The list of symptoms for COVID-19 has grown since the coronavirus pandemic began almost a year ago.
Yahoo Life reports that the long list of symptoms now includes a disturbing “wide range of complications” that can accompany the virus.
The report noted that loss of smell and taste is one of the most common symptoms among patients with COVID-19 – especially those with mild cases.
The time frame for these senses to return varies from a few weeks to months, and in the worst case scenario, some patients with COVID-19 lose their sense of smell and taste permanently, Yahoo Life explained.
Loss of smell and taste are common symptoms of COVID-19.
Yahoo Life cited a January 5 study in the “Journal of Internal Medicine, ” who found that of patients with mild cases of COVID-19, 86% “experienced a loss of sense of taste and smell.” And although a significant number of these patients’ senses go back in time, this is not always the case.
Yahoo Life also cited “The Wall Street Journal”, which reported that doctors say that in some cases “people’s senses may never return”.
From Harvard Health’s website, Yahoo Life quoted cognitive and neurological expert Leo Newhouse, LICSW, who wrote: “Some of us may never recover our sense of smell or taste.”
Most of the senses of smell and taste of patients with COVID-19 return after six months.
The Yahoo Life report cited an April 6 study published by the “European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, ” who found that long after other symptoms had subsided, “the loss of taste and smell for most patients persisted.” The study noted that “a quarter of the participants’ ability to taste and smell returned within two weeks after their other symptoms disappeared.”
The “Journal of Internal Medicine, ” The study concluded that after 60 days, 15.3% of patients had not yet recovered their senses and, at 6 months, 4.7% of people’s senses had not yet returned.
If the senses return, they may not return in the same way.
The report again quoted neurology expert Leo Newhouse, who wrote: “The good news is that olfactory neurons are capable of regeneration.” But he added: “The bad news is that not everyone will return to the pre-COVID level.”
If your senses are still lost, you must not lose all hope.
According to Yahoo Life, experts say “there is a significant chance” that the senses will recover in the first year of loss. The report cited assistant professor Jessica Grayson, MD, who told the University of Alabama at Birmingham that “patients with post-viral scent loss have about a 60 to 80 percent chance of recovering part of their olfactory function in one year.”
Loss of smell and taste can lead to adverse emotions.
Yahoo Life cited a 2016 study published in “Chemical Senses”, which found that “patients with olfactory dysfunction have symptoms of depression that worsen with the severity of the loss of smell.”
The report quoted “The Wall Street Journal,” which was told by scientist Chemosensory Pamela Dalton, PhD, that when our sense of smell and taste disappear, “we dig up a whole chunk of our consciousness that we don’t even realize we use every day.”
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