kingswoodvic@yahoo-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (wenna) wrote in part:

Did he suffer any head injury? Did he have any cerebrovascular events while
in the hospital?
--
Jim Chinnis   Warrenton, Virginia, USA

  Web   www.dmt123.com

Can anyone explain why everything I eat and drink tastes of salt even
though I don't use it any longer?

Question: I have asked my doctor and pharmacist but neither seems to
know the reason and it is almost impossible to enjoy my meals now. I
really would appreciate any info at all, or perhaps someone has the
good luck to have a more informed doctor whom they could just mention
it to at some future visit and get back to me. I would very much
appreciate it, especially if there are any medical people or
nutritionists out there who may be able to shed some light on my
condition. Thank you so much in anticipation of a response.

if you don't use it anymore, that may be why. Since you no longer use
salt you can taste the slightest hint of salt in any food. Also you
might have a nutrient defeciency of somekind but I'm neither a doctor
nor a nutritionist so I couldn't tell you. I'd suggest eating an apple
everyday along with some orange juice. If you smoke, that may be
another reason you taste salt.

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ANSWER FROM Douglas Hoffman, MD, PhD on ivillage

There are a few possible explanations for your problem. Before
discussing these possibilities, I'd like to point out that a salty
taste truly does originate in the mouth (or brain) -- the nose can be
ignored in this discussion. This may seem obvious to you, but it's an
important point. Smell and taste are inextricably intertwined, so many
"phantom tastes" are, in fact, "phantom smells." The list of possible
explanations for "phantom smells" is quite different. In your case, we
can ignore these possibilities; a variety of odors can simulate sweet,
bitter or sour tastes, but I do not know of any odors that simulate a
salty taste.
So ... if your mouth is where the action is, what could this be?

The chemical composition of saliva may change in response to hydration.
(In other words, are you drinking enough liquids?) If you are
chronically dehydrated, you may have saltier saliva. Take a close look
at what you drink. Some folks drink only caffeinated beverages and
alcoholic beverages. Caffeine is a diuretic -- it makes you urinate --
so a steady diet of coffee, tea and caffeinated soft drinks will leach
water from your body. Alcohol is even worse in this regard.
The salinity (salt content) of saliva may also change in response to
medications and salivary gland disease. A number of noninfectious and
infectious diseases can afflict the salivary glands; examples of each,
respectively, are Sjogren's disease and bacterial sialadenitis.

Postnasal drainage can often have an odor and a taste. Bacterial
sinusitis, for example, can cause bad breath and a foul taste in one's
mouth. I would not be too surprised if a patient reported this taste as
"salty." Postnasal drainage secondary to nasal allergy (allergic
rhinitis) might also be salty. Usually folks with postnasal drainage
are aware of their condition. If you are not "full of mucus," then this
is an unlikely explanation for your problem.

Tears are very salty. The tear ducts drain into the nasal cavity; once
tears enter the nasal cavity, they drain down the back of the throat.
(People constantly produce tears, by the way; you don't have to cry to
have tears!) This is really unlikely, but perhaps you are overproducing
tears.

Here's one more really unlikely possibility: Since sensation ultimately
resides in the brain, the problem could be upstairs. Migraine, epilepsy
and brain tumor all come to mind, but each of these would be
exceptionally rare explanations for your problem

ANSWER FROM: Yasser Mokhtar, M.D
What you are experiencing is an abnormal sensation in the tongue. Most
of the authorities associate taste and smell together all the time so
what you might think is related to taste could actually be related to
smell.

Taste and smell dysfunctions have several causes
1. Common cold and influenza
2. Nose and throat infections.
3. Dry mouth.
4. Smoking (especially pipe). Do you smoke?
5. Vitamin B-12 or mineral (like zinc) deficiency.
6. Gingivitis.
7. Drug side effects such as antithyroid drugs, captopril,
griseofulvin, lithium, penicillamine, procarbazine, rifampin,
vinblastine, or vincristine. You did not say whether you are taking any
chronic medications or not.
8. Sjogren's syndrome (Dry mouth and eyes associated with some
autoimmune diseases).
9. Bell's palsy (Paralysis of the nerve going to the face causing
facial droop). Does not sound like it in your case.

i would advise you to see your doctor and have an examination of the
nerves of your face, nose, ears, throat and tongue.

Go to your doctors again and possibly your dentist too.
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I would like to first say that I am not copying this from a web site
and I actually understand what I am writing and am explaining it in a
way that is easily understood for you. Even when you don't eat any salt
the body still is forced to lose some salt in the urine every day. In
order to conserve salt it pumps as much salt as possible out of the
urine using a hormone called aldosterone, which also has the same
effect on saliva. When your saliva has no salt in it your taste buds
notice the lack of salt and tell your brain that you need to eat more
salt. Because you have repeatedly refused this request, your brain has
begun to amplify the taste of salt when the salty signal has come, and
thus everything has a much stronger salty taste than it should.
Source(s):
I am a medical student.