a metallic taste

[pinkstarz]

yesterday i took about 200-250 mics of lsd. I noticed about maybe 4 hours into it when I was outside I started to get a metallic taste in my mouth. That lasted for probably the rest of the trip. is that normal?

 

[PepperSocks]

I sometimes get a metallic taste in my mouth from psychedelics.

Please note: I don't mean taste from tasting the chemical in my mouth. I mean my body produces something that makes a metallic taste in my mouth. It's a physiological action of the drug during it's main effects.

It sometimes happens on LSD but also often happens on 2C-x's, even mushrooms.

edit: come to think of it, it only happens on tense trips and it also happens during sober anxiety attacks or adrenaline hits.

 

[ladyinthesky]

i get the taste in my mouth but when i first dose
never thought of it 4 hours later

 

[Shambles]

I also get it sometimes. Not sure what causes it but it seems pretty common cos I've known many to mention it - especially on acid... although acid is probably the drug I've known most to trip on which kinda skews my "research". As long as the trip is good to you (and is the substance you expected rather than something you didn't) then I wouldn't worry

 

[underground_troll]

I find that different psychedelics give me a different sort of taste, I know what you mean with the metallic taste with LSD. Mushrooms give me more of an earthy taste.

 

[Moral Decay]

edit: come to think of it, it only happens on tense trips and it also happens during sober anxiety attacks or adrenaline hits.

I get a metallic taste in my mouth when i have a panic attack.

I used to also get it during the peak of intense acid trips.

 

[psood0nym]

I actually set about finding out what metallic taste was years ago. It had nothing to do with LSD, rather, I was intrigued with the question of why licking a battery should taste metallic. It seemed like there was something special about it; it seemed to arc over numerous sensory modalities. I couldn't discern where the feeling of an electrical shock on my tongue ended and when the taste began.

I found out "metallic" taste is still of interest to taste perception researchers. Participants in experiments report a metallic taste when holding an iron solution in their mouths, but not when their nostrils are blocked. Conversely, they report a metallic taste when an electrical current is applied to their tongues or inner lips whether their nostrils are blocked or not, suggesting that without electricity, metallic taste only arises in conjunction with metallic smell. I thought, "well what about the metallic taste of pennies?" I discovered that, together, the zinc core and copper plating of pennies produces an electrical current, and thus metallic taste.

In the late 90s, a few patients receiving brain surgery agreed to have electrodes plunged into their thalamic taste relays. When an electrical current was run directly to this area of their brains, the patients reported a metallic taste and an acidy smell. The area is a nexus between different sensations. LSD is conducive to cross-signaling in the brain, so I wouldn't be surprised if its synesthetic tendencies, combined with possible increased excitation caused by it in this relay, was behind the metallic taste hallucinations.

 

[idle cicle]

I have experienced this as well. Sometimes while eating the hits, and other times hours later, while peaking (or both). When I taste it both times, the taste doesnt last the entire time. After the initial taste on my tongue (if any) wears off, I dont taste it again until the peak.

Which reminds me of something I read in "DMT: The Spirit Molecule". Strassman said that some patients could "taste" the intravenously administered DMT when blood carrying the DMT molecules flowed through the tongue. Could this be a possible explanation to the LSD metallic taste phenomenon?

 

[Solipsis]

I think that DMSO can do the same (its taste is noticeable when it circulates in the blood).

LSD does not contain any metals of course so you would think that the cause of this is dysgeusia from neurological interruption by the LSD ? It is much more probable than that LSD would actually have a taste itself, especially at the dosages, idle circle.

 

[swilow]

Well, LSD is a hallucinogen; which seems to effect evey sense; taste hallucinations perhaps.

 

[Shambles]

It is odd that so many people report the metallic taste rather than banana or gherkin or cheese or kumqaut or whatever though dontcha think, Swirlow? I do remember reading something about it being an effect of raised adrenaline levels or similar but may just have made that up. I doubt it would be the taste of LSD as - other than supposedly being tasteless - the amount is so tiny. Drugs administered intravenously can almost always be tasted almost immediately after injection but even if you shot LSD I doubt you'd taste it. Maybe one of those that have IV'd acid could enlighten us on that one

 

[swilow]

It is odd that so many people report the metallic taste rather than banana or gherkin or cheese or kumqaut or whatever though dontcha think, Swirlow?

True true, but "metallic" could refer to any metal; as your examples could be called "fruity". Also, seeing as metal is intrinsc to healthy human bodies, pehaps we taste whatever metal happens to be flowng through our bodies when trippn; sensory enhancement etc. I mean, blood in your mouth (liteally from bleeding) tastes coppery to most....

Its probably the bleeding brain ov acid causing this. :D 8)

 

[Moral Decay]

When i was tripping heavily people often attributed the taste to "dirty" acid, or the use of strychnine as a binding agent to the paper. But now that I'm a lil wiser i realize there there is not strychnine in acid.

 

[green_power]

I call it the taste of the reality

 

[B9]

I get it occssionally & generally it comes on midway through the trip. Nothing to worry about tho

 

[Solipsis]

True true, but "metallic" could refer to any metal; as your examples could be called "fruity".

Don't think it works like this. Fruit flavors come from different chemicals like aldehydes and stuff while a generic metallic taste apparently comes from an electric current running somewhere like from redox reactions.
The chemicals like from fruits fit into protein pockets that make up taste bud sites, making it a qualitative effect while a current is more like a quantitative effect. Can't say I'm entirely sure metals are tasted exclusively like this but I do believe there is this difference.
It's much harder to hallucinate a certain quality of taste, something specific like banana - it would have to come from either a memory of the taste of banana or it would have to be transformed sensory data coming from other senses (i.e. synaesthesia).
There are multiple medical causes that produce a metallic flavor which I think is simpler to produce by means of some basic electrical impulses not on the level of sensory data.

Not an expert on the matter but I imagine this could very well be how it works.

 

[psood0nym]

Heh heh, did any of you read my post on metallic taste and the thalamic taste relay above? A generic electrical current seems much more likely given that we're talking about a chemical that causes cross-signaling. Lick both contacts of a 9V battery to find out for yourself!

Currents have weird effects. I was playing with a friend's novelty mini slot machine hand-shocker during Halloween. The next day at the same time I started feeling the same obnoxious tingling in my hand. Even now just thinking about it I can practically feel it. I was on a small dose of aMT at the time. I have no idea if that played a role in the next day's events, though.

 

[kaib0rg]

oddly enough, i often refer to the mental edge of LSD as "metallic." i've never gotten a metalic taste before, per se, but the acuteness felt in the mind seems to have a metallic property to it, imo. feels very sharp, cold, sterile...to me at least.

 

[Moral Decay]

oddly enough, i often refer to the mental edge of LSD as "metallic." i've never gotten a metalic taste before, per se, but the acuteness felt in the mind seems to have a metallic property to it, imo. feels very sharp, cold, sterile...to me at least.

I have described it that way as well, where as shrooms are more of a rounded, blunted, warm feeling.

I also used to feel like weed took that sharpness away from acid and brought it more closer to the feeling of shrooms.

 

[Dondante]

Well, LSD is a hallucinogen; which seems to effect evey sense; taste hallucinations perhaps.

Speaking of taste hallucinations (peripheral rather than central)...

"The miracle fruit, or miracle berry plant (Synsepalum dulcificum), produces berries that, when eaten, cause sour foods (such as lemons and limes) subsequently consumed to taste sweet."

I actually set about finding out what metallic taste was years ago. It had nothing to do with LSD, rather, I was intrigued with the question of why licking a battery should taste metallic. It seemed like there was something special about it; it seemed to arc over numerous sensory modalities. I couldn't discern where the feeling of an electrical shock on my tongue ended and when the taste began.

I found out "metallic" taste is still of interest to taste perception researchers. Participants in experiments report a metallic taste when holding an iron solution in their mouths, but not when their nostrils are blocked. Conversely, they report a metallic taste when an electrical current is applied to their tongues or inner lips whether their nostrils are blocked or not, suggesting that without electricity, metallic taste only arises in conjunction with metallic smell. I thought, "well what about the metallic taste of pennies?" I discovered that, together, the zinc core and copper plating of pennies produces an electrical current, and thus metallic taste.

In the late 90s, a few patients receiving brain surgery agreed to have electrodes plunged into their thalamic taste relays. When an electrical current was run directly to this area of their brains, the patients reported a metallic taste and an acidy smell. The area is a nexus between different sensations. LSD is conducive to cross-signaling in the brain, so I wouldn't be surprised if its synesthetic tendencies, combined with possible increased excitation caused by it in this relay, was behind the metallic taste hallucinations.

Interesting...I was under the impression that the electric taste phenomenon was due to direct widespread depolarization of taste and sensory receptors, as opposed to the subtype-specific depolarization that occurs with chemical sense transduction.

A quick search leads me to think that it may not be quite so simple. Metallic taste, however, seems to be more refined in that it involves an olfactory component whereas electric taste may not.