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In November 2005, I was whacked with a nasty cold. After a quick shot of a popular nasal spray up each nostril, the back of my nose was on fire. With that, I was launched on a journey through the senses, the psyche, and the sciences. My olfactory nerve was destroyed, perhaps forever. I had lost my sense of smell. 

 

Phantosmia—a constant stench of every disgusting thing you can think of tossed into a blender and pureed—is the first disorienting stage. It’s the brain’s attempt, to compensate for loss by conjuring up a tortured facsimile. As the hallucinations faded and anosmia (no smell at all) moved in to take their place, I was beset by questions: Why are smell and mood hand-in-hand? How are smell disorders linked to other diseases? What is taste without flavor? My conversations with renowned geneticists, smell dysfunction experts, neurobiologists, chefs, and others ultimately led me to a life-altering understanding of smell, and to the most transformative lesson of all: the olfactory nerve, in ways unlike any other in the human body has the extraordinary power to heal.