You know how you always here that you smell burning toast or smoke of something like that right before you have a stroke? Why is that? Is it just anecdotal or is there science behind it?
In: Biology
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Based on one specific historic case I think. https://youtu.be/pUOG2g4hj8s?si=mjD4mYe1sJ2t_rej
The symptom itself is probably unique to this person.
It’s just anecdotal.
However, there is a link between phantom smells (any type of smell) and seizures (the type caused by neurons in the brain firing incorrectly. Often causing cascading “waves” of neurons firing in the brain).
I do want to make it 100% clear that this is any type of smell, although people often tend to report acrid smells (like burnt toast, burning plastic etc) or sulfury smells like garlic or rotten eggs.
There is a story about a woman who had seizures, and smelling burning toast was a symptom before it happened. It aired on TV for a while in Canada as a famous story in the country, heritage celebration thing so it got some attention. While the symptoms may vary, for this woman burnt toast smell was the symptom. Since they can train service dogs to recognize when a person they are trained with is about to have a seizure I’m sure there are other symptoms as well.
I don’t know the science and details behind it, but if there is a brain defect that triggers seizures, it may be in a specific sensory area that goes off “first”, making you feel/smell/see something ahead of the seizure starting.
And yes, seizure, not stroke. A stroke is when the brain suffers a blood flow problem and usually manifests as a person with half their body not working right.. slurring words, weirdly slumped face. If someone is having a seizure, you usually just need to make sure they don’t flail about and hurt themselves. If someone is having a stroke, get them to the hospital *immediately*.
Smelling burning toast is related to seizures, not strokes, and this is anecdotal not actual scientific fact.
Where this comes from is a patient of Canadian Doctor Wilder Penfield, a pioneer in neurosurgery.
He was treating a woman with seizures who could swear she would smell burned toast before each episode. He opened her skull and electrically probed her brain looking for a part that triggered her sensation of smelling burnt toast, which by extension could be responsible for her seizures.
The case was featured as a vignette called ‘Heritage Minutes’ which aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation or CBC in the 1990s. Many of these vignettes entered popular culture.
This created a collective memory of people associating the smell of burnt toast with seizures.
I had an accident with a t-post driver – I had been driving posts all day and was very tired – where I ended up dropping the driver on my head…100% smelled burning toast and could not stand up for an unknown period of time after the incident. I eventually cleared my head and was able to stand up and as far as I know there were no lasting effects…
Work in an ED and see strokes all the time. Never heard anyone say they smelled burnt toast.
according to the other comments youre talking about something that has to do with a woman who reported smelling burnt toast before her seizures. i dont know anything about the original video/story thats referenced, but since no one has specified this i thought i would add this:
having something like that happen before a “classic seizure” (tonic-clonic seizure) are called “seizure auras”, and they are actual seizures in and of themselves, just to a smaller localized area. sometimes they occur on they own, and sometimes they spread/progress into a tonic-clonic seizure, and sometimes there are no “warnings”/”auras” and generalized seizures just happen. there are actually alot of different types of seizures, and their presention, as well as the perceived experiences someone has of one can vary from person to person (to a certain extent) even with the same types of seizures.
i learned this when i was talking with my neurologist and was confused on why sometimes my “auras” were accurate at preceding seizures, and other times just came and went, and he told me they were seizures themselves as well, and i should still treat them as if theyre accurate at detecting them, because i cant really know if theyll progress into full (generalized) seizures or not until it happens. then i did a bunch of research, and learned i was probably having way more seizures than i thought, but didnt even know couldve been symptoms of epilepsy. and im glad i looked into it, so i could address stuff more accurately with my drs. i was also able to ask people around me if i ever did some of the things listed and was surprised to find out i did alot of different behaviors associated with seizures, that i didnt remember and never would have known to bring up to my dr about.
thanks for asking this question, i didnt realize terminology has changed for seizure classifications until i re-looked stuff up to add a link here. but you could always read more in the link below, there are also individual pages that describe different types of seizures in more detail which are still simplified and easy to understand.
[www.epilepsy.com What is Epilepsy, Seizure Types](https://www.epilepsy.com/what-is-epilepsy/seizure-types)
Maybe it is a sign of nerve damage.
Onset of anosmia includes parosmia and phantosmia: specifically smell of burning.
https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/parosmia-covid
Feeling a seizure coming on is different for everyone. My vision gets super “crisp” and I can see every little detail of anything in front of me, then I get a terrible sense of impending doom, then bam I’m being woken up by a concerned parent in the Chuck E. Cheese ball pit again
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