I met this pretty young lady who came to town for a project so she is putting up for a few days at my neighbour's he isint in town.

The compound is dry (mind your business kinda) so I and her got talking as we clicked instantly and connected on alot of

issues, she is brain loaded. "Talk brought talk" and I was shocked when she opened up to me that she wasn't born with the sense of smell and that infact since she was born she doesn't know how perfumes, odour, aroma or fragrance smells like, that she only reads about them or hear about them.

She said on several occasions due to forgetfulness, she has had her food burnt on fire without perceiving the burnt odour until neighbours came in to enquire what was smelling and then she remembers she had something on fire.

I did not believe her, not until she got angry that am indirectly calling her a liar. In fact she opened up that its the more reason she doesn't kiss even her partner, for fear of kissing a person with bad breath. And that her lover, friends and siblings buy perfume for her as she doesn't buy them herself hence she doesn't know how they smell like.


This got me startled and made me wonder more than once, how possible her claims could be.


Dear Nairalanders, how true is this?

This actually true.

There is a small tribe in Nigeria whose members mostly do not have a sense of smell genetically. And for those born with one, it is actually very easy to lose sense of smell e.g. After a cold.

It is called anosma. The absence of a sense of smell, either born without the olfactory glands or damage to the olfactory nerves.

Yes, its possible, and such people exists. I don't think the lady in question would be lying about it.

@OP. All you needed to do was copy this same topic and paste on Google search. You are bound to get millions of hits. That's how useful the internet is.

ryom:
There is a small tribe in Nigeria whose members mostly do not have a sense of smell genetically. And for those born with one, it is actually very easy to lose sense of smell e.g. After a cold.

I brought the issue of the possibility of her having cold thus the lose of her sense of smell, but she remained emphatic that she was born with it.

whirlwind7:
It is called anosma. The absence of a sense of smell, either born without the olfactory glands or damage to the olfactory nerves.

Yes, its possible, and such people exists. I don't think the lady in question would be lying about it.

@OP. All you needed to do was copy this same topic and paste on Google search. You are bound to get millions of hits. That's how useful the internet is.

Wow!! Thanks for telling me the name, I would hv to dig Google for more. Thanks anyways.