As the saying goes, "the nose smells the aroma and odor, and the tongue tastes the five flavors". Sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty five flavors of information, is relying on the tongue surface densely covered with tiny papillae, known as tongue buds taste cells to pass, and then by the cerebral cortex taste center produces excitement, by the feedback loop neurohumoral system to complete the entire taste of the analytical activities. However, some people have a sense of odor in the mouth when eating, or do not eat the mouth also feel an abnormal taste. This often suggests a possible disease.
(I) Bitter Mouth
Bitter mouth is a bitter taste in the mouth. It is mostly seen in acute inflammation, predominantly of the liver and gallbladder, which is often related to the metabolism of bile. Bitter mouth is also seen in cancer. American physician Dr. DeWeese also found that cancer patients lose the sense of taste of sweet food, and the feeling of bitter food with increasing, which is related to the patient's tongue blood circulation disorders and salivary components within the change. Chinese medicine believes that the bitter taste, often combined with headache and dizziness, red face, red eyes, anxious and irritable, dry stools, red tongue, thin yellow moss, stringy pulse, etc., mostly for the liver, gallbladder heat; bitter mouth, often combined with cold and heat, heartburn and vomiting, chest and hypochondriac pain and fullness, silent and not wanting to eat, red and yellow urine, etc., mostly for the gallbladder heat caused by the upper steam.
(2) sweet mouth
Sweet mouth, refers to the mouth consciously have a sweet taste, also known as "sweet mouth". At this time, even if you drink plain water also feel sweet, or sweet and acidic. Sweet mouth is common in digestive system dysfunction or diabetic patients, the former because of digestive system dysfunction caused by the secretion of various digestive enzymes abnormal, especially the saliva in the amylase content increased and feel sweet mouth, the latter due to high blood sugar, saliva sugar is also increased, feel sweet mouth. Chinese medicine believes that sweet mouth is mostly caused by the malfunction of the spleen and stomach. Clinically divided into the spleen and stomach heat steam sweet mouth and spleen and stomach qi and yin two anxiety sweet mouth, the former is mostly due to over-eating spicy and thick products, breeding internal heat or external heat accumulation in the spleen and stomach due to the manifestation of sweet mouth and thirst, like to drink water, more food and easy to starve, or sores on the lips and tongue, dry stools, red tongue, moss and dryness, the pulse number of strong, etc.; the latter is mostly by the old age or long-term illness injury to the spleen and stomach, resulting in qi and yin two injuries, heat and burn the spleen burns caused by the manifestations of the sweet and dry mouth! The latter is usually caused by old age or prolonged illness, resulting in injury to the spleen and stomach, leading to injury to both qi and yin, internal growth of deficiency heat and burning of the spleen and fluid.
(3) salty mouth
Salty mouth, is the self-conscious mouth has a salty taste, as if the mouth contains salt particles, mostly in chronic pharyngolaryngitis, chronic nephritis, neurosis or oral ulcers. Chinese medicine believes that salty mouth is mostly caused by kidney deficiency. If accompanied by lumbar and knee pain, dizziness, tinnitus, heat, night sweats, spermatorrhea, less moss, fine pulse and other symptoms, is a deficiency of kidney yin, deficiency fire inflammation, called "kidney yin deficiency mouth salty"; if there is a combination of cold limbs, fatigue, nocturnal urination, impotence, tongue fat, pulse thin, etc., is the lack of kidney yang, the kidney fluid on the ride, called the "kidney yang tiger mouth salty". "Kidney Yang Tiger's Mouth Salty".
(D) sour mouth
Sour mouth, is the mouth consciously have a sour taste, mostly in gastritis and gastric and duodenal ulcers. According to traditional Chinese medicine, sour mouth is mostly caused by the heat of liver and gallbladder invading the spleen, often accompanied by chest tightness and dystocia, nausea, abdominal distension after eating, thin yellow tongue coating, pulse string and other symptoms.
(E) spicy mouth
Spicy mouth, is the mouth consciously spicy flavor or tongue numbness. Commonly found in hypertension, neurosis, menopausal syndrome and chronic hypothermia. Because of the spicy taste is a combination of salty, heat and pain sensation, so the tongue temperature of the patient conscious of the spicy mouth may be high, the tongue mucosa of the patient's spicy mouth on the Tao teatunchun contribute to the Jixia outlets out of the small V fortunate dumpling articulation? The patient's tongue mucosa may be high in response to the outbreak of outbreaks. The patient's tongue temperature may be higher than that of the tongue. The actual fact is that the actual foodstuffs that you are going to be able to eat are going to be the ones that you are going to be able to eat, and they are going to be the ones that you are going to be able to eat.
(F) pale mouth
Pale mouth, refers to the mouth of the taste sensation is slow, self-conscious mouth bland and can not taste the food and drink, most often in the inflammation of the initial or receding period, and enteritis, dysentery, and other digestive diseases are common, but also in the recovery stage after major surgery; endocrine diseases and long-term fever consuming diseases, malnutrition, vitamins and zinc deficiency of micronutrients, Protein and calorie intake is not enough patients, also often have a bland mouth, because these diseases can make the tongue taste buds sensitivity decreased and caused by the bland taste. In addition, a bland and tasteless mouth, a weakened sense of taste or even disappearance, or one of the characteristics of cancer patients. Therefore, middle-aged and elderly people should be highly alert to the possibility of cancer when there is a sudden decrease or disappearance of the sense of taste for unknown reasons. Of course, this should be differentiated from the situation where the taste buds of the elderly degenerate, the teeth are crippled and incomplete (even if dentures are fitted, there are different degrees of atrophy of the jawbone), making chewing insufficient, or even swallowing in one gulp, and the food cannot be in full contact with the taste buds, resulting in food not knowing what it tastes like. According to Chinese medicine, a bland and tasteless mouth and unappetizing diet are mostly attributed to the weakness of the spleen and stomach after illness, and the loss of healthy transportation and digestion. It is often accompanied by loss of appetite, weakness of the limbs, swelling and fullness of the chest and Anhui, and a pale tongue with white moss.
(7) astringent
Astringent, refers to the mouth consciously have an astringent taste, common in neurosis or overnight sleepers, generally as long as the adjustment of the sleep time, if necessary, with a bit of sedative can eliminate astringent. However, it must be noted that some malignant tumors, especially in the late stage, more bitter taste.
(H) incense
Aroma of the mouth, refers to the mouth consciously have a fragrance, such as fruit flavor, mostly seen in diabetes (thirst) of the severe disease. You should be admitted to the hospital immediately for examination, clear diagnosis and treatment.
In summary, we can identify and observe health conditions through the window of taste. However, when analyzing the relationship between abnormal taste and disease, the following two points must also be noted:
First, the sense of taste becomes abnormal with age, gender, mood, temperature and other factors, only after excluding these factors, it can be linked to disease. For example, the sensitivity of the sense of taste varies from person to person, children are stronger than adults, young people are stronger than old people, women are stronger than men; the same person, the night is stronger than the morning. Emotions and taste are also related, in anger, fear, anxiety, sadness, or fatigue, taste will be reduced; a longer period of starvation will make the sense of taste temporarily malfunction, the taste of food poor; temperature also has an impact on taste, between 20-30 ℃ people's taste sensitivity is the highest. In addition, smoking or excessive alcohol consumption, sleep deprivation, etc., can also lead to taste abnormalities.
Secondly, taste abnormalities are sometimes related to poor oral hygiene or taste buds by the temporary effect of external substances and taste variations. These do not fall within the scope of taste variations. For example, some toothpaste contains sodium dodecyl sulfate can make the sour taste in orange juice taste sweet. When tetracycline tablets are chewed and then swallowed, the bitter taste on the tongue can be changed to a metallic taste that lasts for a period of time, which cannot be removed even by gargling with water and scraping the tongue.
There is a structure of taste buds growing on the human tongue that tastes sweet, sour, bitter, salty, spicy and many other flavors. Some diseases of the oral cavity, such as oral mucous membrane lichen planus, thrush, and recurrent mouth sores, produce a series of painful and itchy symptoms, which not only affect eating, but also impede the sense of taste. But the most obvious impediment to the sense of taste of the elderly is not the oral cavity itself is not a disease, but a systemic disease, because systemic diseases can cause a variety of changes in the tongue coating, and the tongue coating of the thick and greasy, light peeling and other changes are closely related to the sense of taste. For example, some infectious or dyspeptic diseases, the tongue is generally greasy thick: some chronic wasting diseases such as tumors, anemia, tuberculosis, etc., the tongue is thin, will affect the sense of taste.The function of the taste buds of the elderly itself has begun to decline, so the impact of the disease is more obvious; once the taste disorder occurs, it should be from the whole body to find the causes of oral diseases.
From the sense of taste to see the health
After eating, why will there be sweet, sour, bitter, salty feeling? It all depends on the efficacy of the tongue, the organ of taste. The taste buds on the tongue can feel all kinds of chemical stimuli in the mouth. When the soluble flavorful substances of food come into contact with the taste buds, the cilia in the taste buds transmit the sensory messages to the cerebral cortex, which produces the sense of taste. If you have an abnormal sense of taste, it may be a signal of a hidden disease in your body.
When you are faced with a good meal, you may find it tasteless and have a poor appetite. The reason for this may be external discomfort, or the spleen and stomach are weak, poor transportation, so do not want to eat. The first thing you need to do is to strengthen the spleen and the qi.
Sour mouth
There is a sour taste in the mouth even if you have not eaten acidic food. This is due to liver-stomach disharmony, or liver fire. The patient may have gastritis or peptic ulcer, which causes more acid than normal.
Bitter mouth
The only organ in the human body that can produce a bitter taste is the gallbladder. If you feel a bitter taste in your mouth, there is something wrong with the liver and gallbladder, usually due to heat in the liver and gallbladder. The Spiritual Pivot and the Four Seasons: "When the bile is drained, the mouth is bitter. If you eat hot and dry food frequently, it will cause your liver fire to rise, which will also burn your body fluids and make your mouth feel bitter.
People who often stay up late or smoke will also wake up with a bitter mouth in the morning.
Sweet mouth
The sweet taste in the mouth is often due to the accumulation of dampness and heat in the spleen. In addition, the digestive system dysfunction, chaotic secretion of various, increased starch content in saliva, stimulate the tongue to the taste buds, and thus feel the sweet taste. Diabetics also have the feeling of sweetness in the mouth, because the body's blood sugar increases, the sugar in the saliva also increases, thus having a sweet taste.
Salty mouth
Mostly due to kidney deficiency, which is caused by the flooding of kidney fluid.
Abnormal Taste and Disease (Source: (Chen Ji Pei))
Abnormal taste is an indication of disease and should be brought to the attention of doctors and patients.
△Bitter mouth: Clinical observation of bitter mouth is mostly seen in liver and gallbladder fever, gastrointestinal fever, etc.; in modern medicine, it is mostly a manifestation of acute inflammation, and liver and gallbladder diseases are the most common. This may be due to bile excretion disorder, cancer patients due to the sweet taste threshold is elevated, bitter taste threshold is lowered, eat sweet things will also feel bitter tongue.
△ mouth bland: mouth bland is mostly seen in patients with long illness, cold spleen and stomach, patients with loss of appetite after major surgical procedures will also feel the mouth and tongue bland and tasteless. Mouth pale in inflammatory infections also often appear, but mostly at the beginning of the disease or recession, the former for the performance of the evil is still light and shallow, the latter is the phenomenon of the evil is weak, the meaning of the mouth is obviously different from the bitter. Enteritis, dysentery and other digestive diseases also often have a pale mouth, the identification of the stomach and intestines are mostly wet or hostage cold, although it is a real evidence, but pay attention to should not be used too bitter cold drugs. Clinically determined, serious patients with bland mouth, sweet, sour, bitter, salty tastes are not sensitive to the phenomenon of a general increase in taste threshold.
△ sweet mouth: spleen and stomach solid heat, dampness and heat obstruction, liver and spleen phlegm fire within the patient's mouth and tongue can have a sweet feeling, the ancients called "spleen heat mouth Gan". Research has proved that the digestive system dysfunction can lead to a variety of enzyme secretion abnormalities, amylase content in saliva increases, stimulate the taste buds on the tongue and feel sweet. Diabetic patients with high blood sugar, salivary sugar is also increased, so also often feel sweet mouth and tongue.
△ mouth astringency: when the tongue taste cells bitter taste threshold is reduced, the tongue tactile sensory abnormalities, can appear mouth astringency. Liver and gallbladder depression and heat injury to Yin or spleen and soil failure of the patient, often have a dry mouth and tongue or dry and tasteless feeling. After severe neurosis or overnight sleeplessness, salivary gland secretion is reduced, and the mouth and tongue may also feel dry and astringent. The later stages of various cancers are often characterized by bitterness of taste, which is considered by Chinese medicine to be the failure of the spleen and kidneys and the stagnation of qi and blood.
△Sour mouth: Chinese medicine believes that "liver heat is sour mouth", "spleen and stomach qi is weak, wood by the earth and sour mouth", so sour mouth to spleen deficiency and liver fire is strong, common in gastritis and peptic ulcer, and too much stomach acid related. Some people measure the saliva of patients with sour mouth, in which lactic acid, phosphatase, carbonic anhydrase content is higher than normal people, PH bias acidic reaction.
△ mouth salty: mouth salty to spleen deficiency and wet, kidney deficiency and fire for more. Because Chinese medicine believes that "salty is the taste of the kidney", clinically, it is common in the lack of kidney yin, kidney fire floating neurosis, chronic pharyngolaryngitis acute attack patients. Sometimes measuring the saliva of patients with salty mouth, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium chloride content can be seen to increase, PH biased alkaline reaction.
△Mouth spicy: mouth spicy is a combination of salty taste, heat and pain. Chinese medicine identification of kidney yin deficiency, liver fire is more, followed by lung deficiency phlegm heat; in hypertension, neurosis, menopausal syndrome patients from time to time. Determined in the room temperature of 18 ℃ -22 ℃, most of the normal tongue temperature in 33 ℃ -35 ℃, hot mouth patients tongue temperature is high, sometimes up to 36 ℃ or more. In addition, the tongue mucosa of patients with hot mouth is more sensitive to salty taste and pain.
Taste: disease "alarm" signal
Sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, salty, constitutes a variety of different taste sensations. Interestingly, people's taste sensations vary greatly. 1932, the American scientist Dr. Arthur Falkland and his assistant, Noller, in an experiment to formulate an organic compound called phenylthiourea. Noller could not tolerate the bitter flavor emitted by this compound, but Fox was as if nothing had happened. The two men argued about it. As it turned out, they had very different tastes for bitterness.
People's sense of taste can also be disturbed and deceived by external influences. For example, the same can of pork, eaten in the Tibetan plateau, than in Qingdao on the beach to eat the taste of fresh, because the sense of taste in the case of low air pressure is the most sensitive. In western Africa and China's tropical forests on Hainan Island, there is a plant called "Mystery Fruit", as long as a little taste of this pulp, within 4 hours, whether you eat sour or bitter, the mouth is always sweet; and another called the Poisonwood Spoonbill Vine plant, in the taste of its leaves within 24 hours, even if you eat honey, people are also do not feel the sweetness at all.
With the emphasis on taste and research, many surprising findings have been made. In diabetes, thyroid tumors and glaucoma patients, taste blindness is many times higher than normal. As a result, scientists believe that taste disorders may be an "alarm" for certain diseases.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Oncology at Northwestern University, the head of the Department of Duhuwo pointed out after the test, just in the patient's tongue on a few drops of taste stimulant dilution, it will be possible in a few minutes according to its response to the taste of the situation, in order to early detection of whether the cancer. Cancer researchers in many countries have found that a significant number of patients with early-stage cancer have a diminished sense of taste, and that the sudden loss of weight in about one-fourth of patients with advanced cancer is related to an abnormal sense of taste, which can lead to anorexia. Thus, anorexia caused by loss of taste is likely to be one of the signs of the disease.
But older people have a different sense of taste than younger people. Young people think delicious things, the elderly think bitter and sour, this is because the human identification of sweet, salty taste buds first atrophy, while feeling bitter, sour taste buds are much longer life. Therefore, the elderly do not mouth a bitter and sour, on the suspicion of cancer.
Beware of fast food syndrome
In recent years, fast food, such as hamburgers, sandwiches, instant noodles, etc., a large number of market, it is fast and convenient and popular. What's more, some people for the sake of convenience, save time, eat instant noodles every day or into the fast-food restaurants, a long time to give birth to a kind of disease called "fast-food syndrome", whose symptom is the abnormal sense of taste.
Often, the causes of abnormal sense of taste are as follows: long-term use of drugs for rheumatism and other side effects; kidney or liver diseases and other internal organs; due to old age caused by physiological loss of taste; otitis media and other surgical operations caused by the taste nerve miasma and so on. Diet-induced taste abnormalities first appeared in Japan, but in recent years, with the popularization of fast food diets, the number of patients in China has been increasing. Symptoms of this type of taste abnormality include: not knowing the original taste of the food you eat, feeling sweetness in everything, and a bitter taste in the mouth and a hot sensation on the tongue when you don't eat anything. If you look at the diets of these patients, you will find that almost all of them are partial to fast food and instant noodles, or eat too much of them in order to save time. Diet-induced taste abnormalities are not quickly manifested, but slowly appear without my awareness, so generally do not attract much attention. To be aware of still do not think, often miss the early treatment of a good time, and finally left a lifelong disability.
Currently, there are two ways to check whether the sense of taste is normal or not. The first is to use an electrical taste meter to do the check. The principle is to put the stylus of the electrical taste meter on different parts of the tongue, and use the electric current to stimulate the tongue to test the innervation of the tympanic nerve area in front of the tongue and taste buds, and to test the innervation of the central part of the root of the tongue in the hypopharyngeal nerve area is normal or not. If a metallic taste (similar to the taste of licking an old nail) is produced by the electrical stimulation, the test is normal. This test is usually easy to pass. Then the second check, the penetration of sour, sweet, bitter, salty taste of various kinds of 5 mm diameter filter paper were placed on the tip of the tongue on the left and right sides, and then according to their own feelings listed on the table of sour, sweet, bitter, salty taste of various kinds of 5 mm diameter filter paper were placed on the tip of the tongue on the left and right sides, and then according to their own feelings listed on the table of sour, sweet, bitter, salty columns in the columns of the check mark. If you can not confirm once, enhance the concentration test. The concentration of the solution is divided into 5 grades from weak to strong, respectively, indicating a sensitive sense of taste, normal, normal threshold, mild taste abnormalities and moderate taste abnormalities. If it cannot be confirmed within these 5 levels, the sense of taste is highly abnormal. For example, a female university student could not easily distinguish between sour and bitter flavors, which was related to her stressful life as a tutor in addition to her studies. She had to eat hamburgers and fried potato chips before each teaching session because she had no time to eat. Drinking coffee to satiate her hunger, she developed a taste disorder over time. Luckily, she hadn't been experiencing symptoms for very long, and her sense of taste returned when she corrected her diet in time.
So why is it that excessive intake of fast food can lead to an abnormal sense of taste? It's because eating fast food is commonly associated with inadequate zinc intake. It turns out that the taste buds on our tongues can sense the flavor of food with the help of a zinc-containing salivary protein called gustatory hormone in the saliva. Gustavin is also the nutritional factors of the oral epithelial cells of the new membrane, zinc deficiency, the structure and metabolism of the oral mucosal epithelial cells produce abnormalities, epithelial hyperplasia and keratinization incomplete, easy to fall off, the result is to cover and block the taste buds holes, resulting in the sense of taste is not sensitive, which in turn affects the appetite. In addition, zinc deficiency also affects the activity of a variety of zinc-containing enzymes related to nucleic acid and protein metabolism, which adversely affects the structure and function of taste buds, thereby reducing taste sensitivity. Incidentally, it is noted that during the hot season, when large amounts of zinc (as much as 1 mg/l) are excreted with sweat, loss of appetite is exacerbated. This is why people generally lose their appetite in summer.
The typical daily intake of zinc for an adult is 15 milligrams, so if you eat a well-balanced diet on time, you don't need to worry about zinc deficiency. But fast food contains a variety of food additives, such as in sausages, cheese, canned goods, sauces, ice cream, cool drinks and other foods often contain can prevent oxidation. Food additives such as sodium polymetaphosphate, which improves shelf life, and methylcellulose, which is placed in solid bouillon juices and sauces, are also included. These food additives are absorbed into the body by the duodenum will cause the loss of zinc in the body, thus causing a zinc deficiency in the body, resulting in abnormal taste.
In short, we must know that fast food is just work stress no time to eat when filling the stomach of emergency measures, and make a habit of eating every day is harmful to the human body. Because in addition to cause taste abnormalities, often eat fast food, the human body almost can not be absorbed into the vitamins and minerals, if caused by vitamin B1 deficiency, then the secretion of saliva is blocked. Furthermore, the tongue is the frontier of the digestive organs, is to perceive the body abnormalities of the important organs, once the tongue failure, but also can not forecast the body's abnormalities early.
The key to early detection and treatment of abnormalities in the sense of taste is early detection. If the symptoms are mild, you can eat more zinc-rich foods or take medication. Foods containing more zinc include oysters, small fish, seaweed, sesame seeds, buckwheat, egg yolks, green tea, animal liver, shiitake mushrooms, tempeh, and soybean noodles. However, if you let nature take its course and let it go, half of the patients will have difficulty recovering for the rest of their lives after one year. So, for your health, eat as little fast food as possible.