Loss of taste

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Hi,
Last summer on the PCT I lost my sense of taste. It came back when I took a rest from the trail and took some vitamins.

Has anybody experienced this? What mineral or vitamin would be responsible? I've searched the web, but everything I can ever find is about old people.

[John S.]

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/smelltaste/taste.asp

Some people are born with chemosensory disorders, but most develop them after an injury or illness. Upper respiratory infections are blamed for some chemosensory losses, and injury to the head can also cause taste problems.

Loss of taste can also be caused by exposure to certain chemicals such as insecticides and by some medicines. Taste disorders may result from oral health problems and some surgeries (e.g. third molar extraction and middle ear surgery). Many patients who receive radiation therapy for cancers of the head and neck develop chemosensory disorders.

Abnormalities in chemosensory function may accompany and even signal the existence of several diseases or unhealthy conditions, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, malnutrition, and some degenerative diseases of the nervous system such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and Korsakoff's psychosis.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I assumed it was malnutrition since my sense of taste returned after taking vitamins. I was curious which vitamin it might have been or if anybody else who had done extreme sports of some kind might know something.

It was weird. It was like everything tasted the same. Sort of sweet. I could still smell. I couldn't wait to have some pizza and bacon cheeseburgers, but once I got them, there was no flavor, not even saltiness, and I was terribly disappointed.

[Susan Campbell]

I occasionally experience partial loss of taste, but not smell, due to multiple sclerosis. It's the taste of sweet that I lose first. Sometimes sweet foods have a nasty bitter, almost metallic, taste, but mostly the sweetness is just missing. It's surprisingly disturbing. I suspect that it's due to temporary numbness of part of my tongue.

I haven't noticed a problem with saltiness, but I have to add that it's possible that I wouldn't have noticed, since I never use salt, and I hardly ever eat foods that I don't prepare myself from plain vegetables and meats with no commercial additives other than a few individual spices such as coriander.

Susan

[Walter Carrington]

Did you lose your ability to smell? That's most of what we think of as taste. Our actual sense of taste is just salt, sweet, sour, and bitter. You could probably lose most of your sense of smell temporarily from a cold.

[Laurie Ann March]

sometimes loss of taste can be linked with dehydration as can an overwhelming salty taste

perhaps it was the water that you used to take the vitamins that was of help

[Author]

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