alt.hn

5/21/2026 at 5:14:56 PM

Chewing gum restores dad's taste and smell years after Covid

 https://discover.swns.com/2026/05/chewing-gum-restores-dads-taste-and-smell-years-after-covid/

by speckx

5/21/2026 at 5:52:00 PM

> The dad-of-two, from Litchfield, Staffordshire, could eat the spiciest curries with no effect

I know this is probably just a bit of "editorial spice" because it's an obvious example for "what would you do if you could eat anything" I guess, but I thought capsaicin/spicyness was NOT a taste-perception thing. Isn't more of a pain feeling? I would've assumed you would retain that, while losing the olfactory perception you need for flavours.

I am no expert in this sort of thing, so if anyone knows I'd be genuinely curious about why COVID would affect both of those senses.

by graypegg

5/21/2026 at 7:30:05 PM

My anecdotal evidence, I couldn't smell or taste a thing for about 2 weeks, but I ate thai food constantly because I could at least feel the spice somewhat, it was dulled though, not 100%.

by esikich

5/21/2026 at 6:08:19 PM

Anecdotally, when my best friend first caught covid, his sense of smell was heightened, but his ability to perceive spiciness from both capsaicin (peppers) and allyl isothiocyanate (e.g. mustard, wasabi, radishes) completely disappeared. I just went back to check the messages he sent me to make sure I'm not spewing nonsense, and sure enough: "I didn't even have that nose feeling from wasabi." He couldn't perceive any spice at all. Not from peppers, not from hot sauce, not from wasabi. Nada. He tried everything he had in his kitchen.

Covid is a weird virus. I'd be really curious about the mechanism behind this. I'm sure it's nothing great, like some sort of nerve damage, but at least in my friend's case he and his senses made a full recovery as far as he can tell.

by spidercat

5/21/2026 at 8:00:49 PM

Covid caused nerve damage in the nose in the sensory glands where smell is perceived. Good news is that lots of viruses do this so the body has evolved to regrow these nerves.

by indoordin0saur

5/21/2026 at 6:51:11 PM

I don’t mean to say you’re wrong, but the “spice” due to wasabi is a different thing, not due to capsaicin at all. Same with mustard, it’s a similar thing. And then there’s yet another “spice” from the Sichuan peppercorn, again not due to capsaicin. It’s possible that COVID masks some of these but not others.

by pinkmuffinere

5/21/2026 at 7:53:14 PM

I am well aware! That's why my comment says "spiciness from both capsaicin and radishes". :)

I didn't feel like looking up how to spell allyl isothiocyanate when writing my initial comment. Maybe I should have! I've edited it for clarity, since it's an important distinction which adds to why I'm so danged curious about the mechanism behind my friend's temporary inability to perceive pungency. I also see how my original wording may have implied I was conflating the two, so I've expanded on my friend's experience a bit. He experimented with pepper and radish based spice sources in his pantry.

by spidercat

5/21/2026 at 7:02:31 PM

> the “spice” due to wasabi is a different thing

But also, outside of Japan, 95% of the time the stuff with your sushi isn't wasabi, it's green-colored horseradish-and-mustard paste.

by kibwen

5/21/2026 at 7:23:26 PM

That's also true inside Japan. True wasabi is really hard to grow commercially and thus very expensive.

by ctoa

5/21/2026 at 6:19:15 PM

Anecdote from my second COVID infection: Lost my sense of smell (anosmia) for about 2 weeks. That also killed my sense of taste.

The heat sensation from capsaicin was unaffected. I was eating a lot of vegetable bowls at the time. Adding spiciness was the only that kept them palatable.

There were a few tastes that I could dully perceive but, stupidly, I didn't make notes about what they were.

I can recall one thing that I didn't like: I tried peanut butter, which I typically find delicious, and found it a horrifyingly disgusting soulless paste. It made me wretch. It was awhile, even after I got my sense of smell back, before I could eat it.

I don't believe my sense of smell has recovered to my pre-COVID capability. This story is very interesting to me.

by EvanAnderson

5/21/2026 at 6:36:00 PM

Interesting. I lost 100% of taste and smell months. I never found anything I could taste. Spicy has zero effect. I could cut onions with no tears. Literally nothing with any food

The only “sensation” I had eas texture which I found very gross without flavor.

It was like that for about 2 months and it slowly came back over another 5 maybe 6. Salty was the first thing I noticed.

5 years later and I still don’t smell coffee, gas or a few other things. It’s weird walking down the coffee isle at the store and not smelling it at sll

by jotato

5/21/2026 at 6:50:58 PM

> The only “sensation” I had eas texture which I found very gross without flavor.

It's powerfully off-putting, isn't it? I had no idea tasteless texture would be so upsetting.

I hope this treatment becomes something I can partake of personally. I find that I'm using a lot more salt than I used to trying to make up for lack of taste. I switched to a potassium salt substitute to try to reduce my sodium intake.

by EvanAnderson

5/21/2026 at 7:28:43 PM

I lost my sense of taste and smell for a few days when I had covid, I was eating a bowl of spicy ramen at the time and I completely lost the ability to taste anything over the course of about 2 minutes. No spice, no salt, nothing. I usually have a pretty high spice tolerance, but to be certain I ate an entire birds eye chili. This would normally leave me in pretty excruciating pain for a few minutes, it did nothing. Strange that others report retaining their spice taste to some degree, that wasn't my experience at all. I wonder what was different?

by jcgrillo

5/21/2026 at 6:04:56 PM

the damage seems to be neurological / local nerves, I haven’t tried chewing gum but the best/fastest results I’ve had for this so far has been lions mane + micro dose of other mushrooms, smell therapy has been reported to show benefit also which probably matches the chewing gum thing, rebuilding/recalibrating the nerves slowly over time

by luxuryballs

5/21/2026 at 6:20:50 PM

I developed tinnitus on one side after covid, anecdotal but it slowly went away after I started taking a b complex daily, apparently it can promote nerve repair.

Not totally sure I fully believe it; but it seemingly worked for me.. shrug

by cyberpunk

5/21/2026 at 7:31:37 PM

how long before you noticed a change?

by intheitmines

5/21/2026 at 7:56:50 PM

I have a friend who doesn't have a sense of smell since birth. It's more of a problem than one would think.

His diet is rather plain, and he doesn't enjoy a lot of food. It's mostly meat, fried things and sweets he enjoys. Most vegetables and low-fat dishes he just can't enjoy at all. Luckily he doesn't get a lot of pleasure from eating and that's what keeps him from getting obese.

It also gives him a lot of anxiety that he or his clothes smell bad. He often just can't assess it from other clues. He often needs to ask people to smell him during the day, which leads to some hilarious situations sometimes, but it's not by choice. It's driven by the fear of smelling bad and not realizing it.

It can also get dangerous in some situations, not being able to smell a gas leak, only noticing smoke once it got so thick it will hurt when breathing, and not being able to smell when food goes bad.

by andix

5/21/2026 at 8:09:03 PM

I wonder how the anxiety developed, I would think they would not be self-aware given they cannot understand it, so maybe they were bullied as a kid by smelling bad once and it created traumatic memories for him as it's sort of an unexplainable thing to his nose.

by hmokiguess

5/21/2026 at 8:40:26 PM

From embarrassing situations in the past.

by andix

5/21/2026 at 8:16:32 PM

I can't smell much at all. one time when i was 17 my friend told me i was kinda smelly (i had just exercised). I've been stressed about it since. the human brain can latch on to the oddest things

by thornewolf

5/21/2026 at 8:14:41 PM

My mother lost her sense of smell after surgery for nasal polyps in her teens. She was mortally afraid of fire breaking out in the night and not being able to smell it.

by klondike_klive

5/21/2026 at 7:33:48 PM

I lost my sense of smell from Covid for a few weeks once, too. I used to eat mulberrys right off the tree in my backyard, but I realized that I could no longer tell if they had gone bad without my sense of smell.

The smell/taste of my favorite foods no longer there is one thing, but the lack of ability to tell whether there is something wrong with whmy food was far more concerning.

by foo12bar

5/21/2026 at 6:13:13 PM

I had my fourth Covid infection just a month ago. Fully vaccinated, and having had it three times before, it still hit me like a brick.

It took 10 days to get rid of the flu like symptoms, two weeks to get to semi normal, but my taste hasn't been the same since. Not entirely gone, but very muted.

If these gums were available off the shelf I would buy them in a heartbeat!

by MrDresden

5/21/2026 at 7:44:00 PM

> Fully vaccinated

How long ago? Covid vaccine efficacy drops significantly over time so if you haven't had a booster recently, you are not vaccinated: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/why-pro...

Which that reminds me, I should schedule a booster since I'll be attending a party and a wedding soon.

by craftkiller

5/21/2026 at 8:02:52 PM

The thing that helped me is "smell training". At random moments throughout the day try and sniff things that are just beyond your ability to smell. When I was fully in covid I could just barely perceive some sensation when sticking certain bottles of spice up to my nose.

by indoordin0saur

5/21/2026 at 7:54:11 PM

I last had Covid 2 years ago. My sense of smell came back to about 25% of what it used to be. I describe it to people like distance. Like when a neighbor a couple floors below in an apartment building is cooking tomato sauce and you can smell it a bit by your apartment door. That's what it smells like when my face is over it cooking.

I'd definitely try this gum.

by JohnTHaller

5/21/2026 at 7:41:03 PM

I only partially lost my sense of smell and taste from covid. Certain foods started to taste different, but I could still taste them. Then I noticed that a particular cologne I had was now completely odorless to me, so it kind of seemed like there was some particular type of smell/odor/taste that I couldn’t sense.

I eventually adjusted and got used to it and then everything tasted weird again for a while when my senses finally restored after a few months.

by nkrisc

5/21/2026 at 8:02:42 PM

Interesting. So the idea is that the senses are just damages, not dead. So use a really strong scent/smell to invigorate them, get something going through them, and have that redevelop the neural pathways (not a biologist).

by ecshafer

5/21/2026 at 7:28:58 PM

I believe this condition is called parosmia. I had a mild version for four years. It’s finally resolving (except shampoos and some sodas smell really strange)

by bilsbie

5/21/2026 at 8:00:03 PM

It's weird hearing about this now, because I've always had a mild version each time I had a cold - mint would taste strangely kind of... floral? hard to describe, and orange juice would just taste sour, for a couple weeks after.

It's strange how much these things are hard to discuss without the immediate context - I remember what it was like, but the translation without ready access is surprisingly challenging.

by jaggederest

5/21/2026 at 7:59:11 PM

I remember this happened to me after catching covid very early. Wasn't sick beyond a flu, but it knocked my sense of smell and taste out completely for about a month. Once it started to recover it came back quick but it was a very worrying month because before it started to recover there was no sign that I was going to improve. I definitely feel sympathy for anyone who had to do with this for a long time.

by indoordin0saur

5/21/2026 at 6:16:07 PM

I lost my sense of smell from a minor virus I caught a couple years ago. It probably wasn't COVID (I tested negative at least).

It came back very slowly, and unevenly. My coffee/chocolate taste is still quite dim.

Of all the possible smells to lose, why did it have to be those?

by jnwatson

5/21/2026 at 6:25:10 PM

Hard to say without more info but most at-home COVID tests have a very high false negative rate due to the virus mutating and generally how the test is designed.

by gradientsrneat

5/21/2026 at 5:45:14 PM

Where can somebody with regular taste senses buy these specially formulated chewing gum to try and develop super senses?

I wonder if it dulls other senses the opposite of blind people who develop more sensitive hearing.

by someperson

5/21/2026 at 7:20:24 PM

I remember losing sense of smell, and one thing that was interesting was being able to perhaps train it back by sniffing different essential oils, and writing a note about what I was able to smell.

by layman51

5/21/2026 at 6:03:16 PM

> “The chewing gums were specially formulated to keep their flavour for longer, and actually change flavour as you chew.

Sounds like an amazing product that I would want to buy. I probably chew 20 sticks of gum a day.

by cactusplant7374

5/21/2026 at 5:47:15 PM

Does it work for people who aren't dad's?

by readthenotes1

5/21/2026 at 6:21:41 PM

It's too early to tell if it worked because he was a dad or because he was once a mama's boy.

by elkrapo

5/21/2026 at 6:14:14 PM

"dad's" is possessive not plural

by bullfightonmars

5/21/2026 at 7:47:08 PM

my smell never recovered fully from first waves of covid. I am at 70%. ill try this.

by retinaros

5/21/2026 at 6:44:19 PM

How it feels to chew 5 gum

by pipeline_peak