It is possible that you lose your sense of smell and taste when you reach the age of 60. Your body may lose some of the nerve endings and less mucus is produced compared to what you have before. These factors help the nose identify the smell. Also, there are diseases related to old age which affect your sense of smell such as Alzheimer or Parkinson disease.
Adaptation
Your sense of smell can also be affected by adaptation. This is when you are continuously exposed to strong smells that you sometimes don’t even know are there.
An example of this is when your work entails you to use different chemicals and smells that after a period of time it becomes normal to you and not for others.
Illnesses
There are a lot of illnesses that can cause loss or make your sense of smell less sensitive. Nasal congestion is one of the symptoms of illnesses that can affect your sense of smell. These include common colds, flu, allergic rhinitis, and at some point your smoking habits.
Another symptom is abnormal growths or nasal polyps which affect nerves inside the nose to make your sense of smell dull. How to regain sense of smell is a matter of treating the illness properly.
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