The sensation of odor or sense of smell is susceptible to change with aging. Physicians call an absence of the sense of smell anosmia. This is less common as a result of aging than impairment of the sense of smell, which physicians call hyposmia. Sometimes the ability to smell becomes distorted. This physicians call dysosmia. Any of these changes affect the ability of a person to appreciate odors in the environment. When this happens, it changes the ability to appreciate food and other elements of the environment.
