People without a sense of smell breathe differently from those who can smell, according to a new study released yesterday. The results shed light on the extent to which sense of smell might impact long-term health, as it is common for people who lose that sense to suffer serious health issues.
The study involved a group of individuals born without the sense of smell—also known as congenital anosmia—who wore a device over their nose for a 24-hour day to track air flow data. While their breathing rate varied little compared to a control group, the data revealed the anosmic cohort sniffed four times on average over the course of a single, continuous breath, while healthy individuals sniffed roughly nine times. The difference allowed scientists to accurately predict 83% of the time whether an individual could smell or not. See how we smell here.
The loss of smell from infections, head trauma, or smoking is much more common than congenital anosmia—just one in every 10,000 people is born without a sense of smell. Roughly a fifth of the population experiences smell loss throughout life.
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