Hyperosmia: Definition And Causes
Can you imagine how unpleasant it would be if you could smell sweat or slurry much more intensely than usual? It would be a real ordeal, wouldn’t it? Well, that’s what people with hyperosmia suffer on a daily basis, a disorder characterized by a more developed than normal ability to sense smells that others don’t even detect.
People with hyperosmia can, for example, smell the scent of a lily flower or jasmine in the middle of a mountain of trash cans, or even recognize the scent of a person at a long distance. This does not mean that they become hunting dogs or that they have superhuman powers, but quite simply that they have developed a hypersensitivity as well as a particular olfactory acuity.
This olfactory acuity has as many advantages as unpleasant consequences for those who benefit from it, or who suffer from it. For some, hyperosmia is a blessing, while for others it is an inexhaustible source of suffering. Let’s see some examples.
You are on the landing of your house, and you smell an appetizing dish or a cake prepared by the neighbors; most likely it makes you hungry. However, if the smell that comes to you so intensely is unpleasant, then things are different.
Now imagine that you are in your living room where you are resting quietly after a hard and long day at work, and that smells of all types come to you without you being able to avoid them: the shoe polish of the neighbor upstairs, the toilet deodorant, hairspray from the next fifth floor, or oil burnt in a saucepan. And this every day and at any time. The only thing you might want to do then would be to live with a clamp on your nose.
This pathology is found in the same dimension, although in the opposite direction, as two other types of perceptual disturbances linked to smell: hyposmia, namely the decrease in olfactory sensitivity, and anosmia, or l total lack of the ability to smell.
Of these three disorders, hyperosmia is the least common, which is why it is a little studied pathology. It is precisely because its impact on the population is low that we know so little about the causes that produce it. On the other hand, what we do know is that there are certain diagnoses or risk factors with which it is associated such as, for example, menopause, Addison’s disease, hyperthyroidism, or even neuronal alterations due to consumption of amphetamines or abstinence syndrome.
In some cases, this condition eventually goes away on its own: it only appears for a specified period of time, and only lasts a lifetime in certain extreme cases.
For a perfumer or a sommelier, being hyperosmic is a real advantage. This is the case of the protagonist of the novel and of the film of the same name Le Parfum ; in fact, his olfactory hyper-perception has enabled him to be one of the best in his profession. However, for others it can turn into real agony.
This disorder causes very serious problems in social environments due to the degree of rejection or dissatisfaction that certain smells imply for this type of person. For example, coming to see his food as something disgusting or his favorite scent as something unbearable. Sometimes even people with hyperosmia can faint if they are in high-traffic areas or in the middle of a crowd, such as the subway or the bus.
Since its origin cannot be determined with confidence, treatments aimed at treating or at least reducing hyperosmia give rise to contradictory results. For example, anti-psychotic drugs opposed to dopamine have been used to treat this disorder ; when these neurotransmitters are inhibited, less odors reach the olfactory bulb.
From testimonials, it is known that some people with hyperosmia claim that smoking also reduces their olfactory capacity. But beware ! This statement should be taken with a grain of salt, because if there is anything that has been scientifically proven, it is that smoking does not improve health… quite the contrary.
This is probably why the first thing that both people who suffer from hyperosmia and those around them must do is to avoid or remove strong odors that can be really unbearable. Usually these smells come from foods such as fish, meat, certain sauces or coffee. In the absence of pharmacological treatment, there is no other solution than that consisting in regulating exposure.
Surprisingly, the majority of women with this type of “transient” disorder are pregnant. This is why, from the beginning to the end of the pregnancy, they present an olfactory hypersensitivity due, mainly, to the increase in the concentration of estrogen and progesterone in their blood.
As a result, the sense of smell of these women develops, which leads them to find certain odors that were previously pleasing to them repugnant, and vice versa. Some smells can even make them want to vomit. In some pregnancies, this change decreases or disappears after the first trimester. For others, it is maintained throughout the period of pregnancy and gradually disappears after childbirth.
It is possible that this physiological alteration was inherited from our ancestors so that the mother could recognize the scent of her own baby at birth.
Dysosmia is a neurological disorder that causes impaired sense of smell. It can manifest as anosmia (previously discussed in this article), parosmia or phantosmia.
- Parosmia results in a deterioration of olfactory function, which leads to the inability of the brain to correctly identify the natural or intrinsic odor of something particular. For example, a person with parosmia may find the smell of a rose unpleasant, while it is generally a pleasant smell to most people.
- Phantosmia is a kind of olfactory hallucination ; sufferers detect odors that do not exist or are not there. This bad phantom odor makes patients believe that they smell natural gas, that there is a leak, or that they are in danger. We are talking about a very powerful suggestion of the odor in question here.
The only smell of a French fries, however caloric, cannot satisfy us. Further study of this type of disorder, and in particular of hyperosmia, is needed. To be able to decrease its impact on the lives of those who suffer from it, it is vital to understand why and how it appears.
Our thoughts The nose is the “physical entrance” to our emotional world. In it, enter wonderful processes which we are going to tell you about in this article.
