for some, this symptom was lasting long after the infection had passed. When COVID-19 hit, several primary symptoms were brought to our attention - including a loss of taste and smell.

How to get your taste buds back after a cold