HAVING SALTY TASTE IN MOUTH

Hi. I'm a medical nutritionist and have been researching this phenomenon. There may be two main causes of this problem. A deficiency of zinc, which makes a considerable contribution to taste sensation, may be a cause and it would be worth experimenting with some low level supplementation to see if it helps. If a zinc deficiency is the problem, it should resolve/lessen in less than a week. The other probability is excess pancreatic secretion of acid neutralizing fluids in which there can be a lot of salt. If you read the contributions in this thread you will see that a fair number of people have reported digestion problems, including excess stomach acid, reflux, etc. This implicates the work of the pancreas. You will also notice that antihistamines seemed to relieve the problem - this may well be because a decrease in histamine will produce a diminution in stomach acid and hence a diminution in excess pancreatic secretions. Eating fewer protein foods which necessitate acid for their digestion and generally avoiding foods and drinks that stimulate acid production, such as coffee and sugary drinks, will help.

I had a problem with a salty taste in my mouth, but since changing to a toothpaste (Sensodyne ProNamel) which has no SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate), the problem seems to have gone away.
SLS is ubiquitous with toothpastes, it is hard to find any toothpastes without SLS.

I've been sick with this for about a week now. Ready to jump off a bridge it is so sickening. Mouth tastes like sea water and it is getting worse, now encompassing the lips and now my face and eyes are even burning. I get hot flashes that seem to coorespond to a gush of saliva. I get dizzy, lethargic and sick to my stomach. Had blood work done and urinalysis but all came back normal. I do have kidney disfunction with a GFR of only 40 but no abnormalities in the urine. I'm a 54 year old female that never smoked or did drugs. My neck is stiff and I can't turn my head to the left very well but I've been diagnosed with herniated disks in my neck. I've been told I have GERD. I have a lump in my throat that won't go away and a lump on the side of my throat that they thought was an enlarged lympth node, but after a CT they said it was an enlarged salivary gland with no apparent reason. But the ENT said it wasn't enlarged, just lower in the neck area than the right one. I have ear problems and headaches. I also was diagnosed with MRSA skin infection and was on BACRIM for about four weeks, but have been off of that for two weeks now. I also suffer with a lower abdomen pain and lower back pain. I thought that was from kidneys but told it was just muscular. Could this be an allergic reaction to something? I'm not taking anything new as far as medicine goes, just the usual blood pressure and lipitor meds. I'm also taking Vitamin D, once a day over 50, and calcium carbonate. I started taking CoQ10 but stopped thinking that it caused the salty taste, but I've not taken it for a couple of days now and the salt syndrome problem is getting worse. I seem to be sicker at night, around midnight is the worse. I'm so tired and lethargic I can't even do things around the house. I even sleep with chewing gum in my mouth because the taste is so bad. Please I need immediate help. I went to the ER but they just discharged me saying I was fine and it was either the CoQ10 or anxiety.

I have found a very helpful treatment regime for my own salty taste problem. I'm just 3 days into treating this condition that I've had for about a month. It started with a dry throat and mouth. I've tried antibiotics, amoxicillin 250mg 3x daily for a week, nystatin 5ml swish and swallow for 10 ten days, tongue brushing with hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, salt, betadine, vinegar, sensodyne toothpaste, etc. Nothing was helping the salty taste and white coating on my tongue was always growing back!! I had used biotene before for dry mouth and bad breath but it didn't seem to help much this time. I found therabreath on the web and bought some mouth wash and their toothpaste at a Walgreen's drugstore. Scraping my tongue and rinsing my mouth followed by applying 1/8 inch of therabreath toothpaste all over my tongue and leaving it there has helped a lot. My salty mouth is now 80-90 % improved and water tastes sweet or normal not salty. The salty taste, I believe is caused by the anerobic bacteria in my tongue down in the shag-rug like surface we all have on top of our tongues. The white coating is much reduced on my tongue now. I don't know if this is a cure but it's certainly better than before. I have only been using the therabreath products in my mouth and no other toothpastes or mouthwashes, etc for about 3 days but what a difference! I do not normally endorse any healthcare products by brandname as a pharmacist I believe in generics and not brandnames as best but I name names this time because nothing else worked at all and dr. Katz's therabreath is helping dramatically in just a one day 75% improvement. A person needs to use only his products to do a fair test as with any trial of any treatment regime. I offer this as only my own experience after 3 days of improvement so others could maybe try this and be helped, I hope.

I too am extremely troubled by a horrible salty taste in my mouth. It started about 6 months ago with a taste of soap and then turned to metalic. I now have the WORST salty taste imaginable. All food tastes salty, even water. I have had blood tests, went to ENT, quit taking antidepressants, tried zinc supplements, changed toothpastes and even tried no toothpaste, used mouthwashes, went to Neurologist...all to no avail! Except for a seasonal post nasal drip I have had most of my life due to the damp climate I live in, I am healthy. No smoking, no drinking, no medications now, little coffee or soda, no dental problems, no GERD, .... I am now going back to the neurologist for an MRI to check for tumors in the brain, nerves or salivia glands. I have noticed an increasingly salty taste on my lips and my tongue is starting to feel sore now. I have increased saliva production...in fact it boils in my mouth and I can spit like crazy anytime. The problem does seem to be getting worse! Note that I have not went to a gastro doctor yet. I do not have any stomach or digestive problems. Maybe that's next!

IF ANYONE has anything new to contribute about this problem, PLEASE post your experiences. I think there are a lot of people suffering from this condition.

It's 5am and I've been reading for hours. I too am suffering with this horrible taste in my mouth. I keep describing it as bad black licorice taste. It is so bad it makes me throw up. Mine started 2.5 weeks ago almost immediately after having a motorcycle accident. I was wearing a helmet but my head in my helmet did impact with the ground. I am being treated for a dislocated shoulder, a dislocated thumb and whiplash. I have had neck pain and tightness, nausea blurred vision, double vision and some headaches. Today while at the physiotherapist we noticed that I had trouble tracking with my eyes. Before therapy no bad taste. During therapy on my neck it seemed to me like my eyes weren't keeping up with my head as I was turning toward the therapist. At that time she noticed that my eyeballs were jittering. Kind of like they were vibrating. They brought in another therapist who is going to do more testing once the mobility in my neck improves. She asked me if I was suffering with vertigo (a sensation of the room spinning) but I'm not. The blurred/double vision, nausea and HORRIBLE taste all happen at the same time and seem to come and go. It came right after the therapy, and has stayed most of the day and night. My family doctor said "oh thats weird" when I mentioned the licorice taste. She did send me for a CT scan (because they didn't do it when I was in emergency after the accident) I will be back to see her in a couple of days for the results.

I thought I was alone with this problem, now I know I'm not. That alone helps cause I know its not in my head (well it could be not sure yet), well not in my mind anyway. I don't smoke I don't have allergies I don't use whitening toothpaste. I have regular dental visits. Have used supplements as some posters have. I don't drink soda (maybe 3 a year) same with alcohol. I do drink a coffee in the morning and 1 at night. All of these things have been the same for many years. I don't have high blood pressure, low as a matter of fact. I am a healthy, active , 47 year old mother of 4 who works 60 -70 hours a week. I haven't been out of the country on vacation in 7 years. Although there have been many stressful things happen to several of my family members recently, I handle stress very well. I am not overweight and not depressed. Other than the injuries I suffered during the accident (which are healing well) I feel really good. I'm a very positive person. I'm positive I can overcome anything, ALL EXCEPT THIS BAD SALTY LICORICE TASTE' I just can't take it any more. I don't like to take anything for the pain, so I have taken a few Ibuprophin and a couple of the anti inflammatory pills that were prescribed. Both of which I've taken in the past.

I am positive that this problem started right after the accident. It seems to me that at least several poster complain of headaches and or neck issues. I will post again after my tests are complete or if this goes away with the therapy. Are there more people with this problem that have not connected a neck or head issue with the symptoms?

I found the reason for my salty taste in my mouth that I battled for about 2 years now. It's the additives in our food, especially monosodium glutamate (msg), citric acid or sulthites. There are many great websites that will tell you more about it, especially about msg that is added in most processed foods. Try to cooke at home for a week and you will notice a big difference. Now I don't use any salt or normal white sugar in my cooking. I try to use carafull washed vegetables in my cooking most of the time, I don't eat anything that has more that 5 ingriedients listed on the package and I can say that I feel 99% better and no salty taste. I can't even dine out as the salty taste return every time I do. There are many names for msg on the packages. It is like companies are trying to hide them so people will still buy the product. I just want everyone to be aware of what they are feeding us. Other names to watch for are: MSG Gelatin Calcium Caseinate
Monosodium glutamate Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP) Textured Protein
Monopotassium glutamate Hydrolyzed Plant Protein (HPP) Yeast Extract
Glutamate Autolyzed Plant Protein Yeast food or nutrient
Glutamic Acid Sodium Caseinate Autolyzed Yeast
Vegetable Protein Extract Senomyx (wheat extract labeled as artificial flavor)
Citric Acid - its not an msg but people sensitive to msg are most of the time sensitive to citric acid, and there are many more names, and new names are comming to the market all the time in order to hide the msg.
I hope this will help as it helped me.

I too am suffering from the salt taste in my mouth. It's been there for about two and a half weeks though it wasn't all that bad until today. It seems to come from mucous that I've been coughing up. Today I went to the doctor because of having the cough for so long and was diagnosed with bronchitis and given an antibiotic for it, I'm hoping it'll help. At this point the salt taste is bothering me a lot more than the cough. Other symptoms that may or may not be related: Intensified jaw pain (I usually have mild jaw pain but it's been worse in the past few days) Eye pain - but this could be because I had contacts in that needed to be changed today General fatigue dry and chapped lips mild headaches ocasional dizziness for no apparent reason I'm calling my doctor tomorrow to see if he knows what might have caused the salt taste. I'll post it here if he tells me anything useful about it.

I am also experiencing a salt taste in my mouth. Today I was diagnosed with bronchitis; I'm hoping it's related and that the salty taste will go away with the bronchitis symptoms.

Symptoms I'm experiencing that others have posted on this thread:
Jaw pain
eye pain (could just be because of contacts though)
general fatigue
mild headaches
dizziness for no apparent reason

My mom is calling my doctor to ask him if he knows what the salt taste might be from, I'll post here if I learn anything new about it.

Like everyone else I too have the salty taste. I also have been diagnosed with an ulser, had my galbladder out about 3 years ago, have a cough, eyes go a little funky. Went to doctors today and he sent me for a chest xray, also I am going for a bunch of blood worl, being check for diabetes, liver disfunction, kidney disfuntion. I have sleep apnea, It does sound like we are all connected some how we just have to find out why and what it is.

I also have this horrible salty taste in my mouth, I am disabled and have gone through so many medical conditions and I am home bound. I am also on many prescriptions for a host of illnesses but nothing new to encourage the salty taste; I even tastes it on my lips. I chew on ice chips constantly and always drink well over a gallon of water daily and nothing works, gum Italian ice flavored, brushing my teeth etc. I have chronic dry mouth and have been tested twice both negative for Sjogrens Disease which CAN cause s salty taste. This has been going on for over a month and have finally had it and will call my PCP first thing next week, I have a couple other medical issues that have manifested; not sure if these are related. I do have high blood pressure, GERD pre Diabetes, and I am always exhausted, of course it's nearly 2AM so I don't sleep well either; I understand many of these could attribute to the problem. Usually I am not that lucky to find such a quick solution, let's hope this time is the charm. Keep me posted on your trials and good luck

so it sounds like we all have the salty taste, can't sleep at nite/or up at an odd time, likely to have some sort of heart issues, likely to have possible congestion of some sort, it sure would be nice to find out what is the problem with me, I am still waiting for my chest exrays and blood work to come back. I also get mild dizzy spells, and have been getting some bad headaches

I have been taking a non smoking tablet called Champix for about 9 weks. I have now developed a salty taste in my mouth. When I drink water in the morning to stop the thirst I am now being sick. I have now stopped the tablets and have not been taking them for nearly two weeks but the saltiness is still there.

Can anyone help me on the cause of this and how long will it last. It is driving me crazy.

Thanks

I have had a salty taste (like the ocean) in my mouth and on my lips since being treated for bronchitis 8 months ago. Drinking water makes it worse. I also have an extremely dry mouth which is from one of the meds I take. Finally I went to the ENT who said I had a yeast infection which he believes has caused this salty taste. Apparently you can have a yeast infection for months or years if left undiagnosed or untreated. Of course, I didn't buy this answer since I had just noticed the typical white coating ,from yeast, on my tongue about a week + earlier. I was given prescription losenges to take for 2 weeks and told the saltinss would go away....SURPRISE! It didn't so I went back ro the ENT and he now says it could be from a zinc deficiency although he said there was no way to test for it. He told me to drink at least 64oz of water daily and to suck on lemon drops for the dry mouth. I have not yet tried taking a zinc supplement to see if thathelps but will post when I give it an honest attempt. I should also note that at the same time the saltiness started I also seemed to develop tons and tons of mucus deep deep in the back of my sinuses that is very difficult to get out of me. That continues to be a mild problem and when I can bring up the mucus (sorry it s gross) that too has always tasted very salty. I have tried Biodene gum, spray and mouthwash all to no avail. I now have developed