Sense of smell & taste

I hesitate to put all negative changes down to PD (are there any positive ones?) but I seem to have lost my sense of smell, also taste. Has anyone else found this?
i will soon have my nom-de-forum against every category, but yes, loss of sense of smell is one of the defining symptoms of pd. funnily enough, i don't have it. there has been a suggestion that there are different types of pd, and whether there is a loss of smell is one of the differentiators.
ps
The people with PD were able to correctly identify several odors. In fact, they were better able than the control subjects at identifying lemon. However, the people with PD were less likely than control subjects to be able to identify licorice, coconut, banana, dill pickle, paint thinner, turpentine, cherry, and soap.
it seems to be specific to certain smells! very strange.
Hi everyone
I thought I'd lost my sense of smell too , but once in a while I get a surprise and can smell again.
For instance , tonight I've been varnishing some clay beads I've been making and I 've used clear nail polish. Well, I've driven my O/H out of the room and for once I see what he means! I'm usually immune to any smells.
Does this mean we can get our sense of smell back ?
Did the sniff test as part of the diagnostic process.I could only smell 2
out of 10, eucalyptus and vanilla.. Don't know what it was meant to signify.
It was quite fun actually and certainly wasn't as scary as an MRI or as
painful as a lumbar puncture. :grin:
hi lorna
unfortunately, i believe, the sense of smell once gone stays gone as the cells have died, but out of the 40-odd families of smells, some remain.
the smell test can be used to separate IPD ('normal' pd) from other, similar diseases. but also, i read, young onset pd associated with the parkin gene may not result in loss of sense of smell.
loss of pizza smell seems to be major indicator of pd before any other signs and so could be used for very early treatment

http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/92/8/473
http://www.neurologyreviews.com/aug06/olfactory.html
Hi Turnip !
Thanks for the links re- sense of smell , very interesting if a trifle technical. Seems the boffins are making progress in this area and if an aid to diagnosis comes as a result of this research , then that's a very good thing.
Enjoy your Sunday - would be good if we could smell clues to lunch being ready. Alas, in our house , I don't think ploughman's ( too hot to cook ! ) has much of an aroma - might detect the pickle tho !
Best wishes.
might try lemon chicken followed by lemon meringue
cheers
'zzcuse me, but what on earth is pizza smell? The delivery persons are perfectly nice & my microwave is clean
pizza smell is very complex but mostly oregano.
on a more serious note - you [u]microwave[/u] pizza???
doesn't it go all soggy?
Apparently , according to Turnip's info. it's the oregano which gives it its aroma !
That's assuming the pizza maker sprinkled some on !
Well my pizza cooking process goes either
a) phone call, wait, answer door, unwrap or
b) supermarket (via internet or OH), freezer then microwave when required.
Doesn't go soggy no smell involved or taste for that matter