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24/04/2013

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BBC World Service - Health Check, Flavourless

What happens when you lose the ability to smell and taste?

What happens when you lose the ability to smell and taste properly; Mental health patients still being shackled in Indonesia; Why beer flavour prompts chemical changes in the brain

Losing taste and smell
Stephane Razatovo is a Health Check listener in Madagascar who has not experienced food tastes and smells properly for more than a decade. His loss of taste and smell started after he had malaria in the 1980s. The problem was not too bad, initially, but it gradually got worse and it was exacerbated even further after a stroke in 2007. To find out more about Stephane's condition, presenter Claudia Hammond speaks to Prof Barry Smith, founding Director of the Centre for the Study of the Senses at the University of London. 

Mental health Indonesia
Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country. In 2011 the government launched a campaign  to eliminate the the cruel practice of locking down and shackling mental health patients. Doctors say the practice, known locally as 'pasung', and banned in 1979, still exists, especially in rural parts of the country. The BBC has found that at least one government funded institution still uses the practice. Doctors say Indonesia does not have enough trained psychiatrists or facilities to deal with the rising numbers of people suffering from mental disorders. From Jakarta, the BBC’s Indonesia correspondent Karishma Viswani reports. 

Beer taste exciting brain
New research published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology has found that the flavour of beer alone, rather than the alcohol itself is enough to boost the brain chemical dopamine; which might make us desire it more. For the first time, researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have seen and measured the brain’s response to a few sips of a favourite beer, giving us evidence of this dopamine response to drug cues alone. David Kareken, the lead author, is Prof of Neuropsychology in the Department of Neurology and Deputy Director of the Indiana Alcohol Research Center.

Picture credit: Getty Images

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