Has the salsa at your favorite restaurant lost its bite? It may merely mean that there is a new cook in the kitchen. On the other hand, it could well be a sign that you are losing your sense of taste, or more specifically the ability to detect and differentiate flavors, this is a condition medically known as HYPOGEUSIA. But if the spicy salsa begins to taste more like smoked salmon, it could signal dysgeusia, a distorted sense of taste.
As with losing our other senses, a diminished sense of taste can be a natural sign of aging. Fortunately, a total loss of taste (ageusia) is rare.
Both the loss of taste and taste distortions may be signs of an oral infection or irritation from braces or dentures. People who have facial nerve damage (as in Bell's Palsy) or who have had a head trauma or radiation to the head or neck may also sense that their taste is lessened or altered.
Taste disorders can be a reaction to many of the same drugs that distort the sense of smell or dry out the mouth, and they can signal the same conditions that cause dry mouth such as sjogren's syndrome. Because food must be mixed and moistened with saliva to be tasted, the sense of taste can be diminished, distorted, or even lost completely when the mouth is too dry.
Taste disorders can be important clues to a vitamin A or B3 (niacin) deficiency as well. Less commonly, they may signal diabetes, multiple sclerosis, liver disease, AIDS, or cancer.
Any loss of taste, even a partial one, can have serious repercussions. People with diminished taste often oversalt and oversweeten their food, which can be dangerous if they suffer from hypertension or diabetes. For those of us who have a taste for the good life, life without the richness and variety of food may seem hardly worth living. Unfortunately, people who lose their sense of taste can become depressed.
Loss of taste can be downright dangerous. Without the ability to taste, you cannot tell if food is spoiled. This raises your risk of food poisoning.
No comments:
Post a Comment