How to Care: Eating & Nutrition

Medical conditions that affect the senses of taste or smell

Disorders affecting the nervous system

  • Alzheimer's Disease
  • Bell's palsy
  • Damage to vocal chords
  • Epilepsy
  • Head trauma
  • Korsakoff syndrome
  • Multiple Sclerosis
  • Parkinson Disease

Disorders affecting the nutritional system

  • Tumours and lesions
  • Cancer
  • Chronic renal failure
  • Liver disease including cirrhosis
  • Niacin (vitamin B3) deficiency
  • Vitamin B12 deficiency
  • Zinc deficiency

Endocrine disorders

  • Cushing syndrome
  • Diabetes
  • Hypothyroidism
  • Kallman syndrome
  • Turner syndrome
  • Local disorders
  • Allergic rhinitis, atopy and bronchial asthma
  • Sinusitis and polyposis
  • Xerostomic conditions, including Sjogren syndrome
Viral infections
  • Acute viral hepatitis
  • Influenza-like infections

Source: "Taste and Smell Losses in Normal Aging and Disease," Susan S. Schiffman, Ph.D. JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, October 22/29, 1997,Vol 278, No. 16.