Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Anosmie · Ageusie
Usually the nose, not the tongue — and a zinc or B12 deficiency is readily corrected.
Also known as: loss of smell · loss of taste · anosmia · ageusia · food tastes of nothing
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
What we call “taste” is largely smell. The tongue distinguishes sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami — everything else comes through the nose, from behind, while chewing. So the most common reason for food suddenly tasting of nothing is not the tongue but a blocked or inflamed nose. After a cold, smell can take weeks to return. If it stays away longer, it is worth looking at polyps, chronic sinus inflammation or allergic swelling. Dry lining plays a part too, since scent molecules must be able to dissolve to be perceived. Smoking dulls it lastingly. Zinc deficiency and vitamin B12 deficiency are known and readily corrected reasons. Many medicines change taste, as do dental problems, dry mouth and radiotherapy to the head. With age the sense of smell slowly declines — that is normal, but it does not explain a sudden loss. A one-sided loss, or a loss together with headache, should be assessed.
A loss of taste and smell is among the early signs of zinc deficiency. The blood value has to be read fasting and together with the CRP, though, or it misleads.
Four familiar scents, 20 seconds each — over weeks, not days.
Saline rinse and humid air; scents need moisture to arrive.
Two values that can explain something and are simple to correct.
Without smell the warning for smoke and gas is missing — detectors matter more then.
Smell declines measurably from about sixty; over eighty more than half are affected. After a viral infection it recovers in most within six to twelve months — smell training with four scents, twice a day over twelve weeks, improves the result measurably. What is perceived as taste is about eighty per cent smell; which is why “nothing tastes of anything” almost always means the nose. Zinc helps with a documented deficiency.
Cortisone nasal spray works if swelling or polyps block the way to the smelling lining — it does not work if the smell nerve itself is affected. Zinc helps with a documented deficiency. What works after a viral infection in studies is not a drug but practice: smell training with four scents, morning and evening, twenty seconds per scent, over twelve weeks — it improves recovery measurably and costs nothing.
Very common; return often takes weeks and can be supported with smell training.
Points to polyps, chronic sinuses or an allergy — treatable.
Then rather mouth and teeth: dryness, inflammation, denture, medication.
This combination should be looked at medically — no rush, but no putting off.
The taste buds renew themselves every ten days and need zinc for it. A lack is one of the few reasons for fading taste that can be measured and put right.
Affects the nerves of smell and taste too. Together with tingling in the fingers and a smooth tongue a picture emerges that belongs together.
Keeps the smelling lining in order. A lack is rare here but occurs with disturbed fat uptake and a very one-sided diet.
Smelling and tasting need a moist lining. Dry heated air, mouth breathing and drinking too little damp both at once without anything being ill.
With a proven zinc deficiency taste returns, otherwise the studies show nothing. After a viral infection smell needs months — smell training with four scents twice daily over 12 weeks is better documented than any capsule.
Clearly worthwhile and well supported when deficient — vegan, older adults, certain drugs. No energy boost without a deficiency.
An underactive thyroid measurably dampens smell and taste, and treatment restores both. It is one of the few fixable reasons and one of the least often checked.
With Kallmann syndrome the sense of smell and puberty are missing together — the nerve cells for both travel the same path in development. Anyone who has never smelled anything and enters puberty late or not at all has an explanation here.
Zinc deficiency is one of the few correctable causes. After correction taste usually returns in 4–8 weeks; without deficiency zinc brings nothing.
When nothing tastes of anything, more salt often goes on. Herbs, lemon, vinegar and pungency bring flavour by other routes — that keeps salt in check.
With a proven zinc deficiency taste usually returns within 4–8 weeks after correction. Without deficiency zinc does not work — with smell loss after a viral infection daily smell training over months helps instead.