CANDICE: Welcome to Cracker Croakers for Wednesday, January 23, 2019. I'm Candice Bergeron, your hostess with the mostest.

COLTON: And, I'm your other host Colton Wyatt.

CANDICE: Today Cracker Croakers is proud to present a public service announcement for our older audience members. Of the five senses each person possesses, taste and smell are probably the most important ones for good health.

COLTON: While hearing, feeling, and seeing add to the overall quality of life, the sense of taste and the sense of smell are vital to maintaining a healthy existence.

CANDICE: The sense of smell allows you to inhale fragrant aromas such as roses. In turn, these can offer stress relief and provide comfort through such qualities as aromatherapy. The sense of smell allows a person to detect potential hazards in their immediate environment. Things like spoiled food, smoke, and fuel leaks.

COLTON: The Mayo Clinic states as a person ages, after about sixty years old, they naturally begin to lose their sense of taste and their sense of smell. And, the National Institute on Aging confirms this report.

CANDICE: A person usually has somewhere around 900 taste buds. Many flavors are linked to aromas that start at nerve endings in the lining of their nose.

COLTON: This is one important way the senses of taste and smell work together in concert with one another.

CANDICE: Over time, the number of taste buds decreases and the ones they maintain may start to shrink. A person's sensitivity to the five senses follows suit, making it harder for them to distinguish flavors.

COLTON: When a person reaches the age of seventy, their sense of smell can lessen due to losing nerve endings and having a smaller amount of mucus in their nose.

CANDICE: Daily life can become vastly diminished with the loss of sensory nerves in an older person's nose and fewer taste buds in their mouths.

COLTON: These subtle changes can lead to depression, extreme weight loss, a disregard for food, overusing salt and sugar to flavor foods, and the elimination of the enjoyment of eating.

CANDICE: The loss of the sense of taste, and the destruction of the sense of smell, may also be connected to such ailments as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

COLTON: Other possible contributors to a person losing their senses of taste and smell includes colds, the flu, medications, the lack of saliva, and various cancer treatments. In some cases, changing treatments and medications could help.

CANDICE: People experiencing the loss of taste should consult with their doctors. Doing so will rule out more serious health issues and may even assist them restore pleasures derived from good sense of taste and smell capabilities.

COLTON: Otolaryngologists specialize in diseases of the nose, throat and ears. These doctors may be able to assist patients with the difficulties associated with the loss of the senses of taste and smell. Neurologists may serve the same purpose, as may other specialists.

CANDICE: The declination of the senses of taste and smell may be slowed by such activities as gardening, cooking, and the discovery of new aromas a person has not previously associated themselves with.

COLTON: The loss of the senses of taste and smell may be treatable. However, the condition cannot be reversed. Unfortunately, it's just a natural part of growing older. See what we have to look forward to once we arrive there?

CANDICE: That about wraps us up for this edition of Cracker Croakers.

COLTON: In that case smarty-pants, I suppose we better say adieu. She's Candice!

CANDICE: And, he's Colton!

CANDICE AND COLTON: And, we invite you to join us again tomorrow for another entertaining edition of Cracker Croakers (Featuring Candice and Colton).