For Bella Davis, the experience of becoming a mother at a young age brought with it a sense of being scrutinized. Yet, it wasn’t just society’s view that troubled her.
At just 17, Bella encountered a condition that is both perplexing and surprisingly widespread, distorting her senses so drastically that every meal seemed tainted with the stench and flavor of decay.
In 2022, she was diagnosed with parosmia, a condition that plagued her taste and smell, making food intolerable, as she described it akin to tasting ‘dead people.’ Now 21 and living in Utah, Bella found herself shunning most foods.
This condition, affecting over 3 million people across the United States, not only created repugnant odors and tastes but also warped them, turning the scent of cigarettes into something resembling spoiled peanut butter, according to Bella.
The parosmia persisted for years, affecting her through two more pregnancies.
“I’m not exaggerating when I say everything smelled and tasted like what you’d imagine rotting bodies would,” Bella, who is now a content creator, shared candidly.
‘Over the years, some smells would change. Cigarettes smelled like rotten peanut butter, for example. Anything with onion, garlic and meat was an absolute no go.
‘Other things were somewhat tolerable, but never tasted normal. It was always a chore to eat.
‘I had to plug my nose and swallow 12 hard boiled eggs a day during my third pregnancy just to get by. It was brutal.’
Bella Davis was diagnosed in 2022 with parosmia, which left the Utah native, now 21, refusing most foods as she said they tasted like ‘dead people’
The condition developed when she was pregnant with her first child at 17 years old
Davis’s symptoms developed shortly after she got pregnant with her first child, who is now three years old.
For the first few months, she was unable to even drink water and went three months without a single bite of food, surviving on nutrition she had to get through an IV, she said.
After giving birth, her sense of smell and taste improved – until she became pregnant again with her second child.
After birth, it improved, but when she got pregnant for a third time, the parosmia returned again.
She said: ‘I was devastated and it really discouraged me for so long. It was embarrassing and messed with my quality of life.
‘I got by because I always thought it’d go away – but it never did. I started to accept this was my life forever.’
Along with food, the parosmia impacted fragrances, as well. Davis said she was unable to be around candles, soap, deodorant, perfume or anything else with a strong smell.
Because Davis had trouble eating, she developed hypoglycemia – low blood sugar – and anemia – low red blood cells.
It quickly started to affect her ability to parent.
While her parosmia improved after giving birth, each subsequent time she got pregnant, the condition worsened
Parosmia is a little-understood, but surprisingly common condition that severely distorts a person’s senses. It caused everything Davis ate to smell and taste rotten
Davis said: ‘I had to leave the room and lock myself in the bedroom with vents closed when my family made foods I couldn’t stomach to be around. It would make me stay away from the house for days afterwards. I felt like I was a burden.
‘I couldn’t do enough for my kids when it came to food and I hated them seeing me sick all the time.’
Parosmia occurs when smell receptors in the nose don’t detect odors or detect odors ‘wrong.’ Causes include bacterial or viral infections, head trauma, certain neurological conditions and Covid.
A vast majority of people who develop the condition eventually have their sense of smell return to normal on its own, but for a small portion, the change can be permanent.
Treating parosmia ranges from altering environmental factors, such as smoke, medication or chemical exposure, using medication to alleviate some of the symptoms, surgery to remove damaged smell receptors or olfactory training therapy.
Also called smell training, it involves smelling various substances for several seconds, repeating the process twice a day for several months to restore smell receptors.
Parosmia occurs when smell receptors in the nose don’t detect odors or detect odors ‘wrong’
When treatment didn’t work to cure her distorted smell and taste, Davis said she turned to God and prayed for a fix
Proposed treatment for Davis included a therapy that involved injecting anesthetic into nerves found at the bottom of the neck to ‘reset’ the sympathetic nervous system.
It cost about $2,000 and sadly, it didn’t work.
Davis felt out of options. Then, she said she turned to God and prayed for a cure.
When she started to accept her new reality, she claimed that almost overnight, six months ago, her parosmia went away entirely.
She said: ‘I can’t explain my cure any other way than it being God. It felt like once I truly let go, and made peace with it, something changed instantly.’
Now, she’s able to eat anything and everything, including burgers and Taco Bell.
‘I felt a rush when I bit into a burger,’ Davis said. ‘I had a rush of chills for how normal it tasted.
‘I ate the entire thing and had to get another one; it was euphoric. I still can’t believe that I can eat food normally again.’
