Loss of Smell Linked to More Than 100 Medical Conditions

Loss of Smell Linked to More Than 100 Medical Conditions

Losing your sense of smell can do a lot more than just make it hard to enjoy foods you once loved. A new research review suggests that loss of smell, also known as olfactory dysfunction, is associated with at least 139 different medical problems, according to findings published in Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience.

Conditions linked to loss of smell include:

  • Alzheimer’s disease
  • Anxiety disorder
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Depression
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Frontotemporal dementia
  • Glioblastoma (brain cancer)
  • Heavy metal exposure
  • Huntington’s disease
  • Long COVID
  • Menopause
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Schizophrenia

What Causes Loss of Smell?

With many medical conditions, people may experience a loss of smell before any other symptoms — and inflammation could be to blame.

“The loss of the sense of smell is accompanied by an increased level of chronic inflammation, which has been shown to increase the risk of many medical conditions,” says lead study author Michael Leon, PhD, a professor emeritus of neurobiology and behavior at the University of California in Irvine.

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