alt Hacker NewsAnecdotally, when my best friend first caught covid, his sense of smell was heightened, but his ability to perceive spiciness from both capsaicin (peppers) and allyl isothiocyanate (e.g. mustard, wasabi, radishes) completely disappeared. I just went back to check the messages he sent me to make sure I'm not spewing nonsense, and sure enough: "I didn't even have that nose feeling from wasabi." He couldn't perceive any spice at all. Not from peppers, not from hot sauce, not from wasabi. Nada. He tried everything he had in his kitchen.
Covid is a weird virus. I'd be really curious about the mechanism behind this. I'm sure it's nothing great, like some sort of nerve damage, but at least in my friend's case he and his senses made a full recovery as far as he can tell.
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?I never had a fabulous sense of smell, but COVID really nerfed it. It came back partially but never what it was before, and lots of things still don't smell right. Coffee and chocolate are definitely duller with coffee being flat out different now. Some things I can't smell at all, however there are some things I can smell WAY better now, and none of them are good. Urine is an extremely strong smell now, anything with sulfur is also really strong, and I literally can't eat anything with cumin or even have it in the house now. So weird.
I don’t mean to say you’re wrong, but the “spice” due to wasabi is a different thing, not due to capsaicin at all. Same with mustard, it’s a similar thing. And then there’s yet another “spice” from the Sichuan peppercorn, again not due to capsaicin. It’s possible that COVID masks some of these but not others.
Covid caused nerve damage in the nose in the sensory glands where smell is perceived. Good news is that lots of viruses do this so the body has evolved to regrow these nerves.