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Smell & Taste are essential for quality of life; keep them youthful
The perception of a smell occurs when substances in the air pass through the nose and stimulate the olfactory (smell) nerve. The experience of taste, or gustation, occurs when the taste buds in your mouth respond to substances dissolved in saliva. The four basic tastes are salty, sweet, sour and bitter. When compared to disruptions of the other senses, such as sight and hearing, disorders of taste and smell do not receive the same level of attention. Nonetheless, deterioration of these senses is widespread and can be life-threatening, particularly in elderly patients. The sense of smell is sometimes overlooked until it begins to weaken. Our olfactory function deteriorates as we age. We lose not only our sense of smell, but also our ability to distinguish between different smells. More than 75% of adults over the age of 80 exhibit signs of substantial olfactory impairment, and olfaction falls significantly after the seventh decade, according to research. According to a more recent study, 62.5 percent of those aged 80 to 97 have olfactory impairment. Taste abnormalities, on the other hand, are significantly less common than olfactory deficits as people get older.
While smell and taste disorders do not receive the same level of attention as disruptions of the other senses, such as sight and hearing, they can greatly affect quality of life and even be life threatening.
With aging, both the number of fibers in the olfactory bulb and the number of olfactory receptors diminish noticeably. Even in the absence of illness, each person's olfactory receptor neurons will die at a constant rate. Humans have the ability to replace these cells, but this process slows down as they get older. As a result, the surface area of the olfactory epithelium shrinks, as does the number of olfactory receptor neurons. Olfactory function also appears to be influenced by other disorders such as liver disease and otolaryngological malignancies. Mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease are also factors to consider when evaluating age-related olfactory degradation.
Olfactory training (or scent training) can assist stimulate the nerve cells in your nose, and result in regaining smell. Arrange four essential oils of your choice on a table; oregano, lemon, eucalyptus, and rosemary, for example. If you don't have essential oils, squeeze a lemon or chop up some oregano—use aromas you already have on hand. Begin with the first aroma and take 25 seconds of delicate whiffs. Imagine what the smell looks like and how it feels while you're smelling it. Recall a time when you were exposed to this perfume. It turns out that in the brain, memory and smell are inextricably linked and smell travels directly to the emotional center of the brain, including the parts that process emotion and memory. That's why the smell of chlorine, for example, may bring up memories of swimming lessons. The brain can be taught to reconstruct connections back to specific scents through olfactory training. Allow one minute for your brain to digest the aroma. After a minute, take 25 seconds of delicate whiffs of the next aroma. Allow your brain a minute to assimilate that aroma. Continue sniffing until you've had a whiff of each of the four aromas. For three months, do this exercise twice a day, in the morning and at night. Find four new essential oils and repeat the practice if your sense of smell hasn't totally returned after three months. Time is crucial for this exercise since the olfactory nerves need time to heal and regenerate.
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