I can barely smell anything after drinking coffee. Is this normal?

Joined
May 29, 2013
Messages
351
This might sound peculiar, but one of my great pleasures is taking a morning walk and smelling the air. The trees, the tarmac, some woodsmoke drifitng from neaby, even traffic exhaust.

However, after my daily coffee, my sense of smell has basically gone. I can smell very pungent things, obviously, but I can no longer "smell the air".

My assumption is that this is basically coffee...fumes...getting on my olfactory membrane and covering up other smells.

But I'm curious if anyone knows any more about this? Could it be something more...biological? An allergic reaction?
 

PhoenixGaia

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2020
Messages
36
This seems unlikely to be caused by the coffee... as far as I know smell experts even use coffee to "reset" their smell temporarily
 

RealNeat

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Joined
Jan 9, 2019
Messages
2,345
Location
HI
This might sound peculiar, but one of my great pleasures is taking a morning walk and smelling the air. The trees, the tarmac, some woodsmoke drifitng from neaby, even traffic exhaust.

However, after my daily coffee, my sense of smell has basically gone. I can smell very pungent things, obviously, but I can no longer "smell the air".

My assumption is that this is basically coffee...fumes...getting on my olfactory membrane and covering up other smells.

But I'm curious if anyone knows any more about this? Could it be something more...biological? An allergic reaction?
Does is coincide with nasal congestion?
 

Austin Resch

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2020
Messages
101
This might sound peculiar, but one of my great pleasures is taking a morning walk and smelling the air. The trees, the tarmac, some woodsmoke drifitng from neaby, even traffic exhaust.

However, after my daily coffee, my sense of smell has basically gone. I can smell very pungent things, obviously, but I can no longer "smell the air".

My assumption is that this is basically coffee...fumes...getting on my olfactory membrane and covering up other smells.

But I'm curious if anyone knows any more about this? Could it be something more...biological? An allergic reaction?
Have you recently had any cold/flu? I have read that along with being common in some people after an infection, it may deplete ones body of zinc, and a notable symptom of zinc deficiency is loss of taste/smell. Maybe including more oysters, liver, muscles, could hopefully help?
 
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