If something smells fishy to you, you're lucky. Being able to discern odors turns out to be an important component of good health, helping you avoid malnutrition, depression, and early death.

Unfortunately, lots of people lose their ability to discriminate between smells, or to smell much at all. Around 60% of those who had COVID-19 report that they lost the ability to smell — and 24% of them say they haven't recovered it.

Even without COVID-19, between 62% and 75% of people over age 80 say they have significant loss of the ability to smell well or at all.

A new study in JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery tested more than 2,500 adults between ages 61 and 81 and found that for each additional incorrect answer they gave in an odor ID test, the risk of dying from any cause over the next six years went up 6% — and dementia, frailty, and malnutrition were the most common causes. 

If you or a loved one is noticing a loss of the ability to smell, get a full-body and neurological function checkup, and start smell retraining therapy.

Harvard Medical School says that you want to sniff a wide variety of scents once or twice a day for 30-120 seconds for four weeks. The scents can include lemons or oranges, flowery perfumes, peanut butter, eucalyptus, rosemary, cinnamon, pine, peppermint, and/or cloves.

Smell retraining kits are available online.

If that doesn't do the trick, consult an otolaryngologist — also known as ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctors — for other treatment options.