Study on Olfatory Loss

Rio de Janeiro, June 2019

Our fifth sense is closely linked with memory and is highly emotive, probably more so than any other of our senses. I lost my olfactory function in the year 2010, not knowing it was a first indication for Parkinson‘s disease. No doctor could help me out to find the source back then until i found out myself three years ago. I know someone else in a similar situation, having lost it the same year while we worked together in the same office. The only difference is he is not a Parki but lost the sense on a level of hundred per cent which is called anosmia, where as my loss is only eighty per cent named hyposmia. I do smell some parts of a perfume for instance but it is uncomfortable and strange. Neither do i smell myself, rotten food or my nephew‘s fully shitted diapers. It is actually quite practical not having to deal with smelly fellow citizens in the metro or stinky street corners  but can be dangerous as i don't smell burned food on the stove and it happened so many times that i forgot the boiling rice until i figure out a black cloud coming from the kitchen. Plus I have a gas oven. Many pots and pans had to be replaced.

One of the reasons why i never went hiking to Canada is the fear of bear. You first smell him when entering his territory and I would probably step right into him.

My sister Guggi got me into the carbohydrate limited keto-diet which seems to be very good to protect my imploding, dopamine producing, nerv cells in my Substantia Nigra. Must say i do feel good to change diet , thus energy and weight loss but sister has to suffer from my really bad smelling breath as the acidy ketones have that side effect. 

My great friend and author Bodo Mrozek interviewed me in Berlin a couple of weeks ago for his ongoing research project  „The Sent of Others - An Olfactory History of German Partition 1949 -2000“ he is working on at the Center for Contemporary History in Potsdam. 

https://zzf-potsdam.de/en/forschung/projekte/scent-others

How does the GDR smell? I do still remember the smell of abandoned Russian barracks or the burned brown coal coming out of the chimneys, being the only heating system we had in the nineties in East Berlin. How does affect the loss of smell our society and how important is it? On a more personal level smell is extremely important when it comes to attraction between two people. Smell loss can lead to difficulty in emotional relations and isolation or depression. Well, that is worst case scenario. In my case i don't suffer from any of that though i am not aiming to be back in a close relation ship with a partner again.

Anyway, i got used to the situation and wont think about the consequences anymore.

It is what it is