SMELL

Janelle Klein, MSN, ARNP

When my grandfather died from complications of a triple bypass surgery at the age of 75,  my grandmother missed him terribly.  After two years she decided to move closer to my mother.

As we helped my grandmother pack her household, I opened a seldom used closet.  There hanging, crisp and clean, was my grandfather's World War II army uniform.  As I pulled it out, I was overwhelmed with the pleasant scent of my grandfather.  I was surprised.  I didn't recall, prior to that moment, that my grandfather had a distinctive scent.  Yet, there I stood, transfixed with a scent powerfully reminding me of his gregarious, boisterous personality. 

I called my mom in and thrust the uniform into her hands.  "I didn't remember that he wore cologne," I told her. 

"He didn't," she replied.  "That is the aftershave he always used."  We marveled at the long lasting scent and the pleasant, powerful memories it evoked. 

The sensation of smell is generally not thought of as highly as sight, hearing or touch but it is still an extremely important sense.   

Our response to smell is largely from conditioning or association.  Smoke is a classic example.  We may enjoy the scent of a campfire for it's ambience but when we unexpectedly smell smoke in our house, we immediately begin anxious investigation.  When the smoke of our slash fire comes our way, we scurry to the other side.  But people who smoke cigarettes have conditioned themselves to light up and enjoy inhaling what the National Institute of Health calls, "the most concentrated form of pollution that most people are exposed to."

Our smell organ is called the olfactory bulb.  You can remember that easily by the phrase, "an ol' factory smells".   

Our nose has a built in air filter.  While the action of nose hair, turbulence and mucous trapping helps prevent debris from entering our lungs, it also helps airborne molecules contact smell receptors located in the skin on the top of the nasal cavity. 

The olfactory receptors send electrical impulses to the olfactory bulb located just above the nasal cavity.  Some molecules, such as ammonia, cause our nerves to give unpleasant sensations, such as stinging, which make us recoil.  Others create pleasant, soothing responses that draw us toward the scent. 

Your sense of smell has a lot to do with your ability to taste.  As you chew your food, the disturbed molecules connect with your olfactory receptors.  Often a loss of smell greatly decreases a person's ability to enjoy food. 

Things that decrease your ability to smell are smoking, aging, medications (common ones are antihistamines, nasal steroids and antibiotics), diseases of the nerves and brain injury by trauma or medical treatments such as radiation.  Olfactory receptor cells are replaced monthly.  So if the damage is only to the surface cells, one has a good chance of improving one's sense of smell when new receptors are in place.  However, eliminating avoidable insults to your olfactory organ, will keep you smelling longer.

Wishing you many pleasant smells and memories!