Your sense of taste can predict if you are more likely to die younger

If you are among the 19% of Americans who report changes in their sense of taste while aging, it can be a cause for the alarm.

New research suggests that losing your sense of taste, especially for salty and dry foods, can be associated with early death in the elderly.

And the results were different for men and women.

The study, published today in Jama Otolaryngology “Head and neck surgery, looked at 7,340 adults aged 40 and older.

They found that those whose sense of taste declined since their new years had a 47% higher risk of death in the six -year pursuit.

The self-reported decline in the ability to enjoy bitterness was associated with early death only in female participants, while the decline in the ability to enjoy mower was associated with increased mortality only to male participants.

While our sense of smell and taste is often associated with each other – for example, when you have a full nose, foods do not always enjoy so well – this study found that an increased risk of death in people who lost their sense of taste , but they were still fully able to smell.

So can loss of your sense of taste is an early warning sign of something more dangerous? PERHAPS

Researchers believe that findings show that loss of taste can be a signal of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimerâ, as well as cardiovascular ones such as heart failure and stroke.

Taste dysfunction can also adversely affect a person’s eating habits – losing your taste in salt, for example, can lead to excess salt consumption and raised blood pressure – leading to nutritional deficiencies and chronic illness .

The study can have extensive implications, encouraging doctors to check their patients for changes in their sense of taste to identify high -risk individuals.

However, Dr. David Henry Hiltzik, chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at Staten Island University Hospital, has no desire to draw such an extreme conclusion.

“I think the study is very generalized and not specific,” he told the post. “They are giving a symptom that is associated with mortality, but there is a lot of conjecture why this is.â €

After all, the correlation is not a cause, and there may be many mitigating factors that contributed to the death of some of the participants.

â € is interesting to emphasize, but it is not as if we have a truly causal meaning between the two, “he said. very generalized conclusion. ”

This was said, he admitted that the study gave some possible, more convincing links that it was neurodegenerative disorders.

“Because if you have a reduction in your senses, you are likely to have a decrease in your neurological function,” he said. â € œ The wind is associated with neurodegenerative disorders, so it may be that taste is a similar connection.â €

The main benefit of the study is that it “turns out to the importance of taste and health and shows that” it is important, “given that” is not something that most people pay attention to, “according to Hiltzik.

“It can also be an indicator of health, so it’s another value to monitor,” he noted. â € œ is also worth paying attention to different types of taste: salt, bitter, sweet, sour, umami. Note that each of these senses can be an indication of something that is happening in the body.â €

And, of course, it is always a good idea to talk to your doctor about any changes in the sensory function you have experienced recently.

“You need to clearly report changes in the wind and taste to your doctor,” he said. â € œ Everything from the headache in the vision varies in severe nasal blockages. Memory issues. All those different things can be related to neurological conditions. From the point of the ENT, they are things we are worried about.â €