Anosmia Matters: Whether You Can Smell Or Not

Imagine you are in a foreign country. Perhaps you've visited this place as a child and have a vague recollection of the journey. Maybe it’s the first time you visited and you don’t know the language or customs. You are a stranger in a strange land, hoping that the rules of immersion will hold true and that by being forced to adapt you will eventually develop the skills needed so you can feel like less of an outsider. It never happens.

What you’ve just read parallels the experience of the anosmic in the smell world. People with anosmia inhabit the same terrain as those who have a functional sense of smell, but are not able to physically relate to the experience of smelling. Though the acquired anosmic and congenital anosmic may differ when it comes to feelings of loss caused by the absence of the sense of smell, both may experience feelings of being an outsider when in truth they are misunderstood by the general and medical population. A blind person and a deaf person are easier to diagnose on sight versus a person who can’t smell. It’s ironic that a prejudice of sight has caused science to turn a blind eye towards funding anosmia research, though some of this is beginning to change due to advances in neurogenetics and the association of anosmia with early onset Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Many who are born with a sense of smell, who lose this sense due to disease, physical injury or the aging process, pine for its return and struggle to integrate the absence of smell with their identity. Acquired anosmics commonly struggle with anxiety and depression because they are in a state of grief due to their loss. The struggle is compounded by the fact that smells are hard to describe and once the sense is gone, developing an olfactory vocabulary is quite difficult. Imagine losing a person you loved dearly and not being able to revisit your memories of them because suddenly the reference points for those memories are no longer accessible, no matter how hard you try to find them. The experience of the acquired anosmic can be painfully frustrating and isolating.

Smells are processed in the limbic system, the emotional part of the brain that is tied to memory. This makes smells difficult to describe. When you smell something your brain tells you if you’ve smelled the aroma before, if it indicates danger, will provide you with memories of past experiences associated with that aroma, and will simultaneously imprint new data within the context of your present smelling experience. It happens in a flash. The more conscious you are of this process the easier it becomes to develop an olfactory vocabulary, something many struggle with for fear of being ridiculed for their choice of words. In truth, there are no wrong descriptions when it comes to smell; your unique life experience serves as a guidepost. The rest requires a good thesaurus and a look at a few flavor wheels for reference. If you chose to share smell experiences with friends your enjoyment will grow exponentially. The act of sharing sensory impressions of any kind creates memorable social bonds.

Both congenital and acquired anosmics are incapable of experiencing "flavor", as taste and smell work together to produce the sensation of flavor. Imagine the taste of a casserole with only sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami receptors as your translators (pinch your nose while eating and you will get the picture). There is a little known fact among those who can and cannot smell. The sensation of texture, temperature and spiciness is connected to the trigeminal nerve. These “sensation” based experiences are capable of producing pleasurable emotions and foods that stimulate the trigeminal nerve are often quite enjoyable for anosmics and their smelling brethren.This is why there are so many flavors of toothpaste, gum and hot sauce on the market; each product is, in a sense, trying to get on your nerve. Some examples of trigeminal taste stimulants are mint, cayenne pepper and Sichuan pepper.

In the past few months I have been permitted to participate in anosmic communities on Facebook and have had conversations with anosmics on Twitter. I did not withhold my smelling abilities and made many interesting acquaintances, sharing meals with some of the people that I met. I learned to appreciate taste and trigeminal sensations even more because of this. Glass Petal Smoke has always been a trusted source of inspiration and learning when it comes to smell and taste. As we get closer to Thanksgiving I hope you will take the posts you’ve read on anosmia to heart; especially this one.

It's important to remember that everyone will lose some of their ability to smell as they age. We’re living longer now so it would be in the best interest of all to understand anosmia and get to know those who are living with it. Don’t rely on your eyes to lead you. Seek anosmics out by using social media and get in the conversation. Practice gratefulness and become an advocate for those who lack the sense that brings you to the pages of Glass Petal Smoke in the first place. You will appreciate your sense of smell more and might even make a few  friends along the way.

Notes & Resources:
Anosmia in early onset Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease often manifests as  loss of appetite. The connection to smell is often overlooked and doctors often run tests related to what they suspect is causing weight loss. If you have an elderly relative make sure to keep this in mind if loss of appetite becomes symptomatic. More often than not even the patients themselves don't know that their sense of smell is affected. They simply feel that food doesn't taste good anymore.

The following posts on anosmia appeared in Glass Petal Smoke this year:

National Sense of Smell Day

The Sense of Smell: Using it or Losing it (with podcast)

Portrait of Congenital Anosmia: The Teenage Years

Perfumery's Future: IFRA Fall 2011 Presentation
Eau Pear Tingle: A Perfume Inspired by Anosmia

Anosmics of the World Unite and Congenital Anosmia are Facebook pages filled with interesting conversations written by and for those with anosmia. If you are an olfie (one with functioning olfactory skills) out yourself and find out what it is like to live without a sense of smell. You'll need to be a Facebook subscriber to participate. The Senseless Life, by librarian Helen Azar, is another anosmia page on Facebook. It focuses on Ms. Azar's journey to regain her sense of smell (which is possible, to an extent, if the acquired anosmia is not caused by a head injury which severs the olfactory nerves).

The Simian Line: Anosmia, a website created by Jennifer Boyer (a congenital anosmic), is rich with content and resources, and is written from the perspective of someone born without a sense of smell. If you are struggling with anosmia or want to know more about what it is like to live with this sensory deficit, pay her site a visit. 

The Anosmia group on Yahoo is a great place for anosmics to find support in a peer-to-peer environment.  You'll need a Yahoo alias to join the group which was established in 1999. [Yahoo Groups are no longer supported on the platform effective 2019. This information is here to illustrate how early the group formed.]

Navigating Taste and Smell Disorders by Dr. Ronald DeVere and Marjorie Calvert is a must-read for those with smell and taste disorders, the medical community and the general population interested in how taste and smell function. The book pulls no punches and is written with compassion as Dr. Ronald DeVere, a neurologist, is an anosmic who runs a taste and smell clinic in Austin, Texas. (P.S. Navigating Taste and Smell Disorders includes recipes!)

Jana Svoboda LCSW is a therapist who is living with acquired anosmia. Her compassion, candor and perspective are truly moving. You can find posts related to anosmia by searching the term "anosmia" on Door Number Two, her blog. 

Illustration of anosmia is from Enfermidades. All rights revert back to the owner.

Glass Petal Smoke conducted the first fragrance brief on Twitter with a focus on creating a trigeminal perfume that could be sensed by people with anosmia. The result of this collaboration will post in December. Kedra Hart of Opus Oils is the creatrix and designed the perfume for her mother who acquired anosmia after sustaining a head injury.

This post is dedicated to Kathleen Cochran, a dear friend who has taught me more about life than anyone I know. Kathleen, I salute you and your tenacity as you live with Parkinson’s disease every day knowing that one day, you might lose the sense you love the most; your sense of smell.

Sechuan Buttons: The Taste of Electricity

Nicolas Mazard, manager for micro-greens specialist Koppert Cress USA, is part ringmaster and part pusher. Dressed in company regalia he takes center stage at the Koppert Cress booth and presents an intriguing selection of microgreens to curious passersby at the 2008 International Chefs Congress. His melodious French accent and striking good looks are as riveting as the selection of micro-greens he presents; each intensely flavored and complex. The star of the show is not the Tahoon Cress (which tastes like the aroma of a beech tree forest after a good spell of rain) or the Purple Shiso (which tastes like fresh cumin and violets) or the Borage Cress (which tastes like the delicate brine of oysters and freshly cut cucumbers); it is a tiny flower head that Koppert calls the “Sechuan Button”. 

Sechuan Button is a term coined by Koppert Cress for Acmella oleracea, a plant developed through cultivation of Acmella alba, which is native to Peru and Brazil. The flavor of the flower head possesses a kick that resembles the spiciness of a Szechuan pepper, hence the name used to market it. Acmella oleracea became naturalized in East Africa and now grows throughout the continent. Its leaves are traditionally added to salads, soups and meat dishes, but the flower heads are more commonly used for toothache, throat and gum infections. 

The flower heads produce a unique sensation that is the umami of mouthfeel, creating a kinetic feeling on the side of the mouth where it’s chewed. Anesthetic effects of numbness and tingling accompany another sensory experience, which is unsettling to the novice Sechuan Button eater; watering of the mouth. When the puckish Mazard initiates the tasting of Sechuan Buttons, he carefully dispenses a quarter of a bud to each person, enthusiastically awaiting the response of audience members as they traverse a course that begins with fear and evolves into fits of giggling and laughter. “Remember what it felt like when you were a kid and licked a 9-volt battery?” Mazard asks, “That is the feeling you experience with Sechuan Buttons. It’s like having electricity in your mouth.” 

Koppert Cress suggests using Sechuan Buttons in sorbets and mixed drinks, but its application in flavors is limitless, provided that proper contrasts and pairings are achieved. Indulging in “buds”? That’s a bit Cheech and Chong. Chewing “buttons”? Sounds like an allusion to Aldous Huxley’s adventures with mescaline in The Doors of Perception. The marketing of Sechuan Buttons brandishes an element of the narcotic with the culinary, as well it should; the active ingredient in Acmella oleracea which produces unique sensations in the mouth is the molecule spilanthol (N-isobutyl-4, 6-decadienamide). Spilanthol is an antiseptic alkaloid that is a poison for most invertebrates, but harmless to warm-blooded animals. The molecule acts on the trigeminal nerve, which affects sensations in the face. 

My personal experience with the effects of Sechuan Buttons is a mild euphoria, which transpires after eating a single flower head over the course of an hour, one quarter of a bud at a time. Appetite makes the mouth water and Sechuan Buttons definitely trip a switch in the brain that triggers feelings of pleasure when you understand all of the plant’s sensory effects and aren’t frightened by them. There are six distinct qualities that are experienced when tasting Sechuan Buttons. As one chews the flower head, the senses course through green, bitter, numbing, electrical, tart, and lemon sensations. 

According to Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (also know as PROTA), essential oil distilled from the fresh flowers contains high amounts of the dietary cannabinoid β-caryophyllene (its flavor resembles black pepper, hence the appropriate marketing nomenclature on Koppert Cress’ part). Other major constituents include limonene (lemony), thymol (thyme-like), cadinene (green-like) and germacrene (spicy and woody). When one understands the sensory qualities of Acmella oleracea's molecules (referenced by flavor chemists as “organoleptic properties”) the science of taste becomes more fascinating as it is a yardstick with which one can measure sensory experiences. 

Sechuan Buttons have given the term “nipping it in the bud” a whole new meaning. Perhaps Koppert Cress USA should consider the California Milk Processor Board’s marketing of milk when promoting the exotic and zingy treat: "Got electricity?" Notes: Horizon Herbs sells three varieties of organic Spilanthes seeds (another species term for Acmella oleracea) that can be sown in the spring if you wish to grow your own flower heads. 

The plant also goes by the French name Brede Mafane or paracress. Micro-greens are a plant's first true leaves and are not to be confused with sprouts. Chefs use them as flavorful garnishes as their size belies the intensity of their flavor. The Koppert Cress micro-green selection is beautifully presented here. An equally compelling document on the Sechuan Button is available on the company’s site. Product photos and picture of Nicolas Mazard are from the Koppert Cress website.