Your Sense of Smell

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Narrator
How important is our sense of smell?

Jordan S. Josephson, MD
The sense of smell is so important. First of all, it's our alarm system. Something tastes foul, it's bad food, it would get us sick. You just put it in your mouth and your sense of taste, if it's on, you're going to know. You're not going to eat that food, and thus you're not going to get sick. If something smells bad, you're going to take care of the smell. If there's a fire, you'll address the fire before the fire gets out of control, so catching it early is good. But more importantly, is sense of smell also has a lot to do with pairing of partners. And something that most people aren't aware of, when you meet somebody, you're looking at them, are they attractive? You're listening to them, do they sound attractive? Are they intelligent? Do they say the right things that make me feel good? But you don't realize you're also smelling that person and that person is also giving off a scent, and so are you, for that matter. And so sense of smell is very, very important.