The sense of taste...why do some people loose theirs?
I have friends that have trouble tasting their food like they used to. I know this is not so uncommon, and I do extensive research daily on multiple venues, but I cannot find any useful info on this topic, so all help is appreciated.
Comments
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Folks that have a Zink deficiency sometimes lose their sense of smell. Which is related to the sense of taste.
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In addition to zinc deficiency, folate and B12 deficits can contribute to loss of taste. Varied medications, from antacids to cardiovascular drugs can also cause the problem.
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Enlarged nasal polyps can cause a lack of smell, and along with that can go the sense of taste.
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Thank you all for this in formation. I forgot to mention that I already knew about zinc deficiencies. I will post how I knew that below here as it is very interesting and some may want to have a look at the book I found it in.
I did not know about the folate and B12 deficiencies but it makes sense, esp the B12. I knew it also prolly had at least some to do with RX but finding info on it has been few and far between for me.
Since I have been so focused on a potential 'chemical' link, I hadn't thought about the potential 'obstructive' possibilities.
merlin44... How did you discover the B12 link? etoh a common factor in those with loss of taste/smell? And with folate?
Info on the book and zinc to follow.
The best to you all
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the book:
One morning the owner of a local pizza shop, on his daily walk to work noticed he had the most awful taste in his mouth and a very foul odor as well. He couldn't understand just thought he was getting the flu and it was what was affecting his sense of smell/taste.
He arrived at his pizza shop and was overwhelmed with foul stench. So much so he could barely go about his usual pizza making work.
I don't remember the details much anymore as it has been my college days I read this book. But I know he was afraid of loosing his shop because he could not stand to be in it for the 'stench'.
In quick summary: He finally discovered he was very low in zinc. There was a happy ending, smell taste returned to normal and he was able to keep his shop.
The book I'm referencing is "Medical Detectives" and it was one of the most interesting and valuable book I have ever read. For a few examples, unwashed new blue jeans and people getting sick
domestic birds causing illness
the case of the stumbling, degrading young woman, symptoms sudden but continuous, unable to find any dr who could figure out the cause, until she did and the way this doc diagnosed her was astounding to me back then, as well as the cause. She survived it with only a limp at the time of the writing of the book, but what happened to her could happen to any of us.
ie a lot of short stories that are true and were compiled by the books author, C Everett Koop, Surgeon General 1982 to 89.
A fascinating read whether you are medically inclined or not.
The best to you all
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Smell & taste are two senses closely connected: The sense of smell works when the olfactory cells are stimulated by odors. The olfactory nerve cells are in a tiny patch far up in the nose. They connect directly to the brain. -- The sense of taste depends on the gustatory cells, which are clustered in the taste buds in the mouth and throat. The gustatory cells react to food and drink mixed with Enzyme-containing saliva which must break the foods down so they can be Identified... The cells send information to nearby nerve fibers, which then send messages to the brain. We have close to 4000 taste buds/Receptors for Sour, Salty, Sweet, Savory, & Bitter, others may be added:
Sour because it is a source of vitamin C. Humans can't produce vit. C, but it is essential for very survival. Sour is the taste of acidic solutions like lemon juice & organic acids.
Salty is the taste of sodium & chloride (salt crystals) ++ the mineral salts potassium & magnesium. Animals that don’t eat meat (herbivores) seek out salt licks...
Sweet as a source of sugar, which means energy. Sweet is the taste of natural sugars found in many fruits & honey.
Savory comes from protein building blocks (amino acids) found naturally in protein-rich foods like meats and cheese.
Bitter is the taste of 35 different proteins found in plants. Bitter is also necessary in Healing herbs.
Loss of smell or taste, can be caused by:
- Exposure to chemicals, such as insecticides. There are over 80,000 chemicals in our world
- Nutritional deficiencies: iron, & zinc , plus vitamin A, vit. B3, vit. B6, vit. B9, vit. B12.
- Head injury
- Smoking
- in an area with high amounts of allergens, such as pollen, dander, dust, or air pollution
- Upper respiratory infection
- Polyps in the nasal or sinus cavities
- Dental problems
- DRUGS, incldg. antibiotics such as azithromycin (Zithromax) and clarithromycin (Biaxin), cholesterol-lowering drugs such as lovastatin (Mevacor) and pravastatin (Pravachol), and meds used to treat high blood pressure, such as enalapril (Vasotec) and diltiazem (Cardizem). Actually more than you could imagine.
- Radiation therapy
- Hormonal disturbances
- A permanent loss of Smell resulting in diminished taste, has occurred in people using Zinc nasal gel.
- aging
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Since the above response was my usual kinda long/Detailed , I thought to continue here to further explain about the B-vitamins as you had additional questions: Your body can Not directly make B vitamins (unlike proteins, for example – which the body makes out of many smaller building blocks). - Not a problem so long as can get enough get B vitamins from food you eat.
The problem is that with the crap sold in stores, what once was REAL/TRUE food, but is no more, most people are seriously Deficient, even if they don't think so. - so supplementing with Minerals & Vitamins, (to not waste $$ on synthetic form). Please learn what "Bio-active" forms to take for CELLULAR UPTAKE... For example, there are actually eight B vitamins:
- B1 - thiamin
- B2 - riboflavin
- B3 - niacin (Avoid niacin which causes flushing as vasodilator); instead take Niacinamide.
- B5 - pantothenic acid
- B6 - pyridoxine - Pyridoxal 5’-Phosphate is the active form of B6 driving 160+ vital enzyme processes
- B7 - biotin
- B9 - folic acid (Avoid folic acid). instead L-methylfolate (5-MTHF),
- B12 cobalamin (Avoid Cyanocobalamin synthetic form with Cyanide). Instead Methylcobalamin
Also remember Zinc is important for taste , & " Zinc picolinate " was found in Research to be best absorbed https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3630857
Gardeners will sometimes object to supplementing: "hey, folic acid is found naturally in foods, so I have no need to supplement." Yes, its just another compound of folate. But again, since most gardeners do Not do any TESTs, like the other discussion knowing own TEST values to stay healthy :) , they don't know IF they're getting whatever... Nutrients enough, or not.
Any folic acid we ingest must be metabolised (converted) into Dihydrofolate (DHF), Tetrahydrofolate (THF), and then finally into L-methylfolate (5-MTHF) to be used in the body. Once in this form it can be transported into cells, tissues and even across the BBB (blood-brain barrier).
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@silvertipgrizz I'm a strange creature LOL-a nurse who studied nutrition. Though looks like @rainbow covered it all. May your friends heal quickly, eating is little fun with no taste.
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Hi @merlin44 Can you just imagine me, the little girlie raised in my German grampa's eden#2 garden where the very word... 'organic' was non-existent. Like is there any other way?? Everything we ate was 'organic' & full of rich flavors...
Next flown to USA, where my mouth hung open for at least 9+ years. Where I ate organic & was (in all but 1 sense) healthy, other 7th.graders were popping some strange little things, that I thought were candy, lol - "No, those are drugs". Drugs?. yeah, you know medicine. Medicine, what's that? - Hello! don't you ever have pain(s)? - Sure, but if ignoring it doesn't change its mind, you just take a nap. - Hello! what if pains don't leave no matter how long you stay in bed, then what? - Well, grandma will get out her Herbs, & they fix most problems.
Yeah, but we hafta see the doctor & too the dentist, again. - Why? - Because we need more drugs, & treatments. - Why? - because we get more pains, & we feel sick all the time, so we need to take more, or different, drugs... What if the doctor runs out of drugs? - No problem, we go to different doctor(s), & take their drugs. - Um, is there ever any end to that? - Yes, when we are dead. (Mind you I was by then in the 8th. grade.)
Um, Just about that time, I realized the American society had gone totally insane.
Then, some idiot thought I should go into medicine "to wake people up!". - I said "Naw, they have been lied to for so many decades about nearly everything, they have allowed themselves to believe... that THEIR reality IS the only reality that exists. They're in too deep a coma." - But in innocence, I said re doctors: the only way I could survive in medicine is to bring the b------s to their knees" LOL -- so after I realized that that was also Not gonna happen, I have now spent over 40 years teaching people Basic nutrition including supplementing...
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I know what you mean about people not bothering to know their own lab values. My biggest pet peve is about vit D. I"m too tired to get into it tonight so will get back with you then on this.
A question regarding folic acid: isn't the one we should read labels looking for as the type we can absorb? I read something about this a year or so ago and am sure it said that folic acid is not what we want that it is folate?
Are you a dietician?
Boy your information is amazing. I am so grateful for the time you took to lay it all out.
and does the zinc nasal gel, the gel itself kill cells important to taste or was it too high a concentration of zinc or was it another bad formulation on the part of the rx?
Thank you so much. I wish we were closer so we could visit from time to time.
The best to you and may you rest well and dream awesome dreams.
Dianne
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I too am strange. I am a retired nurse who loved cardiac and emergency. But my real passion is helping people not be afraid when they are sick and doing all I could to ensure they went home and in better condition than they came in.
Nutrution has always been a huge interest of mine as well. My course work only involved one 3 credit mandatory nutrition basics. The real learning came after I retired and all the people I talk to when I'm in town and how so many are suffering and most of the time it is the garbage people eat, including myself at one time...another story for another day.
Knowledge is one of our greatest weapons against all things evil, including that awesome yet evil sugar lol.
Thank you for your responses and nice to know there are other nurses in the group. It would be fun to exchange war stories some time.
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Hi Dianne,
RE A question regarding folic acid: isn't the one we should read labels looking for as the type we can absorb? folic acid is not what we want that it is folate? "
Well, I spelled this out above Clearly, quote " B9 - folic acid (Avoid folic acid). instead L-methylfolate (5-MTHF) ". The reason for both B9 & B12 to be the METHYL-forms, is that Many people have a Genetic Defect of not being able to Metabolize/Convert the other forms into the METHYL-forms the body can actually use.
RE "and does the zinc nasal gel, the gel itself kill cells important to taste or was it too high a concentration of zinc or was it another bad formulation on the part of the rx? "
I got that off a research site, & because it is MORE negativity !!, I don't really care. -
As I've said before, ((tho rarely I do post re the 'bad & ugly')), Honestly my Motivation, & Drive, & FOCUS & JOYs is sharing with people their Fulfilling & HAPPY potentials, & possibilities... my happiest moments in life were/are the times that I helped a Hurting/Destructive person, change... in an hour or less... to the state of mind he or she really wanted to be & live their life as. And many of these occasions were Observed in conventional-medical settings, to their complete astonishment.
RE "I know what you mean about people not bothering to know their own lab values. My biggest pet peve is about vit D. I"m too tired to get into it tonight so will get back with you on this."
Maybe you @silvertipgrizz would like to Start another discussion like "Supplementing with Minerals, Vitamins & further neutraceuticals" in Natural and Home Medicine I have a couple tons to share...
RE "Are you a dietician? Boy your information is amazing. I am so grateful for the time you took to lay it all out.
And you're Welcome, Dianne. It is my pleasure.
Can I share something with you? NO one here (or in any former groups) until now, has a clue about how more times than not I spend an hour or longer... composing one of my posts. True. - (tho the Science-content is pretty much automatic...) ; so what is causing disabling Anxiety ? those " Vote Down " marks that 5 people have punished me with in 5 months, another just today. --- Last month were 2 in a single hour by the same person, at which subconscious awareness I fainted, & on the floor nearly suffered a concussion !. - I give here FREEly out of genuine concern for everyone, & yet there are those who care LESS to see someone banned, or leave, or die. -- We live in a sick world.
Nor am I a dietician. 'Conventional' dieticians don't know half of the things I share... And you are Welcome. I have even taught doctors, & anyone else, whoever has the intelligence to remain Openminded.
RE Thank you so much. I wish we were closer so we could visit from time to time.
The best to you and may you rest well and dream awesome dreams. Dianne"
No idea where you live ? Am in PNW around Puget Sound. And you dream awesome 🙂 dreams Dianne
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Hi again @silvertipgrizz - Just Noticed your comments above mine:
RE I too am strange. I am a retired nurse who loved cardiac and emergency. But my real passion is helping people not be afraid when they are sick and doing all I could to ensure they went home and in better condition than they came in. "
and
"Thank you for your responses and nice to know there are other nurses in the group. It would be fun to exchange war stories some time. "
THANK you Dianne for your wonderful Humanitarian service... to those in great need.
Well, tho I don't know that for sure, as far as whose "war-story" is worse, than someone else's. I have survived medical wars, that other medical people found quite difficult, if not "impossible" to acknowledge... They are too eager to "protect" the failing conventional establishment, at all costs.
Worked in nearly every specialty : prenatal hi-risk, Nicu, maternity, well-baby, Peds (& served as 1 of the pioneers who started Homecare for kiddos on full life-support in WA-state, m.s.icu, Neuro-icu, Mental-health, Ltc, plus taught people off the street how to be a Cna, & my last hospital job was at Harborview Burn & Trauma. - EVERY "patient" in my care, all of those 40 LONG years in that desert got ALL of me, the best humanly possible, & often I drove myself to yet more. No matter how utterly drained & exhausted I was most of the time. Oh sure, got those usual Exceptional evaluations, along with leading in coronary step-down, & the Management/supervisory jobs, (or as my preschool child once asked "mommy, do I really look like I need a Stupidvisor ?" LOL) - so How, ever, did I survive all those years, of conventional Insanity? - I prayed every single day "Please, oh please Deliver me". - Oh sure, I was delivered : in 1999 I hit the deck from Acute adrenal exhaustion, where for months I literally prayed to die.
As far as here in this group, I've run across 2 nurses thus far, who are also AWAKE: https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/842287/my-notes-from-a-cancer-therapy-session & maybe there are, aside us three musketeers, several more ?
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I have been thinking, @rainbow that it could be possible that some of your vote downs are unintended swipes on a phone. I almost voted you down on this thread. Ive voted up ny accident too. I caught this last one, though. I appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge. So 1 purposeful vote up! 😄
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I've never voted anyone down... at least not intentionally... I have noticed it sure is easy to hit those buttons accidentally though. @rainbow I bet those votes down were accidental.
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I noticed 2 of mine had been voted down too? I agree and figured last night when I noticed that it was prolly done by mistake.
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You're making me feel less like a social outcast with my down votes. I once accidently hit a down arrow, was able to correct it by hitting the up arrow.
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Hi @shllnzl - i know what you mean by "social outcast" because - tho this here group IS the best I've ever run across, with soooo many Community members ever eager... to explain/help in any Positive way they can, - plus when I share somewhat intelligent contributions at least half the time LOL, when 5 people voted me down, I really was sad; & thought Each could have just sent me a PM (like they did in August three x, & in the vernacular... warned hey Stop screwing up"). - That way I'd only have the original 1 vote-down.
@silvertipgrizz I noticed those 2 vote-downs too, & thought No fair !!. How could they do that to my friend (??). Sorry that happened to you. Why ? because after you thought I had taken you behind the woodshed. - I know it was OFF-topic, so instead I was simply trying to CHEER YOU UP with those two Cute :) animal jokes. Did you understand this ?
@one.ette - if I ever got a vote-Down from you, I would be totally aghast !!
@Laurie - what do you mean by " vote downs are unintended swipes on a phone." ? - There's NO way my Landline can manage anything like that ! LOL - Doesn't everyone ?? use a Hard-wired Desk-top computer like they need do... to PROTECT themselves & children from 2 to 4G health-Killing radiation.
Oh, & IF in fact they are "accidental", maybe Jimerson can Separate them, like move the QUOTE-button after the vote-DOWN button, as that way there is an obvious space between. Understand? At any rate, I would like to get to the bottom of this, as those darned vote-Downs do Not make my day.
Enjoy a wonderful Wednesday all you precious friends 😀
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Good morning!
It is a great idea putting the down button elswhere. I looked at the others on the page i was looking at at the time and read the content and had no clue why any of it was voted down. Including mine. I can see someone disagreeing with anything I say. We are all unique and don't always agree but I can't understand anyone getting a vote down except in times of a rogue someone playing dirty which I think would be more than rare here.
Having said all that, I caught myself hitting my own up button when I thought I was hitting someone else. When I realized what I was doing I though, 'ye gads' lol.
Anyway I try to always vote up as I think it is encouragement for all of us to keep writing even when we might not be sure how to present info.
Like the time I was trying to clarify that I understood what someone was saying/felt, but when I tried to write how I understood, it wasn't quite as easy as the topic was quite subjective.
If I ever hit a down vote it would be totally by mistake so yes please move it next to the flag button and away from the good votes side.
Ladies have a very blessed and great day! We are supposed to get a bad storm here in Okla on thurs day and worse later on in eve unless something changes and I have an outside cat shelter I have to redo with new straw etc, as well as poss pull up all my basil for preserving.
If you get a chance check out the new discussion in current events I left a news article of great concern for the people in Calif as pg&e is cutting power to a huge number of counties. Pray for the ones who are sick and the ones barely making it financially that will loose so much in groceries and so on.
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This is my first social network and I found myself dismayed when I got my first vote down for quoting what experts were telling me.
Then I pulled my psychological chin up and reminded myself that I cannot control what people think of me and will never be able to please everyone. (I have a strong personality, not the least bit demure female, and some people dislike me on sight.) I determine to continue living life as myself.
This is an excellent example for we more mature individuals to understand why so many young people are depressed and suicidal. The young define themselves and their self-worth by all their social networking. And, as we see here, people who want to disagree, be unpleasant, or bully are able to do so anonymously. (Anonymity is perhaps wise to prevent electronic fist fights.)
I believe that most people in this network are nurturing life and only sending positive karma into the world. Let this be a notice to any bullies out there that we will continue to share information and try to help each other. Everyone is allowed to disagree; please be kind if you do.
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(I have a strong personality, not the least bit demure female, and some people dislike me on sight.) I determine to continue living life as myself.
Well said , and me too..head strong and self determined and very independent and it's a good thing becuase most of my life I have only had me to depend on.
Our group is awesome. I just know those down votes were accidental.
We are here to help each other and those outside the group that we all touch as well.
Have a great day!
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To @Laurie + @shllnzl + @one.ette + especially @silvertipgrizz
I have watched with total Dismay... that for the now past TEN responses here in @silvertipgrizz 's "Loss of Taste" discussion, it was totally Hi-jacked due to those "6 silly-assed mark-downs", that I made the mistake of after 4 months high Anxiety, I let you all know about. -- This thread per shlinzl might now be more aptly REnamed "Bullies beware: No suicidal electronic Fist-fights allowed in TGN"; --- lol
I Apologize to all of you, & ask for your forgiveness.
Also, we could just REpost my 4 posts from the Start, to get this Vital discussion back on track... What do you @silvertipgrizz think ?
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