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Comment by csours | Hacker News Reader

Anecdote: Back in October '24 I got Covid. My only symptom that stuck around was lack of taste on my tongue (NOT Anosmia, it's lack of salty/sweet/sour/bitter response on the tongue itself), but only on the right half of my tongue. It slowly got better, but last week I lost taste on that side of my tongue again. The taste is coming back again now.

Anyway, I have no idea what's going on with me; it's not really severe enough to investigate further right now, and my case is only the tiniest part related to Dianna's.

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Zinc is a critical cofactor for enzymes involved in the regeneration and function of taste receptor cells. These cells have a high turnover rate, and zinc deficiency can impair their renewal. Zinc supplementation is usually the first line of treatment in taste disturbances, especially when nerve damage is not suspect, and it's often effective. See, e.g.: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S246854882...

Also: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23305423/

It's possible that covid infection somehow disrupted zinc homeostasis. Taste receptor cells also express ACE2, which is what the virus tends to latch onto... I suppose a feasible mechanism -- or at least a hypothesis -- is that viral binding to ACE2 may have downregulated zinc-dependent signaling pathways (for e.g., those involving metallothioneins or zinc-finger transcription factors).

In circa 2022 I got covid and lost smell. First I couldn't smell the spices in the kitchen, but I thought nothing of it. But some days later, I couldn't smell WD-40. That's when I noticed I can't smell anything at all. My sense of smell never really recovered. After about a year, I could faintly smell menthol. Now I have to really try hard if I want to get some faint sense of smell, but a lot of time I just don't smell anything.

I completely lost taste and smell around 2022 too. It wasn't like a clogged nose, I could absolutely not sense anything with my tongue and nose (except for touch). I read stories about it not coming back for some people and it absolutely shook me. At that moment I realized how much I love delicious food and that smell is a great indicator for things you might not expect (e.g. heat).

It luckily fully came back in my case, but it took many months. But it was properly scary! So weird that a viral infection (that didn't even make me very sick) could have such long-lasting and potentially life-altering effects.

I got covid once back in the summer of '22. I had high fever (40C) for two days but my taste and smell were gone for an entire month. Losing two of my five senses for so long was something I never want to experience again.

take a flashlight to your nostrils in a dark room with a mirror, are they inflamed? It could be reflux/silent reflux like I have, gases inflame the sinuses, then it's hard to breathe.

For any sinus inflammation issues, I would recommend trying Neti.

I had more or less constant inflammation growing up, two weeks of daily Neti solved that problem for good.

that didn't work for me. It helped in the moment but didn't address the underlying problem.

sorry to hear that, good luck

Same. Lost both smell and taste for a few days after I got COVID in 2021. My taste came back quickly, but my sense of smell took longer to come back and is still probably about 50% diminished. I can't smell things from a distance, only up-close or if it's really strong. Like I can't tell if my house stinks because my garbage needs to be taken out, but I can smell it up close. I've just relegated myself to not being able to smell much anymore which I guess is better than some of the other Long COVID symptoms out there. I do miss smelling things though.

Fungi infections can also mess with your taste.

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