My wife has been diagnosed MSA following a diagnosis of Parkinsons. Finding savoury food that she will eat is a real problem and she has lost a lot of weight. Is there any evidence that MSA affects a patients sense of taste? Or appetite?
Chris C.
Cambridge.
Yes I am afraid it does. Food may be tasteless, be not as nice as expected or totally yuck. Warning; don't fill your freezer with the food that tastes right as it changes so you may have to eat it yourself.
FredaE
Yes, also in our experience. My husband can no longer stand coffee, wine and asparagus (!) to name a few things he loved.
Hi, my mum also suddenly disliked food she had previously liked. Quite early on in her diagnosis she stopped drinking tea and coffee, and you couldn't even mention the word broccoli without her giving you a look of disgust. Further on through her illness she found food hard to swallow so it became more about what she was able to eat. She never went off chocolate though!
Lots of similarities to my wife. Especially the broccoli and chocolate. I do wonder if appetite is a problem as well as taste.
I think my mum's appetite decreased as well especially as she became less mobile. Every now and then she would suddenly surprise us and say she was hungry or she fancied something in particular but I think most of the time eating became something she had to do rather than something she enjoyed. She had a peg feeding tube fitted eventually but she had lost a lot of weight before that.
Hello, we think MSA has affected Dad's sense of taste and smell. He eats well when food has a fairly strong definite flavour eg: garlicky, cinnamon, rich puddings, smoky bacon,sweet chilli sauce etc etc. Some textures he has found difficult to maneouvre round his mouth, eg pasta. (Guess it's a muscle coordination thing). Some days can be better than others in terms of having the energy to chew. Our nutritional support dietitian (NHS) is fine with him having extra puddings instead to make up calories. It's amazing what you can blend into a smoothie for extra energy/calories..even porridge, stollen cake, marzipan, peanut butter. 🙂 Hope this helps!K
It certainly helps, thank you. Our NHS dietician gives similar advice promoting the benefits of milky drinks, cream, Horlicks, custard, complan. My wife has lost so much weight. For example, her waist was 95 cms and is now 75cms.
I can honestly say I don't think appetite has been affected in Dad's case. He's an eating machine 🙂apart from when he's been poorly with an infection or something. A fair bit of weight has come off because of muscle wasting from lack of use. But also we recognise we are fighting a gradual losing battle in terms of maintaining his weight generally. The way one of the specialist nurses described it, is that MSA people use a fair amount of calories just to hold body and soul together. It's not nice for a family to have to witness this process. Sounds like you're doing all you can. 🌷
Hi ChrisMy sister definitely lost a horrible amount of weight and she had to be kept on being reminded to eat as she had no appetite. Smoothies turned out to be a huge bonus as she loved both sweet and savoury and if you blend them yourself, you can be sure of getting the most nutrition possible out of them. Hope this helps you both.
Jane
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Hi, my wife’s Consultant decided that the speed and severity with which Parkinsons had overwhelmed her indicated MSA.
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