Hallucinating Smells
I've been going to various gyms in the past 4 years doing mostly cardio (treadmill & elliptical) and sometimes free-weights. There have been many varying conditions afterward, such as driving home and walking home, being in Texas or Oregon, etc. Yet the one common denominator has been that, maybe half the time, my nose starts smelling strange smells in the 20 or 30 minutes after a workout.
The smells are of a metallic or sour odor. They are all bad smells, but not in a body odor sort of way. My wife is almost always with me and never understands what I'm talking about. I'll smell it when I get home, in a new house that otherwise never smells bad. The only other possible link is that I feel I'm more likely to hallucinate smells if I pushed myself extra hard at the gym.
Anyone else experience this? Any idea of a cause?
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While I have not had this experience, this paper on olfactory hallucinations does note physical exertion as a common trigger.
After initial and second insidious onset all patients noted phantosmia was initiated following coughing, laughing, crying, sneezing, blowing the nose, loud speech or shouting, any intense emotional outburst, physical exertion, strenuous exercise, forced nasal inhalation and/or exhalation or hyperventilation
I am not a doctor, but it sounds like the paper is likening incidence of these olfactory hallucinations to be similar to seizures (which also often feature olfactory hallucinations before and after. Burning feathers is particularly common), which can be induced by hyperventilation, as with exercise. [4.1.3 of the above paper]
For the sake of covering all bases, it can be a symptom of something more pernicious such as epilepsy, migraines, or brain tumors, so you might be well-advised to consult with your doctor.
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