It kind of makes sense…

September 1, 2025 By Jonathan Sackier

The professors at Woolloomooloo University’s Philosophy Department, strangely all named Bruce, sang of the drinking habits of several famous truth-seekers, characterizing Socrates, for instance, as “a lovely little thinker.” Of course, there is no university in the Woolloomooloo district of Sydney, and the Bruces were the cast of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, a group of chaps who had the good sense to promulgate nonsense, all the while tickling our funny bones.

One of the philosophers mentioned in the song was Immanuel Kant, author of Critique of Pure Reason, in which he said, “All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.” And the reason for this article is to give you the sense of how problems with your senses might lead to understanding of deeper problems.

Conventional wisdom says we have five senses, smell, taste, touch, hearing, and sight with mentions of a sixth sense generally portrayed as a largely feminine skill, enabling perception of that which cannot be experienced by the other five. But there is a very real sixth sense which we all possess, proprioception, the sense of where our body parts are in space.

Sixth sense: Try this exercise: extend your arms, not allowing them to rest against your body or a table, and close your eyes. Now, touch the tip of your nose with your right index finger, then return your right arm to the extended position and repeat the action with your left hand, then right, left, right, left, going as fast as you can. How did you do that? There are countless sensors throughout the body sending information to your brain about where each part of each limb is relative to the other. Your brain has a pretty good idea where your nose is, and incorporating signals from proprioceptive sensors, it engages the cerebellum to coordinate movement, all within a fraction of a second. A test like this is performed by doctors and, if one misses the target, it could be a sign of a neurological disease like Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, or countless others.

Any issues, even seemingly minor, with coordination, tremor, balance, or gait merit immediate medical review—sometimes, as with a friend of mine, a prior head injury which seemed mild at the time had caused blood to accumulate in the brain, declaring itself years later and presenting with impaired movements.

Smell: The sense of smell is carried to the brain and interpreted in coordination with taste, for which it is largely responsible. Perceptions of taste developed to help us survive as a species by helping avoid dangerous foods. Many poisons smell foul or taste bitter due to alkaloids, plant-derived chemicals, and as such we avoid them—unless we learn that they have pleasant effects, like caffeine. If smells seem “different,” that can be a precursor to a seizure; some people living with epilepsy experience an aura before the attack commences, which can take many forms including strange smells.

A loss of smell, anosmia, or disordered smell, parosmia, may be a useful asset if you are a forensic pathologist (there have been several prominent doctors who had this problem) or work as a refuse collector, but for most it is a depressing disability. Reduced sense of smell is hyposmia, but the most fascinating for me is phantosmia—smelling things that aren’t there!

These conditions can appear during or after any upper respiratory tract infection, such as colds or flu, and may be temporary or be a component of hay fever. Developing a benign nasal polyp, a growth inside the nose, or infected sinuses can provoke anosmia. It can also follow head trauma, be a function of diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and from smoking. Serious neurologic conditions like brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and exposure to various toxins such as paint solvents or heavy metals can also be culprits. Cocaine use, and certain antibiotics and antidepressants, can precipitate anosmia. This condition can be more than an irritation and lead to loss of life if one cannot detect a gas leak or burning; another reason to self-ground when a cold strikes!

I recently learned a new word, nomophobia, fear or anxiety of being without one’s telephone (derivation: no-mobile-phobia). I was astonished to learn that we need a word for this, but even more astonished to see how much nonsense there is online about the harm mobile phones can do to one’s senses. Don’t get me wrong, they drive me up the wall and are the source of much antisocial behavior, but they do not cause anosmia or any other major neurological problem. Unless speaking loudly while on the wretched device is a neurological problem!

Taste: Can you wrap your tongue around this word, dysgeusia? This is the $100 word we use to describe dysfunctional sense of taste. Parageusia is altered taste and ageusia is total loss of taste, like wearing white shoes after Labor Day. Sometimes manifesting as a claim that everything tastes metallic, foul, or bitter, altered or dysfunctional taste affects up to 1 in 5 people at some point and can also give rise to foods one liked becoming distasteful, or salty or sweet foods tasting the opposite, or there even being a rancid taste present even though no food is in the mouth.

All our senses change with age, but in addition, poor dental hygiene, tobacco use (smoking, chewing and vaping), zinc or vitamin B deficiencies, reflux/heartburn, a new dental implant or denture, and a range of medical conditions can provoke this. Additionally, menopause, rheumatoid arthritis, and many other conditions and drugs can cause xerostomia, dry mouth, which will also impact taste, as can radiotherapy for oral cancers. For problems with impaired taste or smell, treating the underlying cause may help, but there are other methodologies that might lead to improvement. Quitting smoking, drinking lots of water, and reducing alcohol intake will help.

Touch protects us from threats and is critical for social behavior and our interactions with the world. Sensory loss or distortion can impair ability to discriminate where in the body is being stimulated, and by what. In patients afflicted with leprosy, an infectious disease, one loses sensation in body parts which are then damaged by, for instance, touching a hot surface and being unaware; it is not the disease per se that causes the tissue loss. Local problems such as a laceration may sever a nerve, preventing one detecting the touch. Skin diseases might be the culprit from either thickening (e.g. psoriasis or eczema) or impaired blood supply (e.g., smoking, cold exposure). Dysesthesia, disturbed sensations, can follow cocaine use where it takes the form of ants crawling on the skin—formication—or nerve damage from multiple sclerosis, for instance, where it feels like painful electric shocks or burning sensations. Hyperesthesia, heightened sensitivity, follows use of certain medications or shingles. Reduced sensitivity, hypoesthesia, can follow nerve damage due to diabetes, vitamin B12 deficiency, spinal cord injury, or, if isolated to the hand, be due to carpal tunnel syndrome. Agnosia is where although the sense of touch works, the brain does not recognize it and this can be a sequel to a stroke.

Hearing The ear plays a role in hearing and balance, and issues with these capabilities may indicate local or systemic problems. A common reason for hearing loss is ear infections or presence of wax in the canal, but under no circumstances succumb to the urge to put a Q-tip in your ear—you can do a lot of damage! Either use a wax-dissolving solution or ask your healthcare practitioner to syringe the wax out. Age-related loss and exposure to loud noises is a major factor, hence always protect your ears at the airport or on board. Genetic factors can raise the likelihood of loss as can certain medications such as gentamycin.

Of relevance to the current measles epidemic, this and other systemic infections like mumps, rubella, and meningitis can damage hearing. A progressive loss of hearing in an adult may indicate the growth of an acoustic neuroma, a tumor of the nerve supplying the ear.

Infections and chronic loud noise exposure can lead to tinnitus, a distressing state where the sufferer hears a continuous whistling or ringing noise in the ear that can be very challenging to treat.

Disturbed balance can occur with many of the preceding conditions as well as Ménière’s disease, a problem of unknown cause that may induce a constant sense of vertigo, hearing loss, and tinnitus. Traumatic brain injury may follow a blow to the head, repetitive sports injuries or even, we are now learning, from repetitive firing of guns without adequate ear protection as the explosion exerts a concussive force on the brain.

Sight: One might presume that any sight impairment would be noticed, but visual loss can be slow, subtle, and not detected until the causative disease has progressed. This is why we recommend a comprehensive annual eye test in addition to what is required for aviation medicals. Although some eye diseases are congenital but do not declare themselves until adulthood (e.g., retinitis pigmentosa) most are related to aging. Clouding of the lens, cataract, is very common and wearing sunglasses can help protect the lens from degradation. Macular degeneration was described in the recent article The Blind Men and the Elephant and early detection certainly impacts how much sight will be lost, as is the case with glaucoma due to raised pressure in the eye. A detailed eye exam will note signs of these and other conditions that might steal sight including diabetes, high blood pressure, or tumors.

Flashes of light when there is no firework display can be a sign of an impending migraine or a retinal detachment and merit immediate medical attention. Intermittent floaters, fluffy objects drifting across the field of view, are quite common, often temporary, but can become permanent with age. Doctors love our ancient languages; in amaurosis fugax we combine both; the first word is Greek meaning “darkening” and the latter is Latin for “fleeting.” In this condition a quadrant of vision is lost and then returns and may precede an impending stroke. So shed some light on the problem and see your doctor immediately.

Any visual impairment after visiting certain African nations, Yemen, Brazil, or Venezuela may indicate infection with Onchocerciasis, a parasitic worm that causes river blindness; although rare in the US, it is a scary and dramatic way to get your attention.

American astronomer Edwin Hubble observed that “Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science.” And Da Vinci stated that “the five senses are the ministers of the soul.” So, minister attention to your altered senses, wake up and smell the coffee, feel the phone in your hand, dial your doctor, see your way clear to the office, hear what he or she has to say, and taste the sweetness of the adventure of living.