Why do I lose my appetite when I have a cold?

In addition to nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, sore throat or coughing, many patients will not want to eat, even if they face their favorite foods, they are not interested in them. There are three main reasons for this.

First of all, when a person has a cold, especially a fever, the digestive enzymes in the body that help promote gastrointestinal motility decline, causing the gastrointestinal motility to slow down and even appear disorder. Gastrointestinal digestion slows down, and we don’t feel hunger, so naturally we don’t want to eat.

Secondly, inflammatory lesions such as congestion and swelling of the nasal mucosa and increased nasal secretions during a cold will not only cause symptoms such as nasal congestion and runny nose, but also reduce the sensitivity of the olfactory receptors on the mucosa to odor; and some viral infections will cause It directly causes damage to the olfactory nerve and hinders the brain's reception of fragrance signals.

Third, the human body's sense of smell and taste work together, and the decrease in olfactory sensitivity caused by a cold will naturally affect the sense of taste. When the patient's sense of taste becomes dull, he will feel that the food is not tasteful enough and lose his appetite.

Although there is no appetite, patients still need to eat regularly to provide the body with energy to fight the disease. Patients should pay attention to rest, drink more boiled water, keep the mouth and nasal cavity clean; eat some light porridge and soup, such as poor appetite, eat smaller meals and more; eat chicken, fish, eggs, milk appropriately to supplement high-quality protein; eat more Fresh vegetables and fruits, but try to avoid eating celery, leeks, chrysanthemum, corn and other crude fiber foods, so as not to increase the burden of gastrointestinal;