The Nose Knows :)

[Kari]

Hi everyone,

The other day I stir fried some ground beef (organic, grass fed), and noticed that I found the smell somewhat offensive and a little nauseating. The beef was very fresh and appetizing looking. Anyhow, it turned out that I should have "listened" to my nose and not eaten it, as I felt unwell and had a couple of urgent BM's later in the day. My SO had absolutely no problem with either the smell or his digestion.

There have been other times when I have found an odor objectionable, and invariably if eating the food in question have had a reaction. I'm wondering if any of you relate to this? I have decided that from now on, I will pay close attention to and honor my sense of smell :).

Love,
Kari

[sarkin]

That's really interesting, Kari. Was it appetizing to eat, despite being unappealing to smell? I have wondered whether sometimes things are unappealing to me (smell included) when I'm already a little affected by some MC glitch. Or - maybe a tiny amount of food-borne 'offness' can affect us, and not others?

I have a smell-related question - I feel as though I smell different sometimes. (Kind of like when people eat asparagus and it makes their pee smell funny... when I'm reacting, I notice some different smell, not quite like almonds, and I wonder whether it's mast-cell related... I noticed it right before I had to give up almonds, and though that was it, but it's something else, maybe a marker for some MC or mast-cell reaction... which I doubt I will ever be able to identify till I built that backyard lab!)

I think I've reported before that my husband often has an especially acute sense of smell right before a night of insomnia. There must be so much we don't know about smell, that could really guide us in our quest for health.

Love,
Sara

[tex]

Kari,

I have a hunch that might be a remnant of some of the primal skills that were once vital for survival, that still reside in our genes.

Love,
Tex

[draperygoddess]

I have noticed that sometimes, something just smells "off" to me, as well. I am easily nauseated, so usually I can't get past the smell to eat it. Everyone else in the family will eat it with no problems, but I just can't get it down. I always attributed it to my sensitive stomach.

Sara, that thing about smelling different--diabetics with uncontrolled blood sugar emit a "fruity" smell...maybe there's something to that (although others might not notice it).

[Kari]

Sara - to answer your question, the smell kind of killed my appetite, but I ate anyway against my better judgement. As time goes by, I seem to be fine tuning my eating habits, with the latest endeavor being to pay attention to my sense of smell. Now that I have reached the point in my healing that I can eat a much more varied diet, I try to be very cognisant of only eating something that I have a real appetite for. I'm finding that if I do that, I increase my chances of the digestive process going well.

Tex - I agree, but although the sense of smell is no longer vital to our survival, it may be more important than we think. Doing a brief internet look-up, I discovered that our sense of smell is very closely connected to our sense of taste:

Seventy to seventy-five percent of what we perceive as taste actually comes from our sense of smell. Taste buds allow us to perceive only bitter, salty, sweet, and sour flavors. It’s the odor molecules from food that give us most of our taste sensation.

This explains why we cannot taste food when we have a cold with a stuffy nose :).

Here is another interesting quote from the same article:

Of all our senses, smell is our most primal. Animals need the sense of smell to survive. Although a blind rat might survive, a rat without its sense of smell can’t mate or find food. For humans, the sense of smell communicates many of the pleasures in life--the aroma of a pot roast in the oven, fresh-cut hay, a rose garden. Smells can also signal danger, fear, or dread.

Sorry for going on a bit on this topic, but I just find it very fascinating. And Sara, your husband's experience is very interesting.

Love,
Kari

[tex]

I believe that records in our memory that contain scents are also some of our strongest and most persistent. For example, we can remember obscure events from our childhood more vividly, if they also contain an imprint of a certain fragrance. I can remember fields of onions that my dad raised when I was only 3 or 4 years old, because of the vivid odor of onions, (IOW, I can still "smell" those fields vividly, while only vaguely remembering what they looked like).

Love,
Tex

[mbeezie]

Sara,

I bet it is true that release of mediators from mast cells is enough to change one's body chemistry and odor. Dogs certainly have the ability to pick up these subtle changes. And it is true that people with mast cell disorders have a very acute sense of smell. When I am reacting I am so overly sensitive to smells. Strong smells like bleach, wood smoke and cheap perfume can send me into a tailspin very quickly. I had to ask a client to leave my office one time because her perfume made me have a huge mast cell reaction. I joke with my son that I am like a drug sniffing dog, so don't even try to pull the wool over my eyes.

Mary Beth

[MaggieRedwings]

Morning Kari,

I have been bless with an acute sense of smell - not sure it is a real gift. If something smells off to me for any reason, I refuse to eat it. I can smell something someone has baked or cooked and can pretty much discern the ingredients in it. It really bugs my hubby since his sense of smell is worth naught. Lately I have been plagued by sinus problems that never seem to end but the sense of smell is still prevailing.

Love, Maggie

[draperygoddess]

Maggie, that sounds so much like my younger daughter! She can detect ingredients a mile away. She also has a very discriminating palate--we've joked that she could be a food critic when she grows up.

[tex]

Strong smells like bleach, wood smoke and cheap perfume can send me into a tailspin very quickly.

You know, I've mentioned before that I seem to be mildly affected by mast cell issues, but usually, they're not a serious problem for me. At least, not as far as MC GI symptoms are concerned I have to say, though, now that Mary Beth has pointed out those particular odors, if I am exposed to them, and don't get away from them, promptly, they tend to trigger a migraine. I love to camp out, but campfire smoke ruins all the fun, for me. I can handle a little of it, but too much is bad news. Another biggie for me, since I work around diesel-powered trucks and tractors regularly, is diesel exhaust - if I don't get away from it, it only takes a few minutes for the headache to begin, soon followed by nausea.

One of the things that concerns me is that sometimes I can smell odors that aren't there, or at least shouldn't be there. I don't know if my sense of smell goes nuts sometimes, of if I'm just overlooking something.

Tex

[draperygoddess]

I also have always loved the smell of a wood fire, but I can't enjoy it like I used to--it gives me a headache. I always thought it was due to my respiratory allergies. Exhaust fumes also make me nauseated. (I figured they did that to everybody--they don't??) I have also noticed that I get a headache and nausea around a space heater--so much so that I went out and bought a CO detector, afraid that my heater was putting it off. The thing never detected anything, and no one else in the family seemed to have a problem.

I sang at a concert yesterday and there was one woman sitting near me who, I swear, smelled like the inside of a belly button. No one else seemed to notice (though I'm sure they would try to hide it if they did), but it just about knocked me over. Weird...

[mbeezie]

smelled like the inside of a belly button

I get headache and nausea and also my usual degranulation symptoms of tachycardia, sweating, and trouble swallowing. That hasn't happened in quite a while I always worry. The smell of jet fuel bothers me too and we are travelling at Christmas

Mary Beth

[Zizzle]

Mary Beth,
I've always had an acute sense of smell, and perfume and chemical odors of all kinds make me whoosy and nauseous. Every time I shop at a department store or mall, I have to make a b-line for the bathroom because the smells in the store cause immediate, urgent D. It's the strangest thing. Now that my doc has diagnosed me with mast cell issues (at least the skin variety that is triggered by exercise), I need to be more careful.

[sarkin]

WOW, this is interesting! I like wood smoke when there's plenty of ventilation and it's not too close or too much, and even bleach from a distance is OK, but any of those things, diesel fumes, excessive perfumes, etc. - YUCK. Most cleaning products with that sicky fake-gross over-scented thing going on make me feel very weird.

Cynthia, we have a 'rule' in my chorale - no perfume! Every once in a while someone messes that up, and it's really brutal. Hope your concert went well yesterday (and I'd love to hear all about it!),

Mary Beth, I am pretty sure that I was detecting some metabolic result of increased mast-cell activity in how I smelled. Not sure what triggered it. I took an extra quercetin yesterday, and it did make a difference. I had mustard greens at some point in these past few days, but I think I've had them before, and I've certainly had other greens & veg in the family. I'll be OK if I don't figure it out - but only if it doesn't happen again! This thread is making me realize it could have been something other than food. (A neighbor pointed out that I could have picked up a minor bug of some kind, and that could have been a trigger.)

Sara

[Lesley]

I also have an acute sense of smell, AND taste.
I could always smell when my kids got sick. My nose was better than the thermometer because I could tell before the thermometer registered anything. If they complained about not feeling well, and they SMELLED sick I would let them stay at home. Sooner or later they would get a fever.

Bleach makes me nauseous. So do cilantro and marzipan. Not almonds, but marzipan, or any nut extract for that matter. Both the smell and taste.
I like woodsmoke as long as I am not too close, but cigarette smoke makes me feel sick. OTOH I love the smell of marijuana. Maybe that would help me? It never helped me for pain, nor did it help me sleep. But maybe it would put the MC to sleep? Panel? What do you think?

It makes sense that smell can cause a digestive reaction. When they are painting or gluing in an apartment in this complex I have to ask them to close the door because the smell makes me nauseous and gives me a headache. We are so sensitive to so many things it follows that just the smell might send us to the throne. I never thought of it that way!

Sara, I hope you find the cause of your upset, and that it's over soon. You are so full of optimism and hope.