Question: I am a 66-year-old man who is on heart medications for blood pressure and cholesterol. I am an ex-smoker of 40 years. A month ago, I woke up and found that my taste was only about 10% of what it was the day before. My cardiologist said that my medication sotalol (I take 120 mg twice a day) might be the culprit. I have set up an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat doctor to find out if there is a medication to reverse this loss of taste. Your thoughts are appreciated.

Dr. Hibberd's Answer:

Sudden loss of taste needs further evaluation. It would be very unusual for sotalol to cause this. You have stopped smoking for years, so this cannot be blamed. An ENT examination is in order as is a full neurology evaluation and consultation. There is no medication available to return your sense of taste. You are advised to seek the cause of this taste loss, as it may be an early sign of an underlying condition that you need to have diagnosed now, not later. If no cause is found, you may have to start weaning off multi-drug regimens with the aid of your cardiologist until the culprit drug combination is identified. Let me know how this turns out.