Taste disorders

Tasting
things is a dynamic process in which taste and smell both alternatively participate. It is a harmonious process that the brain interprets as a whole (even if the stimuli comes from different places).
Taste Alterations: a Problem that Affects Almost One in Every Five People

There are various studies that place 17% of the population as having a permanent taste alteration, 15% with a partial one, and 2% with a complete taste alteration.

This percentage equates to more than 1.27 billion people in the world.

here are different types of taste alterations (depending on the origin of the problem, in the taste buds, or in the nasal system), and they have different origins (from respiratory infections, polyps, traumatic brain injury and even the use of drugs, vitamin deficiencies or due to receiving chemotherapy), but they all have one thing in common:

they are conditions that are not very well known both within the scientific community and the general public.

On the one hand, with regard to their diagnosis and treatment, the experts note that most people that suffer with these have been seen by or treated by somebody specialised in these conditions. Or, at least, they spend various months searching for a reliable diagnosis.

On the other hand, the lack of social awareness causes those that suffer from these conditions to experience a feeling of isolation, disorientation and misunderstanding that affects their relationships with others.

«The main problem with taste disorders is that there is not a social awareness about how debilitating they are and how they completely change the quality of life of the people that suffer from them».

Doctor Jesús Porta, Head of Neurology Department at the Hospital Clínico San Carlos

Anosmia is the loss of the sense of smell.
It can be temporary or chronic. It is a term related to hyposmia, which refers to the reduced ability to smell.
Dysgeusia is a semiological symptom
which denotes an alteration in the perception related to the sense of taste. Dysgeusia implies a perceptive change in the flavour of food and drinks. It is a term related to ageusia, which is the complete loss of taste functions.