It is a common symptom of COVID. Paxlovid, the new antiviral medication, is one of the side effects.
Although it affects less than 6 percent of people who are given Paxlovid, some report a horrible taste that came on soon after they started taking the drug.
The taste in the mouth of Dysgeusia is bitter, metallic, or sour. What is going on in the body when it happens?
Our sense of taste is more than just the pleasure we get from eating food that tastes good. We get enough energy and nutrition from taste. It helps us digest the food we have eaten.
Our sense of taste can keep us safe from consuming things that are dangerous to our health, such as poisons or food which has spoiled.
Each taste bud in the human mouth has up to 150 taste receptors. Our taste buds help detect whether food is salty, sweet, bitter, sour, or a combination of the two.
The taste buds transmit information to the brain about what we are eating.
Information about taste is first transmitted to the base of the brain, and then sent throughout the brain via connected pathways to the front of the brain. This area connects to the limbic system that helps with memory and emotion.
Damage to the tongue and mouth can be caused by several factors, including infections, medicines, and damage to the central nervous system.
1. A disease or an infectious disease.
Alterations in taste have been reported after a number of diseases.
One of the first symptoms many people experience is loss of taste, and it is one of the most frequent causes of dysgeusia. It is thought that between 33 percent and 50 percent of people with COVID have dysgeusia. It has been reported as a symptom of long COVID.
Scientists don't know what causes dysgeusia. There are some theories about how the COVID virus causes an inflammatory response by binding to the mouth. Changes in cellular pathways could alter taste.
Damage to the lining of the nose may cause taste problems because of the close links between smell and taste.
The virus could be causing more damage to taste buds, nerves involved in taste, or brain areas responsible for taste sensory processing.
2. There is an injury.
Damage to the brain pathways involved in taste perception can lead to loss of taste.
This could be a result of damage to the nerves or brain tissue, or it could be a result of loss of the myelin coating which protects the taste signaling pathways. Dysgeusia can be caused by brain tumors.
3. There are medications.
Antibiotics and medications for Parkinson's disease are some of the drugs that can cause dysgeusia.
There are several reasons for this. The bitter taste of the medications can linger in our taste buds.
In a way that we don't often experience with our food, medication can make our taste buds more sensitive to bitter, sour or metallic flavors.
Paxlovid is effective at reducing hospitalizations and deaths.
Paxlovid has a side effect called dysgeusia. Paxlovid mouth is a nickname for dysgeusia, which occurs in less than 6 percent of people.
ritonavir and nirmatrelvir are the two medications that Paxlovid has. The main drug to combat COVID is nirmatrelvir, which can be broken down too quickly, so it can remain active in the body for longer.
When taken alone or in combination with other drugs, ri onavir has a bitter taste. Paxlovid mouth could be the underlying factor behind the mechanism that has not been researched.
Dysgeusia can be unpleasant, but should improve after the medications are finished or the infection is solved.
People who experience long-term changes in taste should seek medical assessment. lozenges, mints and salt water gargles may be able to make dysgeusia more manageable in the short term.
Short-term dysgeusia is a good trade-off to reduce the severity of COVID infections.
Sarah Hellewell is a research fellow at the Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science.
This article is free to use under a Creative Commons license. The original article is worth a read.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
