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LPR or something else? Bitter/sour taste.......

Posted , 42 users are following.

mrspinkrat
mrspinkrat

I'm at a loss sad

One day last November I awoke with a 'bitter' taste in my mouth.

Several visits to my GP later and I'm still not much further forward.

I'm a 43 year old female. In October 2013 I was diagnosed hypothyroid and began treatment of 50mg levothyroxine per day. Because the bitter taste started relatively soon after beginning the medication, I put 2 and 2 together and thought it was causing the taste. But, no, I took myself off the medication for 3/4 weeks over Christmas and still had the bitter taste.

I've drastically altered my diet as I thought certain foods made it worse but can't pinpoint one particular allergy or sensitivity.......

I've changed toothpaste, tried mouthwash, cut out tea, milk, all dairy, and mainly eat very healthily - fruit, veggies and chicken.

My GP suggested LPR (silent acid reflux) but it doesn't taste like 'acid' - it's just bitter/sour.

I've been on Gaviscon after every meal for over a month and Ranitidine for almost 2 weeks. The symptoms persist still sad

My mouth can get quite dry, and the bitter taste seems to be on my tongue and/or the roof of my mouth or around a wisdom tooth on one side.

I can't cope with this for much longer. It only eases up when either sleeping or eating.

Anyone know what it is or has experiences anything similar please?

Thank you xx

2 likes, 68 replies

68 Replies

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  • ines6375
    ines6375

    Posted

    I have had a strange taste in my mouth because of gastritis and reflux but I can't say if it was bitter. I would describe it as a metallic taste.

    Have you tried the low acid diet by Dr Jamie Koufman to see if your symptoms improve? It is the diet in which you eat only food with Ph level above 5 and in which you avoid all triggers of acid reflux. It works very well for me and other people on this forum.

  • Lesley998
    Lesley998

    Posted

    I had similar and it was horrendous. Tasted like poison - literally. It lasted for about four months, and was probably hormonal in origin. I am of (cough) a certain age, and peri menopausal. Apparently, when the ovaries start to go a bit haywire, they can kick out a lot of oestrogen, in a final desperate try to keep going.I am sure this is what the horrible taste was for me - to much oestrogen circulating in my system. I have spoken to other women and they report similar. Might not be in your case...but worth thinking about. Have your periods been erratic? if it is this it does pass, I promise.
    • mary88765
      mary88765 Lesley998

      Posted

      HI....so has anyone here (or you) had the taste....then went on hormones ....and the bad taste went away??? that is what I want to know...
  • mrspinkrat
    mrspinkrat

    Posted

    Thank you for your replies.

    I have ordered the Dropping Acid book from Amazon Ines.

    Lesley, that sounds SO familiar - it IS like poison!!

    My periods have been erratic! At one point I had gone 6 months without a period and my GP thought I was in early menopause. My periods then re-started but are closer together (24 days) and very heavy. I don't think the taste intensity varies through my cycle though - did yours? I'm really pleased you replied about this - thank you!

  • Lesley998
    Lesley998

    Posted

    Hi again. No, the taste did not vary in intensity. I woke up with it one morning, and it stayed the same for four, almost five months. Absolutely vile. Nothing got rid of it. it was like it was in my saliva (which of course, being a hormone, it is!) It was worse at night and in the morning, and when I ate.I thought it was something to do with my sinus or teeth...it was so bad, I even thought I must have a brain tumour or trimegal nerve damage or something (too much googling!) Mind you, there is not much about the taste being due to estrogen on the net. I only found the connection due to joining a few menopause forums. My doctor looked at me like I was mad when I mentioned it to her, but I just know that it what it was. We know our own bodies, and when I learned about it, it made sense. Some things made it worse - shellfish, prawns, alcohol. It literally tasted like metallic poison in my mouth constantly and it drove me mad, it was all I could think of. Like the taste you get when you have not swallowed a tablet properly and it gets stuck on the back of your tongue. It then went sort of 'menthol''' I know that sounds daft, but it tasted a bit like I had been licking vicks vapour rub!

    Sound like you are in early peri to me..and although I am not a doctor obviously, it just sounds exactly like what I went through. Ovaries going haywire.

    best of luck

    • Lindsey4747
      Lindsey4747 Lesley998

      Posted

      Hi. I have this exact problem and was wondering if you had made a recovery. I'm at my wits end. I am 47 and as yet no sign of menopause but maybe this is the start. My mouth on the left side is soooo bitter and tastes disgusting. It's worse after food so I'm tending not to eat. Chewing gum helped for a while but now even that tastes bitter too!  I also have pain in my jaw one side and up to my ear. My throat feels kind of "hairy" too on the left. I've seen an ENT who looked with a camera and also did an MRI but nothing to show. He said silent reflux but my GP disputes that. I'm really struggling to know what to do. Did you get better?  
    • mary88765
      mary88765 Lesley998

      Posted

      Hello! Just found this blog...I have had this horrible taste 27/7 (except when sleeping) for 3 and a 1/2 years now...very depressing! I stopped my periods at age 48...but this came on slowly over 4 months at age 53...I am now 56. Seen Every doctor imaginable......I have READ every article imaginable...I am now down to two ideas...one is that it IS LPR (and you all describe it perfectly)...it is NOT stomach acid necessarily but BILE acids..and that BILE (by all I have read) does taste more like bitter vomit...mine does NOT give me heartburn at aLL....so my esophagus is ok (last upper endoscopy was one year ago)....so IF this bile (or pepsin) makes it to our mouth....then WHAT causes it? OR, Is that not really the culprit? IS IT maybe that our hormones Have caused an idiopathic taste distortion? My next blood test for my hormones is next week...and if my doctor and I decide to...I am going to try some bioidentical hormones.....I have never been on ANY hormones my entire life...but I have done every other test....it has really affected my eating and enjoyment (or non-enjoyment) of food...and it makes me cough in meetings at work....on the phone, and when I am eating or not eating...and also when I am just about to fall asleep, if I turn my head to my left...it can trigger it....I believe that even if it is LPR....that since it passes by the lingual tonsils at the back of our tongues....it (over time) can enlarge the lingual tonsils (three ENTs noticed that) but they said rest of mouth etc looked normal...they apologized that they had no answers but that they HAVE seen other women with this issue. 
    • Dixieb
      Dixieb Lesley998

      Posted

      Well if age has anything to do with it,  I am female and aged 70 and have exactly the same as all concerned on here.      Have been taking varrious pills and they all leave me with this dry mouth.     I have had this for 3 months,  at one point I was admitted to hospital as I could not eat or drink anything and was extremely ill.   On a drip for 3 days brought me back to myself again but despite that I still have this awful taste in my mouth 24/7.    Surely in this so called 21st Century someone knows what is going on with us all.
    • jeanine26671
      jeanine26671 Dixieb

      Posted

      Have your doctor draw blood and test for Helicobacter Pylori (H. Pylori). It a bacteria that you get in your stomach that can cause this and is responsible for users in the stomach. Treatment is two very strong antibotics taken for 14 days along with bismuth (pre-packed HELIADAC) is prescribed frequently for H. Pylori please share and please just have blood work and Specify
  • mrspinkrat
    mrspinkrat

    Posted

    Hi Lesley

    Yes! Just like an unswallowed paracetamol!

    Like you say, it's all I can think about and certain foods certainly make it worse sad

    I almost wish my periods hadn't restarted and that menopause was the answer. I'm only 43 though. Obviously something weird is going on but your symptoms are so similar to mine that it puts my mind at rest a little!

    Thank you smile

    • Lindsey4747
      Lindsey4747 mrspinkrat

      Posted

      Hi. Did you recover. My problems are the same as yours (see my reply to Lesley). I can't believe there is no answer. This is unbearable!! 
  • Lesley998
    Lesley998

    Posted

    ...and I don't know if you have kids, but when I was pregnant I had an awful taste too. Different to this, but proves to me it was hormones. If it is, you are probably on the first stages of peri. What fun. After comes the LACK of estrogen, when the ovaries have stopped acting weird and just pack up, and as estrogen is the wd40 of the body, you suddenly age overnight, with sore joints and creaking neck. There are so many odd symptoms of meno I thought I was dying and it all kicked off with this taste. Just to give you a heads up! We sound very similar. But...it does all pass!
  • mrspinkrat
    mrspinkrat

    Posted

    Lol Lesley!

    I think I could cope with aches and pains better than I'm coping with this! Hurry up and start already!

    Thank you - I hope I'm the same as you and it lasts 4/5 months! I'm in month 4 now so should be over soon wink

    Honestly, it's all-consuming (as you know!) :'(

  • mary88765
    mary88765 mrspinkrat

    Posted

    Hi..if you see this post tell me how you are doing now please...I have had bitter/sour taste for 3 and half years now...tried all you tried and nothing HAS MADE A DENT in the taste...very very upsetting to me.....
    • halyna22
      halyna22 mary88765

      Posted

      Hi there!

      I found your article a few months ago when brousing for the same bitter symptoms. I am 32 and I am a healthy freak. I do have a tendency to high acid levels triggered mainly by stress, but because it exists it now reacts to certain foods. What I noticed with me that after reading a popular Dropping Acid book and following the tips provided in the the symptoms gradually faded away but they do come back if I am back to acid triggering food list. I think I would need to stay a bit more on a dropping acid induction stage in order to wash away the pepcin build up in my body. Redusing stress levels is vital as well. Stress according to this book's auther increases acid level and at the same time gives birth to pepsin which as we all discovered causes the nasty paracitamol like taste.

      I have been to my GP with the issue but they all give omeprazol like candies today without examining what the problem might be. I didn't take it of course because I know it won't help and I know to much how pharma works. They think they are treating people but it is the other way round. Once I did take omeprazol for my gastritis but it made it worth. Natural remedies did miracle not omeprazole.

      Let me know how you are feeling and thanks for posting youe story.

      Keep well smile

    • alison_74603
      alison_74603 halyna22

      Posted

      Hi Halyan..are you still on this forum .. I have identical symptom and Gastritis .. what did you use naturally for gastritus and has it gone ... please any help would be good ...thank you
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