Navigating Smell and Taste Disorders

Over 200,000 people visit doctors each year for smell and taste problems. Since our ability to smell and taste decreases with age, up to 14 million Americans aged 55 and older may live with these disorders, undiagnosed. Smell and taste disorders affect a person's ability to enjoy food and drink and may result in decreased appetite, weight loss, and too much added sugar and salt in the diet. In severe cases they may lead to depression. Smell and taste problems can also interfere with personal safety, limiting the ability to notice smoke and potentially harmful chemicals and gases.

Navigating Smell and Taste Disorders is a unique collaboration between a doctor and a food consultant that both addresses the subject of smell and taste loss and provides food preparation tips and a special recipe section that will appeal to other senses and make food attractive again. This is a must-have reference book for all those living with smell and taste disorders.

The book covers the whole disorder including

• How smell and taste work
• Causes of smell and taste problems
• Treatments
• What you can expect when you visit a specialist
• Recipes that will appeal to other senses and make food attractive again
• First-person accounts of coping with this disorder

Navigating Smell and Taste Disorders is the inaugural book in the series Neurology Now Books from the American Academy of Neurology. Inspired by Neurology Now, the AAN's leading neurologic patient information magazine, Neurology Now Books are written from a multidisciplinary approach, combining the expertise of a neurologist with other related experts and patients and caregivers. Each volume will provide the reader with the most up-to-date information, answers to questions and concerns, and first-person accounts of others who are living with a neurologic disorder."

Ronald DeVere, MD, had practiced neurology for 30 years when he lost part of his ability to smell in 1995. He began researching smell and taste disorders in-depth after discovering a lack of information available on the subject. As a result of his research he opened the Taste and Smell Disorders Clinic in Austin, Texas as part of his practice and is director of the clinic to this day.

Marjorie Calvert has turned her passion for cooking into a career at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, TX. In 2004 she joined the staff of the Smell and Taste Disorders Clinic as food consultant and has been instrumental in developing the clinic's taste testing study, food preparation guidelines, and recipes.