Augmenting the Sense of Smell
So I can't seem to find any information on this, but I'm interested in greatly increasing the capacity of the human sense of smell. It seems like the best way to do that would be to chemically coax the olfactory epithelium into producing more olfactory nerves. Thoughts on feasibility/possibly methods?
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8256599
I've read that NGF burns like hell injecting into far less sensitive tissue so I bet your entire face would feel like it's on fire, but hypothetically it could work.
Edit - In addition I'm also reading that it can cause histamine intolerance which could be disasterous if you have seasonal allergies.
We're also really close to the brain here and with DMSO's ability to absorb so easily that may be a concern as well. I know there was the whole eye drop thing but that was a tiny bit further away and with presumably less of a dose than you'd want for the nose.
I also think the "burning" issue here is being severely underestimated. This could well disable you for awhile as the nerves experience abnormally fast growth, could prevent you from reasonably doing work, exercise, etc. I've read a few members here have messed with the stuff, they can probably offer a ball park duration. What burns in the hand or finger is going to burn so much worse in the nasal cavity, just pull some nose hairs out - I imagine the sensation being similar to that but constant. If so and you just sit there with watering eyes, you wouldn't even be able to drive. Maybe I'm the one overestimating this but... it could be a shit show lol.
As for the histamine issue, I believe the problem is inherent with high levels of NGF. I've read that athletes are often more prone to allergies for instance because their training causes them to produce more NGF naturally. I would think any treatment used conventionally for histamines would be effective, not necessarily needing to be applied directly to the site (though that would be optimal). As long as whatever was added doesn't have a negative effect on the workings of the NGF it would probably be fine. Better yet, some studies on NCBI even suggest that corticosteroids can even help NGF levels increase, a solution that would not only beat back the side effects of excess NGF but help speed the process up. Hypothetically of course.
Pretty much everything I've written should be looked into much further before shoving crap up your nose. :)
Edit - Also, why not look further into the mechanism in play that makes us smell better when we're hungry and look for an exploit?
NGF nerve enhancement coupled with exploiting the two aforementioned techniques of sensitizing them could be really something. Or rather regrettable, depending on your every day surroundings. :)