Diseases, medications, surgical intervention and environmental exposure can also be related. One study found a relation with seizures and smell disorders. Patients who had suffered from two types of seizures, mesial temporal lobe and neocortical, were studied to see if testing olfactory functions is useful to distinguish between the two seizures. These results imply that the seizures affect different parts of the brain, and that the many different aspects of are sense of smell can be impaired without complete damage. Anosmia with the elderly can be a real problem.
Many elderly people live in nursing homes.
This is a situation where a person with anosmia may tire of the food because it is bland to them. Eating becomes boring and can cause a person to not eat, which can lead to weight loss. Younger individuals are able to distinguish the degrees of difference between odors of different quality much better than an elderly person is. The topic of anosmia is growing. More and more people have become aware of this disorder in the past few years.