If you're smelling burnt toast, the first thing you should probably do is check your toaster. Although lots of people think smelling something burning is a sign of a stroke, there's no solid evidence this is true. The idea of smelling phantom burning toast may be kind of amusing — but strokes are serious.
In COVID-19 patients, the prevalence of phantosmia also fluctuates between studies, from 10% [15] to 34% when OD is still present up to 11 months after the acute phase of the disease [11].
Yes, anxiety and the stress it causes can cause many odd symptoms, including phantom and odd smells.
Observation: About one-third of individuals with phantosmia will experience symptom improvement over time. Medications: Antipsychotics, antimigraine medicine, and antiseizure drugs can all be used to treat phantosmia. Surgery: Olfactory mucosa excision surgery may relieve phantosmia while preserving olfactory function.
Some brain tumors can cause olfactory (smell) delusions or hallucinations and these can be manifest as almost any odor. Having said that, they are extremely rare. If the odor is still perceived away from likely offending environments I would recommend seeing an otolaryngologist (ENT physician) for evaluation.
In most cases, phantosmia isn't a cause for concern and will go away in time. However, in rare instances, it could indicate a more serious health condition, such as Parkinson's disease, stroke or a brain tumor. Another name for phantosmia is olfactory hallucinations.
Phantosmia, which is an olfactory hallucination, sometimes occurs with anxiety. It can cause you to smell something that isn't there, or rather, a neutral smell becomes unpleasant. Most often, this bizarre sensation is caused by antidepressants or withdrawal from them. However, sometimes it's associated with anxiety.
If you have phantosmia, the odors can vary from smells that almost make you sick to really pleasant scents. But most people with phantosmia tend to detect bad smells. The odors have been described as “burned," "foul," "rotten," "sewage," or "chemical." You may be smelling it from one or both of your nostrils.
As the olfactory senses are located in the frontal lobe, behind the eyes, it is vulnerable to damage in a traumatic brain injury. But the lesser talked about symptom of this is a distorted sense of smell, where you find regular odours offensive.
a brain tumour in the temporal lobe could lead to sensations of strange smells (as well as other symptoms, such as, difficulty with hearing, speaking and memory loss)
Smelling things that aren't there is called phantosmia. It can be unpleasant and affect how things taste. But it isn't usually serious and may go away by itself in a few weeks or months. See your GP if the strange smell doesn't go away in a few weeks.
Phantosmia may be caused by a head injury or upper respiratory infection. It can also be caused by aging, trauma, temporal lobe seizures, inflamed sinuses, brain tumors, certain medications and Parkinson's disease. Phantosmia can also result from COVID-19 infection.
Conclusions: Stroke, angina, congestive heart failure, well-managed high blood pressure, and well-managed high cholesterol are associated with phantom odor perception. Vascular or metabolic conditions or their treatments may contribute to reporting of phantom odor perception.
However, some people experience a change to their sense of smell about three to four months following infection. People report certain things—like food or body odor—smelling like garbage, rotten eggs, or chemicals. This altered sense of smell is called parosmia.
A myriad of etiologies exists for phantosmia. However, idiopathic is the most common. Burnt smell is the most commonly reported smell associated with phantosmia, but other smells have been reported, such as feces, rotten, musty, gas, sweet, metallic, or fruity.
While aging is a common cause, phantom smells can be a sign of underlying medical conditions or endocrine disorders such as hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is a deficiency of thyroid hormones - thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3).
Several conditions may cause a bad smell in the nose, including sinusitis, tooth/ mouth infections, dry mouth, some medications, some foods/drinks, and olfactory damage.
Cognitive impairment is common during stroke and can be a lasting side effect. There is a common myth that during a stroke, the victim will perceive the smell of burning toast. The medical term for this is phantosmia; an olfactory hallucination. In other words, a phantom smell, or a smell that isn't really there.
That's because anxiety can cause sweating, which may make your armpits and other areas start to smell more like sweat. Anxiety may also cause mouth breathing, which appears to increase bacteria and lead to slightly worse breath.
So, the reason stress sweat smells worse than other sweat is because different glands react to stress than react to heat and exertion. These glands produce a kind of sweat that is full of food for bacteria, and bacterial growth leads to odor.
Interestingly, participants with diabetes treated with insulin showed a higher prevalence of phantom odours as compared with participants without diabetes (OR 2.98, 95% CI 1.41–6.32) [15].
Qualitative olfactory dysfunctions, such as parosmia and phantosmia, may be clinical conditions secondary to neurological diseases. The incidence of parosmia is underestimated, as well as its association with neurological diseases, due to poor self-reporting of patients and lack of objective methods for its measure.
A study that evaluated the ortho- and retronasal olfactory functions in MS patients found that 75% of the 16 investigated patients showed a quantitative olfactory disorder, 6.25% reported parosmia, and 18.75% reported phantosmia (29).