Why do people infected with COVID-19 lose their sense of smell and taste?

[SilentEchoes]

Smell loss is a neurological symptom of disease so why is it occurring in what has been thought to be a respiratory illness?

In the News:

Neurological effects of COVID-19. If you think coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) damages only the lungs, think again. In an article in Neurology Today, experts detail some of the possible neurological effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The article pointed to a report from three COVID-19–designated hospitals in Wuhan, China, where over 33% of patients with COVID-19 had neurological symptoms, including altered consciousness, evidence of skeletal muscle damage, and acute cerebrovascular disease. And these symptoms were more common with severe disease. What is unknown is whether these complications were caused by direct viral injury or secondary infections.

Neurologists are called upon to remain vigilant, especially with patients with severe disease and those in high-risk categories, including those aged 60 years and older and with underlying medical conditions (eg, heart disease, lung disease, and diabetes). What’s more, patients with neurological diseases may be at high risk for severe COVID-19, including those with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson disease, Alzheimer disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and myasthenia gravis. Early reports show that some COVID-19 patients may have headaches, stiff necks, and muscle aches—symptoms that may all suggest viral meningitis. But, since pulmonary symptoms often overwhelm these patients and lead to death, brainstem involvement is hard to discern. For now, those with ALS and other condition that affect respiration should be counselled to stick to CDC recommendations for high-risk groups. Neurologists, be alert.

There are other articles of interest in the link:

neurobrief.mdlinx.com/2020/...

Be well and stay vigilant.

SE

[rescuema]

I posted the below under Sharon's thread 3 days ago, but this is my thought, especially given that the sense of smell comes back in a few days.

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Zinc is used by the body to activate t-cells to fight infections. I wonder if people who experience anosmia were low in the mineral (especially vegetarians and vegans high in copper) and went zinc deficient, which could cause the problem. Given the S. Korean stat shows about 30% of the patient population experienced the issue with Covid-19, I'd be curious to see a correlation to the mineral status.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/271...

[park_bear]

In animal models the virus been shown to go everywhere in the body so I believe neurological injury is direct viral damage.

[SilentEchoes in reply to park_bear]

Do to a massive inflammatory response in the body I suppose.

[MichelleHarris]

I was told its because the olfactory nerve runs from the external world directly to your brain. I dont know if thats right x

[GymBag]

Virus is not even alive, it is tiny single strands of DNA (RNA) not even single cells that naturally insert themselves into every cell they find, including bacteria cells.Human lungs just happen to be needed more by the owner and are most fragile, the brain with fever comes in second, and failure of septic shock next. First they colonize inside some cells close to entry point: throat, nose etc and then replicate ( I do not know how) The hord enters the bloodstream and just keeps entering cells, taking it over. ( and I believe becomeing a one celled animal, not sure because the cell is now dead)

With luck your immune system recognizes the virus as an intruder in time and hooks on and envelops them and cleans them out of the body before too much damage. Weak immune system is the problem , strengthen the immune system. but, hurry.

[bepo]

Thank you for the post. Fascinating~!