Taste disorders in disease
Résumé
Introduction
Often overlooked and underdiagnosed, taste disorders are frequent and serious conditions: they are implicated in loss of appetite, unintended weight loss and malnutrition, and lead to reduced quality of life. The lack of consideration given to taste impairment, compared with other disabilities, is striking: it is obvious that a person with hearing loss may no longer be interested in opera, or a person with visual impairment may no longer enjoy films, but the consequences of taste impairment for those affected are still taken too lightly. Yet taste provides a vital tool for screening soluble chemicals for food evaluation and selection, and thus avoiding potentially toxic substances. The loss of taste is a genuine disability. Do not we say “to lose the taste for life”!a In current medical practice, the importance and therapeutic management of taste disorders is receiving renewed interest, as evidenced by recent reviews (Maheswaran et al., 2014; Malaty and Malaty, 2013; Fark et al., 2013; Feng et al., 2014). Methods to explore, and identify qualitative or quantitative taste alterations are described elsewhere (Bromley, 2000; Venail et al., 2008; Ruo Redda and Allis, 2006; Galindo-Cuspinera et al., 2009; Hong et al., 2009; Wismer, 2008).