What Does A Weird Taste In The Mouth Without Diet Or Medication Change Suggest?

Posted on Tue, 5 May 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 5 May 2015 Answered on

Tue, 26 May 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : 67 yrs (great grandma) old in generally good health. Recently had yearly physical w/all test good. Last few days foods and drinks don't have much flavor or just don't taste right. No new meds or any changes in diet. What can cause taste to go like that? Am active caring for Alzheimer's husband, lots of family involvement and active with my church. Only other complaints are just getting tired and general aches and pains that come with the "not as young as you used to be".

Answered by Dr. Ajay Panwar (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Please look for these causes-

Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXX,
Thanks for being on healthcaremagic.com.
I am Dr.Ajay Panwar,a neurologist,here to answer your query.

Precisely,there can be one the following causes for recent onset taste disturbance-
1)Oral or dental infection
2)Upper respiratory tract or throat infection
3)Recent changes in medication (which probably is not the cause as you mentioned)
4)Febrile illness
5)Minerals deficiency-especially Zinc

Also,please get screened for Diabetes and Thyroid disorder as these may also be associated with taste abnormalities.

Please take note whether any of the above causes are associated.Zinc supplementation may be taken orally(PLEASE TAKE MEDICINES UNDER A PHYSICIAN'S GUIDANCE).It will likely be of help.

Hope that I have answered your query.If you have some follow-up questions,I shall be glad to answer else,please close the thread-rate it and write a review as your rating will be of help to me.

Regards
Dr.Ajay Panwar,
MD,DM(Neurology)

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar