Remedy for Restoration of Taste Buds
I have a question for Ted. Do you have a remedy for restoration of taste buds? My husband is recovering from chemotherapy and radiation and a bone marrow transplant. He is losing a dangerous amount of weight because he won't eat. He says his taste buds don't work and he can't taste anything. Please give me any suggestions that could be helpful. Thank you.
Dear Becky: Yes, there is a good possibility of restoring tastebuds from chemotherapy all of these are quite complementary of your therapy anyway and should help you. There are six major supplements that will do that,
1. zinc acetate (or zinc citrate),
2. sodium thiosulfate,
3. L- carnosine,
4. baking soda+citric acid,
5. vitamin B complex,
6. Magnesium Zinc deficiency has been linked to tastes, and smell such as anosmia (the inability to taste and smell in a more broader terms). The usual dose is 25-5 mg. per day taken for about a period of one month. Thereafter you take it only once a month. S
odium thiosulfate (you should make your own from a swimming pool supplier) or buy the from pet shops where it is clearly labeled sodium thiosulfate, without the food coloring, used to dechlorinate the water. It must be taken frequent enough (all day whenever you drink water), and taken at 5-8 drops per glass of water. It is necessary you take baht in 1% sodium thiosulfate solution and stay in the bathtub for at least 3 minutes. If done this way it make sense to buy them from a swimming pool supplier. Some told me they can get at a photo shop supplier, but you have to find out the details yourself. It is well known that sodium thiosulfate restores neural losses from hearing, taste, smell, and tactile sensitivity due to chemotherapy by protecting chemotherapy's damage on the neural system. Sodium thiosulfate is protective of neural loss and can restore your taste bud for example.
3. L-Carnosine, usually taken at 2 grams/day, but you can always start on the low side such as 5 grams a day. It is an amino acid involved in tastebud and also found in high amounts in your nose involved in detecting flavors and tastes also.
4. Baking soda + citric acid. I have seen in many instances of people with apetite problems received weight gain of supplementing this only after one week. For some reason or another, it restores appetite and tate.
5. Vitamin B complex (B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B12) at 2 mg for most, with exception of B12 at only 2 mcg, plus other vitamin b such as vitamin F also help restore your tastebuds. Taken only a couple of days also restore appetite, but it is usually within about a week to notice the weight gain.
6. Magnesium citrate, at 25 mg. Must be taken as it is supportive of vitamin B effectiveness as well as other enzyme systems of the body (about 3-4), so reactivating many of these should really help some weight gain.
Other supportive therapies include MSM. MSM is a simple sulfur supplement. I have seen many instances that people who lost weight or a lot of weight as in your case, do have in fact sulfur deficiency. 25 mg - 5 mg/day are common dosage. It is important to drink plenty of water so it will restore the cells in your body by removing toxins which is responsible for the taste bud issues.
Other that is worthy of mentioned that body builders used in weight gain include creatine monohydrate and L-glutamine you can try out. It is important to take it along with magnesium citrate to help its effect on bioavailability and absorption as magnesium is synergistic of these two amino acids. You can buy these quite cheap from a bodybuilder store that sells supplements.
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