The Psychology and Physiology of Smell

Is it true that zinc plays a role in a sense of smell?

My daughter was born without a sense of smell, which we did not discover until she was five years old. She was born with a birth defect, arthrogryposis which has some neurological components. We have had her tested and she has the hormones and the olfactory nerve required for smelling. Is there anything else we can pursue medically for her to get a sense of smell?

I lived in England for a while and had a British friend who claimed Indian people (called Asians there) "smelled bad", like strong curry. I did not notice it myself and figured it was just a prejudice of this person. But I now wonder if the food one eats on a regular basis can stay in the system and influence body odor, or if this person's perception is simply due to the fact that people of a particular culture carry the oil of their cultural food on their skin and clothes because they are in the food's presence daily. In short, can what we eat influence body odor internally? That was the question I called in with that I wanted Rachel Herz to answer. As a sidenote, one particular boyfriend in my past had the most wonderful scent of any man I can remember; it was not cologne or soap, it was just "him". Ironically, he had one of the worst diets I've ever witnessed consisting lots of meat, processed food and no veggies. So in guessing an answer to my own question, I would guess that body odor is completely independent of what we eat, with the exception of our breath.

A caller asked about scents deemed culturally pleasant that make her sick. The guest said fragrances are not dangerous. This was an incorrect generalization. The guest should have qualified her statement with "I'm not a chemical scientist."

In my opinion, in the interest of human and environmental health, we must question the safety of chemicals in our society, especially since the U.S. FDA is underfunded, understaffed, and allows many provisions for companies to not have to publish ingredients due to trade secrets loopholes.

I have a lot of respect for the public health interest groups who have set up this project:
Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
http://www.safecosmetics.org/
Site includes link to a study called "NotTooPretty" -- Independent laboratory tests found phthalates in more than 70% of health and beauty products tested – including popular brands of shampoo, deodorant, hair mousse, face lotion and every single fragrance tested.

Melissa Bernardin
Concord