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5 Ways to Improve the Loss Of Smell And Taste During Cancer Treatments

Posted by Manuela Boyle on 30 January 2022
5 Ways to Improve the Loss Of Smell And Taste During Cancer Treatments

While you might know that chemotherapy and radiation can cause side effects such as nausea and fatigue, you might not know they can also cause you to lose your sense of smell and taste.

Taste buds and smell receptors have some renewable cell tissue, and chemotherapy and radiation work by stopping cell renewal.
We perceive five different types of flavour: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and savoury. Usually, we taste a mixture of all these flavours, but when taste receptors have been altered (due to chemotherapy and/or radiation) the ability to perceive certain flavours is lost.

Typically, the bitter taste receptor is more resistant to chemo than the others, so patients feel like a lot of food tastes bitter. The tastes of sweet and sour are weakening, so the bitter taste comes through more. Salt is another flavour that’s more resistant to treatment, so patients will often crave chips—they say it’s the only thing that tastes normal.

Smell is affected in the same way. Either you may not smell certain things that other people can, or you become highly sensitive to certain smells.


What You Can Do About It
While these side effects are not permanent—it takes around three to six months for smell and taste to recover after completing treatment—they can be unpleasant to experience. These are a few tips to faster restore the sense of smell and taste:

  1. Have fun with herbs and spices. They are able to awaken the sense of smell and taste. Use spices in your food to make them more aromatic.
  2. Disguise the taste and texture of animal proteins. Marinate it in lemon, fruit juice or Italian salad dressing. Then sneak it into a casserole or a stir-fry with chopped veggies.
  3. Add sautéed fruit to sweeten meals. Try combinations like: pineapple with chicken, veggies and soy sauce; apples with turkey, celery, poultry seasoning and onion salt; or pears with salmon, dill weed and soy sauce.
  4. Drink lots of water. Chemotherapy causes your mouth to be dry. When your mouth is dry, your sense of taste becomes dull because taste-generating particles aren’t able to dissolve in order to get to the taste sensors. Whenever you’re eating, make sure to hydrate your mouth with water or artificial saliva.
  5. Use fragrance-free products and avoid smells and scents that are too potent for you. Switching to scent-free products and avoiding smells that are unpleasant can make this altered sense of smell seem more neutral.
Author:Manuela Boyle
Tags:NewsResourcesCancerfoods & cancer treatmentchemotherapy side effects

Associations

  • The Institute for Functional Medicine
  • Society for Integrative Oncology
  • Naturopaths and Herbalists Association of Australia
  • Australian Traditional-Medicine Society
  • British Naturopathic Association