Chiropractor claims treatment helped patients get their taste, smell back after COVID-19

For one Houston-area woman, months led to a year without taste. The last thing she expected was to get help at a chiropractor's office.

HOUSTON - A young woman from the Houston area can finally taste food again, after losing her sense of taste from COVID-19. She is still in awe and believes a chiropractor was the key to ending her miserable problem.

Mariana Duque cherishes eating food, now more than ever! Like millions of people, she lost her sense of taste from COVID-19.

"It was super frustrating. I actually cried multiple times over it," exclaims Mariana.

Month-after-month led to a year without taste. She had given up hope of ever tasting food again and so had her doctors.

"I had to follow up and call them and say, even with all the medications that you guys put me on and the CT scan, nothing has helped. They told me that there's nothing else they can do, you just have to wait," explains Mariana.

The last thing Mariana expected was to get help here, at a chiropractor's office. She wasn't even here to help her senses. Her mother encouraged her to seek help at Prince Health and Wellness in The Woodlands for lower back pain. She admits she wasn't thrilled about the idea.

"It has always scared me to get adjustments done. It was an irrational fear, so I was like, I really don't want to go, and she said, you don't have an option, you have to go, so I said okay," states Mariana.

She's now relieved about her mom's advice! Not only does her back feel better, one treatment led to her dream come true, she can finally taste again.

Dr. Ashley Prince says she has now witnessed the same reaction with at least a dozen of her patients.

"It's so amazing and we've heard from a lot of other chiropractors in the community that they've been having this response, you know, people getting their taste and their smell back after an adjustment and we learned in school you know that the cranial nerves the nervous system controls everything. With an atlas adjustment with the adjusting the first bone in the neck we can see amazing things, vision come back, hearing come back, but I never thought in a million years that I would be seeing so many patients get their taste and smell back. Basically, you have twelve sets of cranial nerves that exit the brainstem, and they supply the head, the face, the shoulders.

When I'm delivering an adjustment to the upper cervical portion of the neck, the first bone in the neck triggers a response to the cranial nerves," describes Dr. Prince.

That adjustment involves a device called an arthostim.

"This is the tool that I use to adjust the upper part of the neck right here underneath the ear, and we simply just place it here, press the button, and it delivers a small, tiny little force. I use this to adjust infants, and it basically sends a force to the first bone in the neck, which affects the brainstem, the cranial nerves, and the taste and smell centers of the brain," explains Dr. Prince.

Mariana is enjoying a taste of normalcy!

"Just getting back to my regular favorite foods actually didn't have to give up a lot of my favorite foods because it didn't taste the same, so just lost what I really enjoyed, but not anymore," smiles Mariana.

Dr. Prince's other patients share similar sentiments.

"Most of them cry because it's just incredible. It's usually so quick, that within a few hours, they're experiencing this change, and really the only thing that they can equate it to is the adjustment because nothing else has changed.

Doctors say most people get their smell and taste back within about a month from the coronavirus without treatment, but some like Mariana do suffer long-term, while others could suffer permanent loss.

There are no guarantees this treatment can work, as it is not an intended treatment for long-haulers, just patients saying it unexpectedly helped them. We talked to several medical doctors, who had not heard of this helping patients. It’s always important to talk to your own doctor about what’s best for your treatment plan. Some medical doctors offer different therapies using essential oils, to try to help their patients get smell back.

For more information: https://princehealth.org