Rehabilitation of Taste and Smell Disorders Associated With Chemotherapy Using Aromatherapy

Chemotherapy is a vital treatment for many cancers, but it can sometimes come with unwanted side effects. One common problem is changes in how things taste and smell. These changes can range from food tasting bland or metallic to finding strong smells unpleasant. This can make eating less enjoyable and, in some cases, might even affect how well someone eats, which is important for staying strong during treatment.

This study is exploring a gentle approach to help people deal with these taste and smell problems. It's based on the idea that just like you can train other parts of your body, you might be able to 'retrain' your sense of smell. Researchers are looking at using essential oils, which are natural extracts from plants, for this purpose. You might have heard of 'smell training' used by people who lost their sense of smell after having COVID-19; this study will use a similar idea.

The main aim is to see if regular exposure to different scents from essential oils can help improve or even restore some of the taste and smell sensations that chemotherapy might have affected. The hope is that this simple, non-invasive method could make a real difference to the daily lives of people going through chemotherapy, making their experience a little more comfortable and enjoyable.