A randomised clinical trial has been published on umPEALUT and its potential role in recovery from smell loss and parosmia. To read the article, click here. If you wish to access the full article, look for the button that says “Download PDF”.
Purpose of the study
“Although COVID-19 anosmia is often transient, patients with persistent olfactory dysfunction (pOD) can experience refractory parosmia and diminished smell. This study evaluated four putative therapies for parosmia in patients with chronic COVID-19 olfactory impairment.”
Conclusions
“In patients with chronic olfactory dysfunction, umPEALUT, with or without ALA, has a potential role in promoting recovery from loss of smell and parosmia. Compared to umPEALUT alone, the combination of umPEALUT with ALA more effectively reduced parosmia but was associated with lower TDI score recovery. Further studies are needed to delineate the differential effects of these therapies on damage to peripheral and central components of olfactory pathways.”
Chrissi’s take
This was not a huge study and did not have a standard control arm. Usually in research like this, there is a control group of people, matched in age, sex, and condition, to those participating in the study. The control group does not get any intervention. That way, it is possible to measure the changes in the other groups against the no-intervention group. The control here was OT (olfactory training, or smell training) only. To my mind this is not a good control arm because we know from many studies that smell training is beneficial. So the conclusion that the smell training group had no benefit is misleading. The participant numbers were also quite small.
Nonetheless, I think this is a very interesting product. I have used it and benefited from it.
