Photo Gallery: Unity soccer suffers loss to GRFC on home pitch

Unity's Mason Davis makes a pass down the field around Buffaloes' Ryley Heck in the first half. The Rockets gave up three first-half goals and one in the second to fall 4-0 at home to visiting Georgetown-Ridge Farm-Westville. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Rockets' Brendan Bachert races with the ball down the field in the first half. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Nolan Wishall settles the ball at midfield for the Rockets. Unity had several opportunities to score but could not get the ball around the keeper to light up the scoreboard. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Unity defender Mary Bryant lines up a pass after intecepting a GRFW pass in the first 90 minutes of the game. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Unity's Caden McCaskill dribbles around GRFW's Coy Potter. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Rockets' Gabe Pound heads the ball away from Georgetown-Ridge Farm-Westville's Nathan Blue. Blue, a junior, notched a first-half assist on his team's third goal. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Unity keeper Cole Saunders makes a second half save. The junior goalkeeper let all but four balls past him. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Goalkeeper Cole Saunders makes another second half save. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Teaguen Williams pushes the ball across the field on a run late in the second half. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Sophomore Nolan Remole battles for control of the ball in the last 30 minutes of the Rockets' match. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Mathew Hollett settles the ball in the second half. Hollett and the Rockets, despite several opportunities, were unable to produce a score in either half. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Unity's Nolan Remole (right) challenges a Georgetown-Ridge Farm player for possession in final minutes of his team's home game. Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Photo Gallery: Unity volleyball team survives three-setter to beat Westville

Lydia Rossi (left) and Lindy Bates leap above the net to block a kill during Unity's junior varsity game against Westville. Rockets won their match in straight sets, 2-0. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

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Kara Young pummels the ball during set one of Unity's home match against Westville. The Rockets dropped the first set, 27-25. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

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Junior Piper Steele attempts to put the ball away for a kill through Westville's Maddison Appl during set one. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

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Unity's McKayla Schendel puts the ball in play during set 2. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

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Ruby Tarr serves during second set action against the Tigers. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

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Junior Ruby Tarr passes the ball during second set. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

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Reagan Little passes the ball in the second set. Little led the Rockets' offense with 22 kills and chalked up 10 digs (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

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Unity libero (center) receives a Westville serve in the second half. The Rockets won the set, 26-24. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

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Jayci McGraw passses the ball to the front row during the third set action. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

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Ruby Tarr, Kara Young, Kaitlyn Schweighart, Reagan Little and members of the Unity volleyball team celebrate a point during the third set. The Rockets pulled out a 26-24 win to take the match, 2-1. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

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Had Covid and lost your taste or smell? You are not alone

Photo: Steve Harvey/Unsplash

Paul Arco
OSF Healthcare

Ottawa -- One of the most common symptoms found in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic was the loss of smell and taste.

While many people rebound quickly from the loss of smell (most recover within 30 days), others have not. In fact, according to a recent study in the BMJ, (the medical journal of the British Medical Association), about 27 million people in the world are experiencing long-term effects of loss of smell or taste.

"There is a subset about 5%, where we're seeing the loss of smell and taste remaining longer than six months," says Angela Vezzetti, PA, a physician's assistant at OSF HealthCare, specializing in otolarynogology (the study of the ear, nose and throat). "Some studies have looked at different gene mutations in patients where they're seeing certain mutations impact the sense of smell and the recovery rates. There are a lot of studies going on right now to determine why these patients are not recovering their sense of smell and taste. One other study did note that there was a loss of tissue in the olfactory bulb of the brain that could potentially be causing this prolonged sense of loss of smell."

The study also revealed that women were less likely to regain their sense of smell and taste than men, which Vezzetti attributes to women having a higher perception of smell than men. People who suffer from nasal congestion were also slower to recover from the loss of smell and taste.

The loss of smell has also been shown to have a significant impact when it comes to emotional and psychological well-being, especially among older people. Loss of smell can cause many emotions. It can make people feel disoriented, detached, anxious or worse.

"I don't think a lot of people really realized the impact of loss of smell and taste, the sense of smell in general, people kind of took for granted to an extent and a lot more people have seen the really importance of smell when it comes to just taste in general," says Vezzetti. "Without the sense of smell and taste you can have aversions to certain foods, which for elderly people can lead to either a lack of desire to eat, or nutritional deficiencies, even malnutrition, because they're not getting those vitamins that they need because the food either tastes bad, or they just can't taste it at all."

As time goes on, the medical community has developed a better understanding of how COVID-19 impacts the sense of smell and taste. That includes treatment options which have provided relief for some patients.

"The number one protocol that we recommend is something called olfactory or smell retraining, which we recommend patients take some essential oils which are a nice concentrated scent," says Vezzetti. "There are four of them that we recommend. They are a lemon, clove, eucalyptus and Rose and they smell those scents for maybe 15 seconds a day, once or twice a day and we've have seen some patients regain some of that loss of smell or diminished smell, retraining their sense of smell with these essential oils."

This is just another reminder about the importance of getting the COVID vaccine. Medical experts believe that the vaccine may protect people from losing their sense of smell even if they get infected.

"I think people can be reassured to know that the good majority of patients with loss of smell or taste from COVID do recover either completely or partially," says Vezzetti. "And there are some things that can be done in the meantime while they're experiencing their symptoms to try to help such as smell retraining, maybe trying intranasal steroid spray to try to relieve some of that inflammation and hopefully bring back those senses. But I think that the fact that the good majority of patients have improved and are improving is a really good thing."

Did you have COVID and lost your sense of taste and/or smell? Tell us about your experience and we'll share it with our readers. Email us your story to editor@oursentinel.com.