My husband's sense of smell has become heightened in the last two months. Nothing smells good and cooking odors are totally repugnant. At the same time, he can only eat highly spiced foods. Pizza, his food of choice for the last year, must have jalapenos on it.
These seem to be opposite to me. Very sensitive to odors, but food is tasteless without some sort of heat added. Looking online I can find one or the other but, I can't find any discussion of someone having both situations at the same time.
Anyone have any experience with this?
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People with a Dementia usually lose the ability to smell. Since smell and taste are linked, taste goes too. It may be that all your husband can taste is hot stuff. Just like people with any type of brain injury like sweets. They can taste sugar better than anything.
Good thing to run by his doctor.
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I stopped using the whitening toothpaste, went back to my regular toothpaste and it took a couple of weeks to get back my normal sense of smell and taste.
https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/loss-smell-linked-alzheimers-cognitive-impairment-and-biomarkers
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6051255/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/managing-your-memory/202103/when-dementia-diminishes-smell-and-taste
The NIA/NIH article caused me to look up the phrase "enhanced sense of smell" and I found some articles on Hyperosmia. He fits into several of the categories of causes for this - Lyme Disease, seizures, kidney disease. The only thing that doesn't mesh is that a person with heightened sense of smell also is more sensitive to the taste of food and he is the opposite, food has no taste unless hot and spicy.
Thank you for the articles.