First Republic Bank. This article is about the bank based in San Francisco. For the defunct bank based in Dallas, see First Republic Bank Corporation. First Republic Bank is a bank and wealth management company offering personal banking, business banking, trust and wealth management services.
You are born with 9,000 taste buds, which work in tandem with your sense of smell as your sense of taste relies primarily on odors. Your sense of smell and taste change as you age. Between the ages of 40 and 50, the number of taste buds decreases, and the rest begin to shrink, losing mass vital to their operation. After age 60, you may begin to lose the ability to distinguish the taste of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter foods. The sense of smell does not begin to fade until after the age of 70; its decrease exacerbates the loss of taste for those affected. The exact cause of these changes is up for debate.
However, burning your tongue on hot foods can also kill taste buds, she says. But they grow right back, which is why the ability to taste doesn't diminish with age. Though Dr. Bartoshuk notes that taste remains robust as we get older, the ability to taste bitterness does decline in women with the onset of menopause.