I’ve been having issues with my sense of taste coming and going. I’m especially having trouble tasting meaty, salty, umami flavors. It’s not consistent; sometimes the issue happens in the morning but it seems better at night.
Several times at breakfast in the last couple of months, I just could flat-out not taste the spicy breakfast sausage, the salty bacon, or the meaty ham. I might as well have been eating boiled rice. I don’t have too much trouble tasting sweet or tart things, at least so far.
And I haven’t had Covid, to my knowledge.
I’m guessing it’s age-related. I see online that the sense of taste can fade with age. This isn’t good. Cooking is my hobby and going out to eat is a favorite pastime. How can I tell if something I’m cooking is seasoned correctly if I can’t taste a thing? Fuck me.
Have you checked out the possibility that it might be a zinc deficiency? Some studies have shown that zinc can be effective in treating taste disorders.
What medications are you taking, because they can effect taste. I take water elimination pills that can wash too much potassium out of your system. I used to take a potassium supplient but then they switched me to something that keeps the potassium an works with the water pills. Sounds great right?
Now everything tastes like metalic potassium. Bitter. If you have ever used a salt substitute with potassium chloride you probably know what I mean. Anything sweet tastes bitter.
I’m not taking any medication like that. All medication that I’m taking I’ve taken for years: a statin drug, topical HRT, an eyedrop to reduce pressure in the eye. And things don’t taste different from what they’re supposed to taste; they have no flavor whatsoever. Like I said, mostly meaty, salty tastes just aren’t there for me.
If it were me, I believe I’d consult a doctor at this point. Sure, it’s common for the sense of taste to fade with age, but it doesn’t usually just quit altogether.
Complete loss of taste (ageusia) is really quite rare, as taste is mediated by a variety of nerves and most don’t get knocked out all at once. Though when it is seen, the most common culprit seems to be a covid infection.
Otherwise, dysgeusia (diminution/alteration of taste) can be caused by statins and beta blockers, even beta blockers in eyedrop form. However, those side effects are not that common, especially if there’s a history of lengthy prior use of the meds before symptoms develop.
There are multiple other possible causes, but my money is on age and covid as being by far the most common.
The sense isn’t all gone. Like I said, I can taste sweet and tart flavors, and bitter too. But the more delicate nuances of those flavors are a bit dulled, and I can barely taste the salty or umami flavors at all. It seems to improve in the evenings.
Maybe I’m drinking my morning tea too hot and scalding my taste buds. Starting tomorrow I think I’ll let it cool down a good bit first and after a few days of that, see if things improve.
I had a bout of Bell’s Palsy a few years ago that resulted in ~60% taste loss. It rebounded to a ~30% loss after a couple of months. Then I had another bout of Bell’s Palsy that resulted in ~90% taste loss. Now, it appears to be stabilized at ~80% loss.
Some things I can’t taste at all. Other things I taste quite well, like bacon and mushrooms. So, I eat a lot of bacon and mushrooms.
Having a sudden loss of taste was quite depressing at first, but I’ve adapted. Oftentimes, I now find myself enjoying a meal, only to realize I can barely taste it—I’m just remembering what it’s supposed to taste like from memory and fooling myself into believing I am actually tasting it in real-time, but I’m not. It’s just a memory.
This comes in handy at times, because I can buy something cheap and fool myself into believing it’s expensive, like putting a dozen Cheetos Cheese Puffs on my plate and convincing myself they are fried coconut shrimp!
I do have to be more careful about checking expiration dates on foods because I can’t really taste when they begin to spoil. Any dairy product that’s over a year or two old gets the old heave-ho!
With milk and half & half, I use the globular test for spoilage checking. I pour a little into the sink before I pour it into my glass. If it pours out in big hairy globules, I’ll be a bit hesitant to drink it (good enough for guests though). If it pours out in little globules…well, what the heck, a little spoilage never killed anyone. And, I’m a cheapskate.
I’m sorry you’ve had loss of taste, Tibby. Yes, I’m going on remembering what things are supposed to taste like, and have to be careful not to oversalt things so that I can detect some flavor. My husband likes things to be undersalted, so it’s an issue.
I made clam chowder last night and I could partially taste it, but my husband found it too salty.
Time. Sometimes helps. Or Chronos, in Greek Apart from that, no: they have not come up with any treatment, as far as I know.
ETA: Of course it is not asymptomatic if you lose your sense of smell or taste.
Apart from that, no: they have not come up with any treatment, as far as I know.