Posted by Leo BoStar on December 15, 2009, at 22:33:17
In reply to Re:Huh?????? » Leo BoStar, posted by Phillipa on December 15, 2009, at 19:57:06
There's a possibility that only your sense of smell is gone, because the sense of smell constitutes almost every sensation we qualify as taste. There are really only 4 categories of taste identified these days: bitterness, saltiness, sourness, sweetness. Some lists include a 5th taste, "savoriness."
In other words, if you can identify these tastes in common foods like tonic water (bitterness), table salt (saltiness), sugar (sweetness), lemon juice (sourness), it may be that just your sense of smell is lacking. If that's the case, then all sorts of other possibilities besides side effects come into play. For example, there could be an obstruction, a deviated septum, or some other physical disorder in the sinuses.
I'm not a doctor by any means so take all of this with a grain of salt - if you'll pardon the expression. This is all sheer speculation by an old guy who reads too much. One of the things he read on this topic is another Wikipedia article, this one on the sense of taste:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_of_taste
By the way, the tonic water used in the example above is the old fashioned quinine solution used in Gin and Tonic drinks. It's far from being the same as club soda, which is merely carbonated water. The flavor of tonic water is a perfect example of bitterness. It's also good for treating malaria. Note the reference to tonic water in this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinine
I'm guessing too much. The articles are interesting, so it's not a total loss.
Here he comes again. Click.
Leo BoStar
poster:Leo BoStar
thread:929106
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20091206/msgs/929496.html