Q: Since I started a new medicine, my food doesn’t taste right. Is there anything I can do about this?
Our ability to taste foods and drinks can affect not only our enjoyment of socializing and savoring favorite flavors, but problems with tasting can actually lead to medical problems. As we age, we start to lose our ability to taste sweet and salt, and that can begin to affect our food choices.
Even though the taste of a particular medication can be unpleasant, there are over 250 medicines documented to affect how we taste or smell. Also, taste and flavor are not quite the same. If you have ever had a bad cold or sinus infection that suppressed your sense of smell, you may have noticed that foods and drinks didn’t, well, taste quite right; they just didn’t have their characteristic or particular flavor.
Taste is actually a fairly complex process. Several different types of cells and nerves inside the mouth and nose receive signals from the food or drink we’ve put in our mouths. These signals are carried to the brain, where they are interpreted and identified. This is the way we can tell the difference between the smell of a Cinnabon cinnamon roll and spoiled milk.
Think for a moment about your absolute, favorite flavor of ice cream. Mmm… As you savor this tasty treat from memory, what about it makes it taste so good? You get help in deciding the answer to that question from three types of receptors that work together to create this personal favorite taste: your taste buds, some of the other taste receptors found in your mouth, and smell receptors in your nostrils. Each of these handles a different type of sensation.
Your taste buds live on your tongue, soft palate, and the back of your mouth where you swallow. Each of these specialized taste detectors have just one of 4 different types of taste receptor cells, each taste bud specializing in picking up only one type of taste: sweet, salty, sour or bitter. The other taste receptors in your mouth are arranged not only on your tongue but all along the lining of your mouth, and these other receptors can sense stinging, burning, cooling and sharpness. People who wear dentures report that they don’t taste food as well since they started wearing them. This is because the taste receptors on the roof of their mouth are now covered up.
What causes a change in what you can taste? Medications are a common culprit, but they aren’t the only cause. Medical conditions such as cancer or poor oral health including severe tooth decay, an abscessed tooth, or gingivitis can affect the ability to taste. Either radiation or chemotherapy for cancer can also change your perception of how your food and drink tastes.
Medicines can alter how you taste in several ways. The medicine itself can be bitter or foul-tasting, or it can change the way your saliva or your food tastes. Liquid medicines come in contact with more of your taste buds than a tablet does, which creates a more intense taste experience. To give our new doctors-in-training an appreciation of why kids have to be coaxed into taking their medicine, my clinic is hosting a “Taste Test” of several liquid medicines this week. It’s appalling how awful many of them taste.
Another way medicine can affect your ability to taste is by causing your mouth to be dry. The cells that make up the receptors for taste and smell need to be kept moist in order to function. This is usually accomplished by saliva bathing your taste buds and other taste receptor cells in your mouth, and mucus protecting the scent receptors in your nose.
What about experiencing a “bad taste in my mouth”? Antibiotics and cancer chemotherapy drugs top the list of drugs that can do that. Unfortunately, the drugs most commonly used to treat breast cancer are some of the worst offenders at changing taste and flavor. These drugs diffuse throughout your body, even into your saliva and mucus, often causing a metallic taste in your mout.? Do you notice a “funny” (metallic, bitter or sour) taste in your mouth while on a particular medicine? That’s because you’re actually tasting the drug itself as it contacts your taste buds!
Chemotherapy agents can also affect taste by destroying your taste and smell receptor cells. Chemotherapy and radiation treat cancer by attacking any rapidly dividing cells. Taste receptor cells are renewed every 10 days, and smell receptor cells are regenerated every 30 days, making them very susceptible to damage from both chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
What can you do about your funny taste in your mouth? Sugarless gum with xylitol, or sugarless lozenges can help relieve symptoms of dry mouth and help chase away an unpleasant taste. Sips of water or ice chips can also help mask weird or just plain nasty tastes. If this doesn’t help, speak up and let your doctor know about this so that you can discuss other medicines that could be substituted.
Dr. Louise Achey, Doctor of Pharmacy is a 30-year veteran of pharmacology. Please send your questions and comments to www.AskDrLouise.com.
would valtrex or prednisone make my food taste HORRIBLE?
Possibly. Medicines go into your body and spread out, even into your saliva. Sometimes you can actually TASTE the small amount of medicine that’s in your saliva. Prednisone is one of those medicines that has a very bitter taste, so you could be tasting it. Thinking about food or eating a meal releases more saliva into your mouth, which now tastes nasty because of the medicine it contains. That can make your food taste terrible. Hopefully when you stop the medicines your food will taste normal again. Some antibiotics are like metronidazole (Flagyl®) are famous for also doing this.
everything tastes like peanut butter. I started taking Lexapro, could this be the culprit??
That’s a possibility, because no drug works in everyone and no drug works exactly the same in everyone. How long after starting the Lexapro® did you notice a change in how your food tasted? If it started within 1-2 weeks of starting the medicine or of increasing the dose, that points to the medicine as being the most likely culprit. Did you start taking any supplements or herbal products recently? They can also cause side effects, even though they are marketed as “natural”. There have been several times that we were ready to blame a new medicine for some side effects but it turned out that a supplement was causing the problem instead. If this is caused by either a medicine or a supplement, this type of side effect doesn’t go away by itself. PLEASE please DON’T stop the Lexapro® abruptly, as that can cause fatigue, headache and other symptoms, like you’ve got the flu. Call up your doctor and explain the situation, so that you can work together to transition you to another medicine. Good luck, and please let me know how it turns out.
I started taking Sulfasalazine for my rheumatoid arthritis. Now when I eat something sweet, it doesn’t taste right. Could this have something to do with it?
If you’ve noticed a change in taste within a few days of starting Sulfasalazine, it may be that now that this medicine is in your saliva it’s affecting how your food tastes to you. Because Sulfasalazine takes several weeks to completely take effect in your body, side effects from Sulfasalazine can show up anytime from a few days up to 12 weeks after starting the medicine. The only way to know for sure is to stop the medicine, see if the effect on your taste goes away, and then if it does, to restart it and see if the effect comes back. But please DON’T do that on your own! Stopping Sulfasalazine could be a VERY BAD idea for you if your rheumatoid arthritis is not under good control. Talk to your doctor about your options. Good luck, and please let me know how it goes.
I took some medication for an aching tooth and now I can’t taste anything .. What can I do to get my taste buds back??
Can you specify which medicine you took? Some antibiotics can do that.
My 89 yr. old mother is taking Cipro 2x/day for 10 days. She is complaining that nothing tastes “right”. She says everything tastes sour. Is it the Cipro?
Yes, I believe so. She should be able to taste her food again a few days after she completes the course. It’s because there are small amounts of the antibiotic actually in her saliva, which she can taste.
I am taking eliquis losartan plavix and creastor. Lately I can’t find a coffee that doesnt fast tinny or metallic. I am wondering which med is the culprit
Any of those medicines COULD be the culprit. The best way to narrow it down is starting with the time relationship: When did you notice your coffee was tasting metallic? Which of those medicines was started within the last 2-3 weeks prior to that? If you started taking more than one medicine during that time, you may need to stop one medicine at a time to determine which is the culprit. Please work with your physician on this issue. If you miss even one dose of Eliquis you are unprotected from a stroke or other blood clot. Crestor is the least likely medicine to cause you harm if you should stop it for a few days or longer. Again, PLEASE work with your medical professional to sort this out.
I am taking bactrim cipro and xarelto. Have been on antibiotics for 7 months due to staph from spider bite. Everything from sweet to salty and drinks all taste the same. Like bitter or no flavor at all. Did the medicine cause this and can I do anything about it?
Antibiotics are the most likely culprit. Both Bactrim and Cipro can cause taste changes. It’s possible that Xarelto can as well, although we don’t have as much experience with it as the older medicines you are taking. When did the taste change happen? Did you start any new medicines within 2-3 weeks of noticing that effect? Please work with your doctor on solving this; don’t just quit taking your medicine to find out without making sure you are choosing the best medicine to quit first. Good luck!