MNCLHD

MNCLHD

Monday, August 31, 2009

Cigarettes May Dull Taste Buds

THURSDAY, Aug. 27 (HealthDay News) -- In addition to the many well-known ways that smoking cigarettes can damage a person's health, new research has found that smoking dampens the ability to taste. They found that the smokers had flatter fungiform papillae, with a reduced blood supply. The study was published online Aug. 20 in the journal BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders.

"Statistically important differences between the taste thresholds of smokers and nonsmokers were detected. Differences concerning the shape and the vascularization of fungiform papillae were also observed," study leader Pavlidis Pavlos, of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and colleagues said in a news release from the journal's publisher. "Nicotine may cause functional and morphological alterations of papillae, at least in young adults," they concluded. (From Healthfinder)

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