Does Diabetes Leave a Bad Taste in Your Mouth?

Phantogeusia is a neurological phenomenon rarely mentioned, let alone discussed. It is a phantom taste perception: often a metallic or salty taste in your mouth where no stimulus can be found, and is especially problematic for diabetics, both Type 1 and Type 2.

When people don’t have diabetes, an odd bitter taste in their mouth is usually due to blood. There can be sores and cuts or fissures in the gums that take time to heal, and until they do, they bleed. Blood has a bitter taste, and when the sores or fissures heal, the bad or bitter taste disappears.

Non-diabetics and diabetics alike can accumulate a bitter taste from consuming bitter foods and beverages, such as radicchio, Angostura bitters, and beer. Bitter compounds from bitter food and drink can accumulate in the salivary glands and leach out into the saliva. All that is necessary to get over this kind of phantom taste perception is to stop eating or drinking the bitter food or beverage.

In both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, phantogeusia is a much more difficult problem. Just as there can be nerve damage caused by diabetic neuropathy in your fingers and toes, there can also be diabetic nerve damage to the chorda tympanic nerves in your tongue. The kind of phantom bitter taste caused by this kind of diabetic nerve damage only goes away when your blood sugar levels are maintained within normal ranges for several months or even up to a year or so.

So phantogeusia can be classed as a complication and the way to avoid complications is to control wide blood sugar fluctuations and develop a strategy to keep your blood sugars as close to normal as possible.

In most people blood sugar levels above 150 to 160 mg/dL (8.33 to 8.88 mmol/L) are often a serious concern because that is the point at which physical damage leading to complications is believed to start. Many people can sense when their blood sugar levels are high. You may experience:

• skin problems
• feelings of fatigue or
• tingling in parts of your body

A quick test will confirm to you if high blood sugar levels are the cause of these feelings. With a few exceptions, blood sugar levels over 150 mg/dL (8.33 mmol/L) indicate a need for better control.

In both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, phantogeusia can cause a wide range of tastes and smells, and controlling blood sugar levels is the only way to treat this condition.

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Beverleigh Piepers RN… the Diabetes Detective.
http://drugfreetype2diabetes.com/blog
Beverleigh Piepers is the author of this article. This article can be used for reprint on your website provided all the links in the article are complete and active. Copyright (c) 2010 – All Rights Reserved Worldwide

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