Does Everything You Drink Smells Like This? You Might Have Coronavirus, Experts Say

By Madelaine D. First Posted: Nov 08, 2020 08:25 AM EST

If everything you drink has a specific smell like this, you may have coronavirus, as per the experts.

Does Everything You Drink Smells Like This? You Might Have Coronavirus, Experts Say

(Photo : Alfonso Scarpa/ Unsplash)
If everything you drink has a has this smell, you may have coronavirus, as per the experts.

A person who loses their sense of smell or taste is likely to turn up a positive COVID-19 test. However, there is another related symptom that many still don't realize.

This symptom could also serve as a warning. According to the Washington Post, the majority of the coronavirus patients experienced a "warped" sense of taste or smell.

Smell of gasoline reported in many COVID patients

This "warped" sense of smell or taste doesn't mean that the sense has lost entirely but altered noticeably. Parosmia is the term called for this symptom.

t is a dysfunction of smell detection that could impact a person's ability to process flavor perception, and it appears prevalent in COVID-19 patients, as per BestLife.

An infectious disease physician at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Jennifer Spicer, shared her parosmia experience after recovering from the novel coronavirus in July.

Spicer said she thought she had recovered. But after several months, in October, she noticed that a glass of freshly opened red wine she drinks tastes like "gasoline." While, coffee had the same flavor, and the meat tasted universally rotten, as per Spicer.

It turned out that COVID-19 patients smelling or tasting gasoline and rot are prevalent. In another testimony, a woman was interviewed by BBC News about her symptoms and said that "meat tastes like petrol and Prosecco taste like rotten apples."

Meanwhile, a Newsweek article quoted a patient saying, "I had coronavirus, now my food tastes rotten, and wine tastes like oil."

These particular scents and flavors that seemingly familiar require further research and explanation are only a result of damaged olfactory receptors and nasal nerve endings.

On the other hand, Forbes reported that more than 50 million Americans suffer from a form of tinnitus or ringing in the ear. Tinnitus is the perception of sound when there is no extrinsic sound made. It can be perceived as a heartbeat, a whoosh, a status, or a high pitch.

This condition could occur in one or both ears and might be associated with other ear problems, such as ear pain, dizziness, or hearing loss. There are medical and surgical treatment options for tinnitus, but there has been no cure for it, and the latter could compromise hearing.

A recent internationally-based study observed more than 3,000 people from 48 countries with a prior history of tinnitus.

The study revealed that over 40% of people who suffer tinnitus symptoms diagnosed with coronavirus infections reported having worse tinnitus. Patients said their tinnitus became more bothersome even if the sound perception was not worse.

Besides, another study assessed incidents of worsening of hearing loss associated with the coronavirus infections.

A small study published in the International Journal of Audiology claims that patients with tinnitus and vertigo reported worsening symptoms for up to eight weeks after recovering from COVID-19 disease.