Premature Death Risk's Surprising Early Warning Sign Revealed

Lost your sense of taste as an adult? You might be at risk of an early death.

This is the surprising conclusion of a team of researchers led from the Key Laboratory of Precision Nutrition and Food Quality of the China Agricultural University in Beijing.

The findings, the researchers argue, could be put to use to provide a simple means to screen high-risk populations for those who might be in danger of a premature death.

Previous studies have estimated that some 17–19 percent of U.S. adults aged 40 and older experience some form of taste dysfunction.

In their study, the team analyzed health data on 7,340 American adults aged 40 and over that was collected as part of the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the National Death Index.

The subjects—who were monitored over a six- to seven-year period—included 662 individuals who had reported some form of perceived loss of taste between early and mid-to-late adulthood.

The team reported that during the study period, 1,011 deaths occurred, meaning that the background rate of premature deaths was around one in seven people.

However, the premature death rate appeared to be 47 percent higher among those who reported having experienced a loss in taste, with around one in five dying.

The increased risk of death remained among people who had lost their sense of taste, but entirely retained a sense of smell

Mortality risk also seemed to change with the particular taste the participants reported having lost. For example, an inability to taste salty flavors was associated with an increased risk of premature death for both sexes.

However, a self-reported decline in the ability to taste bitterness was only associated with increased mortality in women, while a diminished sense of sourness correlated with a higher risk of premature death in male participants only.

"These findings suggest that subjective perception of taste loss may serve as a simple and valuable indicator for screening high-risk populations in clinic and public health practice," the researchers wrote in their paper.

Further studies, they noted, will be needed to determine what mechanisms might underlie the association between a loss of taste and premature death.

However, the findings build on previous studies which have linked taste dysfunction to various health issues—including both cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.

It is possible that a loss in specific tastes may lead to inadvertently poor nutrition—for example, accidentally excessive salt intake, or overconsumption of sugary foods.

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Reference

Zhu, R., Wang, R., He, J., Zhang, L., An, P., Li, K., Ren, F., Xu, W., & Guo, J. (2025). Perceived Taste Loss From Early Adulthood to Mid to Late Adulthood and Mortality. JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoto.2024.5072