Does aging impair your sniffing mechanism? Flowers used to be so fragrant. Now few have any fragrance at all. Is that just true for me?

I did not know that Shuhak! I had TERRIBLE allergies when I was a kid. Without prescirbed allergy meds I was so miserable! Somehow for whatever reason I outgrew them. But I was left  with little in the way of a fragrance detection system. Now I can smell food just fine. Raisin bread toasting. Garlic bread under the broiler. Cinnamon. No problem there. Maybe it is more sniff memory than actuality that works for me there. My taste is impaired I know. Sometimes I taste things that seem sour or bitter but when Jim tastes them he says they're ok. He is two years older than me! Go figger! Oh. Maybe the chemo I had in 2008 when I had cancer might have also impacted that. It seriously impacted my memory. Parts of my past are gone! Oh well! I remember when I was a kid we had awesome carnations in our backyard. I used to love the fragrance. I haven't smelled a carnation that had any aroma for decades. SIGH. Thank you for your reply! :)

According to doctors, severe allergies can destroy ones sense of smell.  My mom, who is 79, had bad allergies all her life.   Now she can barely smell even the most pungent of odors.

There ya go! I had no idea that allergies could do that. And mine were very bad. In fact they lasted even into my 60's! I remember when Jim and I took a trip to Oregon to visit his oldest son who used to live there (he and his wife now live in Arizona) I had no idea that I'd get an attack. I hadn't had one for years. But Oregon gets a lot of rain and eveyrthing was in bloom and I guess there were lots of things that triggered hayfever. I had NO MEDS at all and I spent the entire time sneezing and blowing my nose and having itchy throat and eyes. We were there for about a day and a half! So maybe I never really outgrew it but that whatever triggered it became narrower? Thank you for the info. It always helps to know about the "why". :)

Except for one really bad attack in my  60's (which I explain to Shuhak up above) I haven't really been bothered with hayfever for decades. So I'm really grateful for that! It's just amazing to me how many things are connected/interconnected. I had no idea that severe allergies impacted one's ability to smell. So that explains a lot. Also taste gets affected I guess because tastebuds die? It's kinda too bad but everything wears out eventually! Thank you for your reply L! :)

Back in the day, when I was a smoker, I used to get all kinds of sinus infections.  When I gave up smoking, they improved greatly and I haven't had a problem since, but my allergies did kick in.  They're manageable with over-the-counter meds, so it's not that big a problem.  Yes, everything does wear out after a while. :)  

I never smoked. My first/only experience? I was ten. We were visiting my grandparents at their summer place by a lake in Michigan. It had a basement. My uncle was there and he left his pack of cigarettes on the kitchen table. I took one and a book of matches and snuck downstairs. I read that in order to have smoke come out of your nostrils (which I thought looked so very cool) you had to "swallow" the smoke and then exhale. I lit up, did as instructed and the burning was  really bad. I also felt like barfing! It was a horrible introduction to what smoking held in store and I did not go back for more. So if that's how it is for everyone why on earth would anyone purposely and willingly subject him or herself to such yuck? Glad you quit. Jim had quit smoking by the time we met. My brother-in-law quit on his 50th birthday and so did my sis. He will be 80 on July 12 so 30 years smoke-free! There is no one more anti-smoking than former smokers. Thank you for your reply L! :) Jim's sister's husband was a heavy smoker. Got lung cancer. It spread everywhere. He killed himself with a gunshot wound to the head because the pain was so intense. He gave Jim's sister emphysema which she died from a few years after his death. So cigarettes do not have a good history with our family. I wonder how cigarette companies continue to exist? At the market there is one line where cigarettes are sold. It amazes me how long that line gets and the folks waiting for cigarettes sound hoarse when they speak and usually smell of nicotine. They are also usually wrinkled as well. Smoking does not enhance one's appearance. What the hook is I don't know. :)

I stopped for my 40th birthday - it was my present to myself.  I realized that almost everything I did was accompanied by a cigarette.  When I stopped, they were $1.25 a pack of $10 a carton.  The minimum cost of a pack of cigarettes in NYC is now $13.00.  I don't know how anyone can afford to smoke.  

The hook is that most people start when they're pretty young - they think it makes them look older and cool.  They never think that all the devastation caused by smoking will affect them.  Little do they know.  Happy Monday. :)

My gosh now that you mention it Ele I gotta say ME TOO! I can smell some things that Jim can't Isn't that really odd? Some things shut down and others open wider? Whoa. They say when one door closes another one opens. Maybe that also pertains to smell. What about your tastebuds? Are they more/less acute than they used to be? Aging is an adventure to be sure. Thank you for your reply and the helpful and informative comments! :)

Our city water is highly chlorinated due to a Lake Erie algae problem. I can smell the chlorine and refuse to drink it. My wife can't smell it.

This post was edited by Element 99 at July 8, 2018 7:04 AM MDT

Geez Ele that's AWFUL! Good that your sniffer is acute where it counts. We don't ingest city water either. We buy it at a water store! 20 cents a gallon. I use if for everything including cooking pasta. We of course use the regular tap water for washing clothes/dishes/ourselves and watering. We do get a water report every year from the City of Hemet but it's all Greek to me. They tell you what they found in parts per billion but they don't provide what is safe and what isn't. We don't take any chances! I can smell smoke/gas/something burning which Jim can't. I guess OUR sniffers are geared for self-preservation! Not a bad thing! Thank you for your reply and that graphic! Yikes!  :(