Okay, it is me again. The difficulty with eating is that I have this constant Salty taste and Salty Saliva in my mouth. It makes everything taste absolutely horrible. After 16 treatments of IMRT my throat and mouth are doing fairly well and I can still swallow without any problem. It is the Salty taste that is killing me and not enabeling me to eat much of anything. Has anyone had this problem with the Salty taste? Any remedies. Thanks!

The side effects from IMRT are a dynamic and constantly changing thing. Further complicating things are that we all respond differently to treatment. I could taste coffee and vanilla all throughout but many other things tasted like cardboard or worse - certainly not like they smelled. It is important to keep your fluid and nutritional needs met. You may have to force yourself to eat but it will speed the healing process. The worst part of treatment for me was not being able to enjoy food for a good chunk of a year - but it's all good now. I got all of my taste back and about 80%+ of my salivary function (that took a full 18 months).

If you are getting chemo it is especially critical to drink 2-3 liters of water every day to protect your kidneys.

I experimented constanly with different foods that I had cravings for and my dogs got very fat. You have to keep trying.

Your side effects from treatment may get much worse. Fot most of us it was a few weeks after the end of treatment that was the lowest point.

what Gary said..(liquid and food). As far as food goes just experiment and do not buy large quantities of any on thing because things change so rapidly. Our dogs were happy too..

Markus

Will definitely keep trying to find things to eat. Dietician wants me eating 2000 calories a day, and when we did the math on what I am eating, I need to double my caloric intake. Really, this salty taste/salty saliva is just brutal on me. Like a permanent salt lick in my mouth. Tried some vanilla carnation instant breakfast this morning and it tasted like it should. Okay, maybe vanilla is one of those things I can eat (and will hate a year from now). Again, if anyone has had the problem with the salty saliva/taste and has found any remedy, I would greatly appreciate it.

Dan

Dan,

Have you tried just gargling/swishing with a baking soda and water solution frequently??? I know this sounds simple, but sometimes simple is wonderful. Not sure it will help as your problem is probably arising from compromised taste buds, but it is worth a try even if it gives only temporary relief. I know the salt and baking soda water helps with a lot of mouth and throat issues during treatment...heck, you might try that even though it has salt:

1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
8 oz water

Don't see that you are having chemo right now so it must be the rads to your tongue doing the damage...hope this helps, Deb

i have the same salty taste problem. the first thing to go for me was sweets. when i drink water it's like taking a big gulp of the ocean. i've been through 15 IMRT so i'm only 1 day behind you as far as that goes. i've been eating a lot more soups. my favorite is french onion soup. the big thing obviously is making sure you let the soup cool down. i've found this pizza place that has great flat bread crust that is real soft and it tastes pretty good. another thing that i enjoy is regular sprite with my meals. oddly enough that just tastes real good to me and the sugar in it does bother me either. good luck finding foods out there. i love food and it's difficult but i just keeping telling myself that it could be worse and it's only temporary...

Hi all,
The salt lick blues. Unfortunately IMRT is very hard on the salivary glands if they are in the field of radiation. There are two types of salivary glands: serous glands and mucous glands. The serous glands provide most of the liquid in your saliva and the mucous glands provide the lubrication or mucous. IMRT affects them both so the result is less liquid from the serous gland so the salt concentration in your saliva is higher than normal. Thicker mucous with a higher salt concentration from the mucous glands.
So how do you deal with it? It's different for every patient. The common denominator is drink lots and I mean lots of water. Cut out salt in all of your foods. Read labels, salt, sodium, MSG, hydrolized vegetable and animal protein. I know soup becomes a mainstay of the diet at this stage but, soup is famous for having a high sodium and MSG content which only adds to the problem. It's better to make your own soup stock or choose low or no sodium products.
If you want to stimulate your saliva production add a few drops of lemon juice to every glass of water.
Stay hydrated and hopefully the salt demon will disappear quickly.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Mike

Hi, y'all...newby here,
I'm dealing with the same "saltlick" problem. No matter what goes in my mouth it is just as salty as sea water or worse. I'll try the mouth wash idea and the low/no sodium soups and see if that helps...plus I just did a PEG tube and am starting to feed when I get home from work.

Thanks Dr. Mike for the information. Thankfully, over the past week or so the salt taste has slowly decreased, making it much easier to eat and drink. Seems like it hit both myself and Kurt about the same time and hopefully it improves for him as well. Drinking lots and lots of water, staying away from salty foods, and will be very sick of oatmeal and Ensure at the end of all of this. Thank goodness today marks 4 weeks of radiation down, and 2 to go. Can't wait!

I described the taste as 'burnt salt', at first I couldn't tolerate water because it just tasted like burnt salt; so I drank gatorade exclusively for a few weeks. As treatment wore on the taste somewhat faded so I went back to water and it was fine. My taste began to return 2 weeks post TX, and improved at two week intervals after that. I have least 80% taste back, if not more. Salty tastes were the first to come back.