Most of us have turned up our noses at strong food smells, but for some, that queasy feeling can go far beyond mere dislike. A peculiar case of a 67-year-old woman who developed nausea and aversion to the smell of cooked food turned out to be something far more serious – a thyroid disorder in disguise.
Dr. Honey Savla, Consultant, Internal Medicine at Wockhardt Hospitals, Mumbai Central, recounts the case to highlight how the body can send distress signals in the most unexpected ways.
“Generally, ongoing nausea is thought to indicate a digestive health issue, acidity, or intolerance,” says Dr. Savla. “But sometimes, the body sends warning signals in locations we don’t expect. Hormonal levels, metabolic processes, and even the brain’s reaction to a mere whiff can affect our response to a stimulus.”
In this particular instance, the patient couldn’t bear the smell of food being cooked in her own kitchen. “As soon as she walked in, she experienced bouts of nausea and had to step outside to recover,” recalls Dr. Savla. “She began losing her appetite and subsequently lost a significant amount of weight, despite no major changes in her diet.”
When routine digestive tests offered no answers, further investigation revealed that her thyroid hormone levels were abnormally high—a condition known as thyrotoxicosis, where an overactive thyroid speeds up metabolism and alters various body functions.
According to Dr. Savla, the heightened hormone levels had made her overly sensitive to smells, triggering nausea and food aversion. “The excess thyroid hormones had altered her body’s metabolism and increased her smell sensitivity to the point where even simple cooking odors became an irritant,” she explains.
Once the thyroid imbalance was treated, the patient’s symptoms began to ease. “Within a few weeks, her nausea subsided and she was able to eat normally again,” says Dr. Savla. Source: India Today
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