Why can I smell and taste what I’ve eaten days later?

I CAN still smell or taste things days after eating them, which is very unpleasant. Both my GP and dentist are mystified and I really don’t know where to turn. What could be causing this?

LOTS of people will resonate with being able to smell or taste something they have eaten recently, or even after a few hours. But being able to do so for days afterwards is quite unusual.

Phantosmia is the term for smelling something which isn’t really there, and there may be several reasons behind it. Firstly, check with your pharmacist to see whether any medication you are taking could be causing it. Alternatively, smells and tastes that linger could also be due to tooth decay, so another visit to the dentist may be in order.

Smell and taste are closely connected. Having indigestion or acid reflux can make you burp a lot, and this may bring the smell and taste of food back into your nose and mouth. If you have burning pain in the stomach, then a short course of medication, called proton pump inhibitors, may help.

Similarly, rumination syndrome is a condition where food you have just eaten rises back up to the throat, which can result in a persistent taste or smell, or food could be getting stuck in a pocket in your throat, known as pharyngeal or esophageal pouch, instead of going to the stomach.

There could be other reasons for lingering smell. Soft, painless growths in the nose called nasal polyps can lead to an offensive smell. Even having a cold or allergies can lead to changes in smell, as can smoking. Changes in smell can also be down to serious neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease or stroke, so it is important to see your GP.

I TOOK statins for 15 years, but stopped five years ago because I read they can cause dementia. My cholesterol has crept up and I have type 2 diabetes, so I was thinking about starting again, but I don’t want to lose my memory. What should I do?

STATINS are prescribed to help lower cholesterol, and with it the chance of having a heart attack or stroke. There were concerns that memory loss was linked to taking statins, but research appears to have debunked this.

However, it’s not clear whether it is the cholesterol itself that increases the risk of dementia or if it’s other factors that are more common in people who have high cholesterol, such as high blood pressure, or a combination of these things. In fact, research has shown that taking a statin to prevent cardiovascular disease could actually reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s, which is the most common type of dementia, by almost a third.

When prescribing statins, your GP will consider many factors that could increase your chances of having a heart attack or a stroke, as well as cholesterol levels. These include age, body mass index (BMI), your blood pressure and whether or not you have conditions such as type 2 diabetes or chronic kidney disease. It is likely that someone with high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes would benefit from taking statins.

It would be good to discuss concerns you have around memory loss with your GP.