Updated: September 12, 2024
I was speaking to a friend of mine,
Maureen Seaberg, who is a synesthete,
and I interviewed her for her
new book. You'll be seeing the
interview shortly. But she reminded me that smell is
not just the nose's job, that there was
research and physiological
reviews in 2018 that announced
the discovery of olfactory
receptors, smell receptors in all human tissues tested to date. These include
the testes, lung, intestine, skin,
heart and blood. So what are the implications
of this? Well, there are many
implications. First is a better
understanding of the role
of olfaction in health
and disease. Olfactory receptors are involved
in the detection of a wide variety
of molecules, including
pheromones, which are chemical
signals that can influence
behavior and physiology. The presence of
olfactory receptors in other tissues
also suggests that they
may play a role in many biological
processes. And this could have
implications for our
understanding of diseases
such as cancer and neurodegenerative
disorders. And then this could
lead to new diagnostic
and therapeutic targets for disease.
The expression
of olfactory receptors
in non-olfactory tissues could make them
potential targets for the development of new therapeutic and diagnostic
approaches. For example, olfactory receptors
could be used to develop new cancer
biomarkers or to develop drugs to specific tissues and a deeper
understanding of how the body senses
its environment could also
be obtained. The fact
that olfactory receptors
are expressed in tissues
outside of the nose suggest that our senses of
smell may be more important than we previously
thought. Olfactory receptors could be involved
in the detection of a wide
range of molecules than previously
thought, which could help us to better understand how the body senses
its environment.
But let's go
a little deeper. Smell
is an experience. Okay. And the receptor
is the neural correlate
of the experience, which means your testes, your gonads, your lungs all have the
experience of smell. And if they do, then they are directly
accessing the earth element,
because smell actually is the carrier
of particles, as we've said before. And the Earth element contains
all the other elements: space, air, fire,
water and earth. The fact that we have olfactory
receptors in every tissue in our body, including our
gonads, means that our body, at a very fundamental
level, is connected to the cosmos,
space, air, fire, water and finally,
earth. Please
think about this and let me know
what you think. The implications of smelling through your testes and other organs.
