Obaba Museum

If you live in Africa where Malaria seems to be a fundamental part of our immune system, one of your symptoms before or during the physical show of the illness might be having a bitter taste. This is usually a pointer to local(homemade) doctors that you have Malaria Fever or in a rare case Typhoid Fever.

However, if you live in other parts of the world and you feel a bitter taste the reasons for you having it might be completely different. It could range from a temporary body reaction or allergy to a lifetime illness.

Having a bitter mouth doesn’t necessarily have to mean bitter. This could also salty or metallic feel on the tongue even while eating. The medical term for any persistent alteration on the sense of taste is Dysgeusia. While there might be a lot of reasons for it, we would be looking at the major reasons in this post.

Autoimmune response. One of the reason for bitter taste could be the bodies white blood cells or antibodies fighting of a virus and causing the bitter taste along with aches in various parts of the body like eyes, head and joints. Release of proteins by the body to capture harmful cells during certain illnesses could also cause bitter taste.

While this is temporary for illnesses, it’s also a lifetime illness for some people and the reasons for it is still unknown. It has no cure for now and can only be managed. People with it go on to live to 80 years or more at times but with regular checkups and use of drugs.

Dental Hygiene. Brush twice daily, with an antibacterial toothpaste. We might have heard either or both parts of this rule from our doctors or from toothpaste commercials. Most of us tend to do it but what we don’t do is brush it well. Some people spend so much time brushing and don’t brush some of the essential spots well, ( mostly the tongues and gums.) Bacteria that hang in there can cause bitter taste. It becomes worse when the patient smokes or uses tobacco. The accompanying dry mouth that comes with this can also double the effect of the bitter mouth.

Pregnant women in their first trimester and women who are experiencing menopause most times have bitter mouth due to hormonal fluctuations.

An unlikely cause of bitter mouth could also be anxiety and stress. The hormones released by the body during this emotional states could cause bitter mouth.

For these of us who don’t like taking drugs, certain drugs might have come to mind when bitter taste is mentions because of their aftertaste. While this may be due to the bitter taste of the medicine, a prolonged bitter taste might be from the chemicals which were released by the drugs onto the tongue.

There are a lot more causes of bitter taste ranging from nerve damage to oral infections and some nuts also (pine nuts, walnuts). However, most of these reasons have immediate cure, discontinuing a drug, better oral hygiene, stopping the intake of some substance, allowing the hormonal phase to pass etc.

So, next time you have a bitter taste, don’t just conclude it’s a fever. Reach out to a medical practitioner to confirm your symptoms and prevent treating the wrong thing.