Smell You

Jefferson Breland

(11/2022) This is the fifth installment on the influence of "context" on our health. What is the "context" of our health? It is nothing less than all of our relationships with everything in the world.

Call me "grumpy" for what I am about to say. Go ahead. I am fine with it; after all, you have a right to express your opinion as I am about to.

We have just survived the beginning of "Pumpkin Spice" season, yet we are not out of the proverbial heavily-scented woods. October is considered pumpkin spice month; but, pumpkin spice lingers in time as it does in the fetid air of Bed, Bath, and Beyond, your home, and your nostrils until at least Thanksgiving.

Some people love the smells and tastes of pumpkin spice season. I do not. I find it offensive, not only physically, but also philosophically.

If you don’t know about pumpkin spice, I am guessing you lived in a cave in the Himalayas or under a rock since 2003 when it became a craze; craze as in crazy.

Did you know October 1 is National Pumpkin Spice Day? I didn’t vote for it.

Generally speaking, pumpkin spice is a "flavor" originally used in the making of pumpkin pie which consists of various combinations of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger. Curiously, I am a fan of these spices individually; however, when combined together for this seasonal assault on my being, especially my sense of smell, I prefer the odor of a freshly manured field… ah, nature.

Smell is a funny thing. By funny, I mean amazing. It is so amazing my research has revealed there are approximately 54,100,000 references on the internet to books on the sense of smell. By "researched," I mean I googled "books on sense of smell."

I admit my method of research is casual. I do this to not get bogged down in details that would take weeks to explain. My point is, smell is fundamental to life.

What does this have to do with our health?

Smell is a direct connection to our external world. It is vital to our safety in many situations and historically our survival. Smell is responsible for approximately 80% of our sense of taste. It is crucial to our enjoyment of food. Smell/taste is necessary for us to determine whether what we are eating is safe or dangerous for us.

Our sense of smell links directly to the limbic nervous system in our brain. The limbic system supports a variety of functions including emotion, behavior, long-term memory in addition to our sense of smell. The interactive components of the limbic system also relate to motivation and learning.

Our sense of smell is relatively weak compared to other animals such as (in no particular order) bears, sharks, moths, birds, dogs, elephants, snakes, rats, horses, cows, and opossums. Odors are information. Imagine the worlds they experience. Imagine the lessons and wisdom these animals have access to. We can only smell the very tip of the olfactory iceberg.

Despite our relatively limited sense of smell, on a deep level, it is a vital part of our being. It is how humans have connected to each other from our most casual to our most intimate relationships. Smell is how babies recognize their mothers in the early months of their lives. Millions and millions of words have been written about smell and its influence on our emotions in poems, essays, short stories, novels, as well as a multitude of scientific publications.

I cannot imagine life without the profound connections to the world afforded by our sense of smell. This is why I do not like pumpkin spice. Please hear me out.

Humans are nature. We are in it. It is in us. I am not talking about when we camp or walks in the woods. We are mammals with relatively big brains who live on this planet which is nature. There is no way out of it, even in the most urban areas of the world or in outer space. That is nature, too. We simply forget this basic fact of existence.

Pumpkin spice is merely one example of how we disconnect ourselves from the natural world. In the case of pumpkin spice, we disconnect by overloading our sense of smell to the point we can’t smell the more subtle scents of life.

When we overload our senses whether it be smells, flavors, sounds, constant visual imagery, or even touch, we need more and more stimuli to keep our attention. In doing so, we become less sensitive to our natural world and who is around us. We lose our basic common sense(s).

How did we get to the point where we are basically sacrificing one of our five senses?

The simple answer is somewhere along the line, we learned some smells are "good" and some smells are "bad." In response to this idea, industries create products for us to eliminate or cover the "bad" odors. For some odd reason, these industries then feel compelled to this this "non-smelly" void with their artificial odors they deem "good."

Take a moment and think about what products you use in your daily life that are scented.

The list is enormous: hand soap, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, dishwashing liquid, perfume, deodorant (de-odor) and antiperspirants, carpet fresheners, car fresheners, room fresheners, candles, shampoo and hair conditioners, hand sanitizer, cosmetics, magic markers, furniture and floor polishes, body powder, shaving cream, aftershave, body lotions, aromatherapy products, household cleaning products, toilet paper, trash bags, and the list goes on.

Do we need "natural fresh scents" that aren’t found in nature?

Why does "Irish Spring" smell different than any spring I have smelled? Are they talking about the season or a creek? Either way, I have only ever smelled that smell in the soap.

There are a host of irrational scent names. What does "Swagger Scent," "Forest Floor," or "Dark Temptation" smell like? Can you spot the name I made up?

Why are shaving cream and aftershaves scented?

Why would I want to smell like a million other men?

According to the Canadian Lung Association (CLA), some products labeled "unscented" or "fragrance-free" may actually contain fragrances used to mask the smell of certain ingredients.

According to the American Lung Association, some cleaning supplies or household products can release dangerous chemicals, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are chemicals that vaporize at room temperature. These include formaldehyde, glycol ethers, terpenes, and hydrocarbons such as benzene and toluene, to name but a few of the potential chemicals released into your home.

The CLA writes: While some people are only mildly affected by scents, others have severe reactions. Some common symptoms include: headaches, feeling dizzy, feeling tired or weak, shortness of breath, nausea, cold-like symptoms, worsening asthma symptoms.

What are the ingredients in the products you use? If you do your own research, you will find many answers, opinions, and stories about what is toxic, what is not toxic, natural, unnatural, and so forth. I invite you to do your own research and make your own informed decisions.

I am here to sow awareness, not fear (we have enough of that in our society). My goal is to help you become more aware of potentially invisible factors that effect your health and therefore the quality of your life. My wish for all of us is to make informed choices.

Our senses are essential to our human experience, our human nature. If we take any of them for granted, consciously ignore them, or continually overload our senses, we become more and more disconnected from the world around us and in the process may potentially create health challenges for ourselves.

If we continually overload our sense of smell, we potentially eliminate 40% of our senses (remember smell’s influence on taste).

Do you want to experience only 60% of what life has to offer? I know I don’t.

Jefferson Breland is a board-certified acupuncturists licensed in Pennsylvania
 and Maryland with offices in Gettysburg and Towson, respectively.
He can be reached at 410-336-5876.

Read past editions of Complementy Corner