A few years ago Dr Krati Garg, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon in Melbourne, was in the theatre about to start work on a patient when she smelled sevoflurane.
Patients are put to sleep during surgery with the use of Sevoflurane. In large quantities its bitter smell can be seen, but trace amounts are largely indiscernible.
No one else in the room could smell it, but the anaesthetist who had worked with Garg before found a small leak in the tube and adjusted it.
Garg likes to smell things that other people can't. She notices the smell of the earth before it rains, and often says to her husband, "It's probably better that you taste and tell me if it's off or not."
She was known in her family as having a super-sensitive nose like her grandmother. She was so impressed with her mother that she came home from school and described the exact foods and spices used in the curry.
Garg has a very sensitive nose. The Guardian
She was repelled by certain smells and even trace amounts of a particular rose-fragranced syrup made her recoil. Her family hired a private tutor to help her with physics and the smell of his body made her sleepy. I would look at the clock. I told my mother after a few months that I couldn't sit. We had to let him go.
Garg has a heightened sense of smell, but this year she started becoming more curious about this skill. She noticed that she was subconsciously running her own early-warning testing system, even though she was being regularly tested for Covid-19. The loss of smell is a symptom of Covid infections. Garg came to the conclusion that she was possibly a "super-smeller" after reading up on the topic.
A neuroscientist at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health inMELBOURNE says that individual olfactory acuity is highly variable and altered by genetics, age, gender and even mood. Our sense of smell comes from a complex process in which an odour molecule enters the nose and hits a patch of tissue, where electrical impulses travel to various regions within the brain for interpretation.
Garg is at home. A neuroscientist says that people's sense of smell really gives them an indication of brain health. The Guardian
It is difficult to measure those on the outer edges of smelling ability because it is rare and subjective. It is known that changes in hormones and electrolytes associated with medical differences can heighten smell sensitivity, and that can be learned, according to Beauchamp.
One of the most extreme cases of a super-smeller to emerge in recent years is a Scottish woman who noticed a smell on her husband in the years before he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. She didn't realize the scent was common among people living with Parkinson's until she walked into a support group. Someone with that kind of acuity is off the charts. You do get variability in humans. That is how biology works.
It is the absence of a sense of smell that offers the most intriguing grounds for research. The sense of smell is an indication of brain health, and people think it's all about the nose.
Garg says she loves the smell of petrol because it reminds her of her childhood in India. The Guardian
A project at the Florey institute is looking at why a group of people in Melbourne have no sense of smell up to a year after recovering from Covid.
Garg is unlikely to ever get an official diagnosis of hyperosmia. They wouldn't need to get it treated if it's disturbing day-to-day function. Garg says being aware of her ability is enough for her. I feel like I have a little extra strength or tool.
Being a super-smeller means she sometimes has to take evasive action, like staying away from a particular group of people because someone is wearing a very strong perfume.
navigating intense memories is what it means. The area of the brain that processes smell gets information from the part of the brain associated with memory. Garg likes the smell of petrol, which she likes, but she also likes the smell of having her house flooded as a child.
You can either sit in the car with your windows down or on your two-wheeler and smell it, because there are people who come and fill it for you.
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