Hacker News Reader

Comment by spidercat | Hacker News Reader

Anecdotally, when my best friend first caught covid, his sense of smell was heightened, but his ability to perceive spiciness from both capsaicin (peppers) and allyl isothiocyanate (e.g. mustard, wasabi, radishes) completely disappeared. I just went back to check the messages he sent me to make sure I'm not spewing nonsense, and sure enough: "I didn't even have that nose feeling from wasabi." He couldn't perceive any spice at all. Not from peppers, not from hot sauce, not from wasabi. Nada. He tried everything he had in his kitchen.

Covid is a weird virus. I'd be really curious about the mechanism behind this. I'm sure it's nothing great, like some sort of nerve damage, but at least in my friend's case he and his senses made a full recovery as far as he can tell.

View on HN

Covid caused nerve damage in the nose in the sensory glands where smell is perceived. Good news is that lots of viruses do this so the body has evolved to regrow these nerves.

Why would a virus evolve to do that? So weird. When I had covid it gave me a metallic taste in my mouth. Also was weird.

Probably it's just attacking accessible cells, and nerve cells in the nose are relatively exposed.

I don’t mean to say you’re wrong, but the “spice” due to wasabi is a different thing, not due to capsaicin at all. Same with mustard, it’s a similar thing. And then there’s yet another “spice” from the Sichuan peppercorn, again not due to capsaicin. It’s possible that COVID masks some of these but not others.

> the “spice” due to wasabi is a different thing

But also, outside of Japan, 95% of the time the stuff with your sushi isn't wasabi, it's green-colored horseradish-and-mustard paste.

> 95% of the time the stuff with your sushi isn't wasabi

so unexpected that i had to look it up; turns out you're right: https://chefcoca.com/blogs/food-service-equipment-resources/...

That's also true inside Japan. True wasabi is really hard to grow commercially and thus very expensive.

But the source of the spiciness is the same, at least: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allyl_isothiocyanate

Isn’t wasabi just horseradish. Are you saying the mustard is what makes it not true.

> Isn’t wasabi just horseradish

Wasabi and horseradish are different! Horseradish is used as a substitute for wasabi so widely that you definitely can get the impression they are the same. But they are different plants.

I am well aware! That's why my comment says "spiciness from both capsaicin and radishes". :)

I didn't feel like looking up how to spell allyl isothiocyanate when writing my initial comment. Maybe I should have! I've edited it for clarity, since it's an important distinction which adds to why I'm so danged curious about the mechanism behind my friend's temporary inability to perceive pungency. I also see how my original wording may have implied I was conflating the two, so I've expanded on my friend's experience a bit. He experimented with pepper and radish based spice sources in his pantry.

oh sorry, not sure how i missed that! totally makes sense though, very remarkable that he lost both!

?I never had a fabulous sense of smell, but COVID really nerfed it. It came back partially but never what it was before, and lots of things still don't smell right. Coffee and chocolate are definitely duller with coffee being flat out different now. Some things I can't smell at all, however there are some things I can smell WAY better now, and none of them are good. Urine is an extremely strong smell now, anything with sulfur is also really strong, and I literally can't eat anything with cumin or even have it in the house now. So weird.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com