Who has developed a bloodhound sense of smell since getting CFS?

[Athene]

That's really interesting that certain smells make you aggressive. Have you got any idea how that works?
My son sometimes gets furious for no apparent reason and I have wondered a few times if it was triggered by pongs. I used to send him to a trendy hippy nursery (the onyl place where they were cool abotu all his food allergies adn guaranteed he would never be given gluten or other things that make him illl) and sometimes they burnt incense, which made him go utterly loopy and attack the other kids. In the end I asked them to stop with the smells,and he was fine.

 

[Marlène]

hello Athene

maybe this article can put you on the way:
http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Odors

 

[Athene]

hello Athene

maybe this article can put you on the way:
http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Odors

Very interesting, thank you for that!

 

[caledonia]

I always took this to be a symptom of multiple chemical sensitivities.

I had this symptom early on in my illness. I also had severe multiple chemical sensitivities. As I got treatment for the MCS (neutralization drops), the super-sensitive smell thing cleared up. I was also diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis and started taking Armour thyroid around that time. Also started taking Zoloft around that time. So I'm not sure which one of those helped.

I have extremely low adrenal function and can't tolerate adrenal supplements. I don't have Lyme that I know of.

I'm now taking Thorne Labs Multi IV, which has active B12 and folate in it. This alleviates my MCS so I can even be around bad chemicals in a limited way.

The aggression thing is a symptom of MCS. Read Doris Rapp's book Is This Your Child? for a comprehensive list of MCS reactions.

 

[Marlène]

If you have a look at my labwork in the next link, you will discover I have a partial methylation block. This is linked (or leads to?) a reduced sulphur metabolism.
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/marlènes-results-of-methylation-organic-acids-and-sulphur-metabolites.16084/

If you want to read more about sulphur and chemical sensitivities, check this out:
http://salicylatesensitivity.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1401

or google :
sulphur chemical sensitivities
sulphur metabolism chemical sensitivities
reduced sulphur metabolism

 

[globalpilot]

Hi Athene, Yes, I sure have had this. When it first happened i had been cheating very badly on my diet and I connected it to that at the time. At first, I thought my sheets were too dusty so washed everything and it was still bad. They smelled so moldy/ dusty. I could smell the heater. I could smell the cigars sold across the raod.
And the dusty kitty litter was just horrible. It didn't last long in my case, maybe a week or so.

I have since read it is related to high estrogen:
http://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/symptoms-and-solutions/heightened-smell.aspx. That does make sense in my case because there are other symptoms of estrogen dominance such as fibrocystic breasts, being prone to acne.

I also have the CYP1B1 mutation that converts estrogens into quinones. I'm not sure what, if any, role that has to play in this.

GP

I am not talking about the extreme sensitivity to certain pongs like perfume, smoke, cleaning products etc. that make many of us feel ill. I am taking about a super-heightened sense of smell to all things.

Since I got ill, I can smell just about any odour at the rate of one molucule per trillion. If someone has a fruit in a bowl with a tiny trace of mould on the side I can smell it from across the room. When I open my window I can smell when the guy two doors down from me is smoking inside his own living room. When my husband gets in from work I can usually smell exactly what he ate for lunch on his breath. If someone has petted a dog before comig near me I can smell it on their hands. I once walked down a street and I could smell patches of urine from three different dogs, each one had a distinctive smell and I could smell further down the road which one of them had peeed again - this was just AFTER a light shower of rain. If anyone offers me food that has been wrapped in clingfilm, the stink of the clingfilm on the food is so overpowering it nearly makes me vomit. I could go on and on!!!

It's like being pregnant, only much, much more so.

I'd like to know if anyone else has this too?

 

[August59]

I have a highly increased sense of smell, but I'm not sure if the odor I smell is real or is a phantom type odor or an odor pulled up out of memory somewhere. There are instances where I smell something very strongly, but there is no way the odor could be where I am at. It used to be very bad and almost constant, but has reduced down to more of a now and then thing and stress plays a very big part of how intense it gets.

 

[PhoenixDown]

Have you noticed that you can't tolerate certain foods because of your heightened sense of smell? If so which ones?

 

[cat65]

For what it's worth....I use to have a nose like a bloohound before I found out my B12 was low. After I started taking methly b12 subs. My sense of smell returned to normal. Maybe this was just coincidence.

 

[Marlène]

PhoenixDown: chewing gum!! if you would classify it under food. When hubby or the teens chew it ... it is a declaration of war.

 

[Sherlock]

I've never had a good sense of smell, but when I'm sick it is much more acute - especially in regards to chlorine in drinking water. I can smell it from yards away. I've always assumed that this was my system's way of keeping me from things that would be harmful to me during episodes of sickness.

 

[Sparrow]

I've never had a good sense of smell, but when I'm sick it is much more acute - especially in regards to chlorine in drinking water. I can smell it from yards away. I've always assumed that this was my system's way of keeping me from things that would be harmful to me during episodes of sickness.

I have that with tap water too. I can smell the chlorine in water like mad. Sometimes taking a bath it's like I'm walking into a swimming pool. I've noticed that sometimes it smells more strongly than others. I assumed it had something to do with differences in the water from time to time, but I'm wondering now if I can just smell it more strongly when I'm in a more precarious health position.

I can smell everything more clearly, but it does seem to be much worse for negative things than positive ones. Some scents are unpleasant in a normal way (can't think of a great example...poop, I guess?), but others trigger this overwhelming sense of aversion (like mold and chlorine). I want to get away from it NOW.

 

[Sherlock]

but others trigger this overwhelming sense of aversion (like mold and chlorine). I want to get away from it NOW.

About six years before I got sick, I had my one and only experience with the flu. I also had hyper sensitive smell and SUPER aversion to chlorine then. So the question is: is the chlorine so harmful because it'd exacerbate leaky gut? Or because it would harm the lungs by inhaling? Or both?

 

[Quirky]

I am not talking about the extreme sensitivity to certain pongs like perfume, smoke, cleaning products etc. that make many of us feel ill. I am taking about a super-heightened sense of smell to all things.

Since I got ill, I can smell just about any odour at the rate of one molucule per trillion. If someone has a fruit in a bowl with a tiny trace of mould on the side I can smell it from across the room. When I open my window I can smell when the guy two doors down from me is smoking inside his own living room. When my husband gets in from work I can usually smell exactly what he ate for lunch on his breath. If someone has petted a dog before comig near me I can smell it on their hands. I once walked down a street and I could smell patches of urine from three different dogs, each one had a distinctive smell and I could smell further down the road which one of them had peeed again - this was just AFTER a light shower of rain. If anyone offers me food that has been wrapped in clingfilm, the stink of the clingfilm on the food is so overpowering it nearly makes me vomit. I could go on and on!!!

It's like being pregnant, only much, much more so.

I'd like to know if anyone else has this too?

Yes, I have this too, and its so acute, that I can even smell compounds in all foods, and based on how I react to the smell, I know if I will react to it or not. I read a published paper a few years ago, about, mutations leading to some type of very primitive state, whereas, people used their sense of smell as to what to eat, and what was poisonous etc..

I have a lot of allergies, but also, toxicities from many compounds in foods, really, poisoned, as with blackberries for instance. (and many other foods).

Good thread.

 

[Quirky]

I have the same problem. I smell chemical smells, like fragrances added to products. Those drive me up the wall. THEN, I also can identify different bacteria/germs like Athene. I don't know the names, but I will say, "this street smells like that rotten milk/expired chicken smell." Or something will have the "wet towel" germ smell (a mold or mildew I presume), but it won't be a wet towel, it'll be someone's arm, so I can tell they rubbed against a wet towel, or somehow got that mildew on them. Or the dirty dish sponge smell. I can distinguish all those. And those don't drive me insane like the fake smells, but I can tell all those "organic" (aka, living thing) smells apart.

I have also been diagnosed with Lyme. So go figure!!!!!!!! Pretty nuts. I would really like to know what causes this. A few months before I crashed....really for about a solid year, the smell of my deodorant had been driving me insane, and I wouldn't wear it. That was really my first symptom, honestly. It came before the others.

I am wondering about adrenal involvement. Not sure if it could be due to Lyme itself, or if it is just kind of a part of the whole thing going on. Would love to hear thoughts though.

I'm guessing it's either adrenals, since that is a known symptom with dysfunction of adrenals, or if it's toxicity from too much of an infection in the body.

Which lab did you use for LD tests? How many years were ill with symptoms, before your LD diagnosis? Do you get elecrical vibrating jolts in the body, more so in the torso?

I had an itch under the left arm in April. I thought it was a mole. I scratched it
and "it" fell off, sqauahed. During that time, I had "flu" but real flu, blocked nose,
cough etc.. My heart went up 30 bpm above its base line for about four weeks.
Floaters, headaches, and other symptoms, plus now the electricl jolts. My GP tested
using the ELISA, it was negative. I know that tests are not reliable. I am not sure, if I
should do PCR tests with IGENEX?

I had a weird rash on my tummy two weeks ago, it was not typical bull's eye rash.

I have no idea what the bug under the arm is. I have not been to a park, or woods,
have no pets. Nor did the previous tenants in the appartment. I often see same little
bugs crawling on the wall, which may be coming from outside..

 

[xks201]

Exact opposite I feel like my taste and smell declined.

 

[Sherlock]

but others trigger this overwhelming sense of aversion (like mold

I'll always remember the account from another forum a year ago, from a woman who went camping in Death Valley and found that all her worst symptoms quickly disappeared. When she went home, she was sick again.

 

[Athene]

Which lab did you use for LD tests? How many years were ill with symptoms, before your LD diagnosis? Do you get elecrical vibrating jolts in the body, more so in the torso?

I had an itch under the left arm in April. I thought it was a mole. I scratched it
and "it" fell off, sqauahed. During that time, I had "flu" but real flu, blocked nose,
cough etc.. My heart went up 30 bpm above its base line for about four weeks.
Floaters, headaches, and other symptoms, plus now the electricl jolts. My GP tested
using the ELISA, it was negative. I know that tests are not reliable. I am not sure, if I
should do PCR tests with IGENEX?

I had a weird rash on my tummy two weeks ago, it was not typical bull's eye rash.

I have no idea what the bug under the arm is. I have not been to a park, or woods,
have no pets. Nor did the previous tenants in the appartment. I often see same little
bugs crawling on the wall, which may be coming from outside..

Those electric jolts are a surefire lyme symptom and I don't know of any other illness that causes them. The initial flu is also typical if stage 1 lyme.
As you said, Elisa it not reliable.
You could ask your doc for a Western blot and insist on heving the printout of all reaults adn all bands, but again, if it is not done by a good lab it could be another unreliable test (some labs don't bother to test all bands).
If you can afford it go straight to Igenex, or else, get an ILADS recommended lyme doc and let him advise on the lab.

 

[Athene]

About six years before I got sick, I had my one and only experience with the flu. I also had hyper sensitive smell and SUPER aversion to chlorine then. So the question is: is the chlorine so harmful because it'd exacerbate leaky gut? Or because it would harm the lungs by inhaling? Or both?

I have a super chlorine aversion and I know 3 ways it can harm us.

1. in drinking water it kills off probiotic bacteria, more than it kilss the bad ones, so it's bad for gut flora

2. it has to be sulphated, and having leaky gut means you are failing to sulphate the cells lining your gut. KIt does something to the whole body. If you're not sulphating properly, after you've been in a chlorinated pool you'll feel weak, heavy and excessively tired.

3. It sneaks into your thyroid gland and stops iodine getting there instead. This means you are more likely to develop thyroid deficiency, which people with CFS are especially vulnerable to (as with all things, you usually get a low level that scrapes into the "normal" range so the doc tells you there is nothing wrong).

Back in the days when I used to let friends bully me into going swimming occasionally, I would always bleed under my skin and get deep red around my nose adn especially just under it, like lots of tiny blood blisters. This was definitely the chlorine, as it never happens in the sea. I'd love to know what was causing that.

 

[Athene]

Exact opposite I feel like my taste and smell declined.

Are you getting enough zinc? The commonest cause of losing smell and taste is zinc deficiency. If you have any white spots on your finger nails, that's a confirmation of it!