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From: era@hao.UUCP (Ed Arnold)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Vanishing sense of smell
Message-ID: <1978@hao.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Feb-86 17:47:10 EST
Article-I.D.: hao.1978
Posted: Thu Feb 27 17:47:10 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Mar-86 17:14:41 EST
References: <4451CJC@PSUVM>
Organization: Nat'l Center for Atmospheric Research
Lines: 22

Carolyn Clark (CJC@PSUVM.BITNET) writes:
>      
>      For several years my sense of smell has been erratic, sometimes
> very faint, sometimes distorted. Recently there have been periods of
> several days when I couldn't smell much of anything.

I seem to recall reading (probably in "Prevention Magazine") that *some*
persons suffering from olfactory deficiency were found to be zinc deficient,
and were helped by supplementation.  Recovery from this condition, when
due to zinc deficiency, tends to be slow (i.e. gradual over a period of
weeks or months).

If I had the problem, I'd buy a high-quality chelated mineral supplement
and follow the directions on the label (i.e. not overdo it).  With luck,
zinc would turn out to be the problem and I'd save visits to a $pecialist.
Of course, I'm not a doctor, so your course of action is up to you.  Best
of luck!
-- 

Ed Arnold * NCAR (Nat'l Center for Atmospheric Research)
PO Box 3000 * Boulder, CO  80307-3000 * 303-497-1253
csnet: era@ncar * arpa: era%ncar@csnet-relay * uucp: ...!hao!scdpyr!era