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Food intolerance/food allergies was my bad breath problem

Tell us your story with bad breath
goodwill
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Food intolerance/food allergies was my bad breath problem

Post by goodwill »

My story:
I live in Canada.
I am now 29 years old. My bad breath program started when I was 15 years old. Between 15 to 21 years old, the bad breath was on and off. When I was 21 all the way to 28 years old I had really bad breath. I mean it was so bad at one point; when I talked the odor traveled a much longer distance into the air. The odor came from my throat, and smell like fecal matter. I had post nasal drip, a while coating on my tongue, and occasionally I felt metallic taste in my mouth.

So at 22 I went to a dentist that also did bad breath treatment. I got put on antibiotic rinses, etc. I also tried special toothpaste and mouth rinses, and I chewed special gum (therabreath brand) a lot, but nothing was of used. A few years later, at 26 years old, I remembered that dentist told me that chronic bad breath could be symptoms of some kind of health problem.

All these time, I denied that I had any health problems because in truth I was "healthy". But I went to my family doctor to get everything check anyway. I got blood test...basically everything tested, including a SKIN ALLERGY TEST. The only things of concern were my low iron count and my allergy to dust and pollen (just mildly). Other than that I'm healthy! No liver problem, no lung problem, etc.

A year later I went to visit a naturopathic doctor that had extensive knowledge on nutrition and digestive problems. Although my work with the family doctor showed that I have healthy organs, I was still suffering from abdominal pain, gas, and heart burn. Something else about my history that made my go to the naturopathic doctor was because when I was 17 I had terrible pain in my stomach (the family doctor just give me antibiotic and it went away), but at 19 the same pain came back (again antibiotic), and again at 21 the same pain came back (again antibiotic). After that, that pain never came back again. But my eating habits had changed after 21...I became a vegetarian. I guessed, not eating bread, etc helped a little. Little did I know, I have allergies to gluten, wheat, and soy! My naturopathic doctor and I did an ALLERGY BLOOD TEST and we found out the foods I was allergic to. I went on a special diet for 6 months.

Slowly my bad breath got milder and my mind became clearer! So I stayed away from the food I'm allergic to and amazingly no more abdominal pain, no more heart burn, no more mental fogginess, etc. Now I don't even have to chew gum! I can save my money! My breath is not one hundred percent because during my treatment I cheated a lot (eating cake etc). But I stopped doing that because every time I did my abdominal pain came back and also was my bad breath. So when I get the occasionally cravings to eat sweets so I just go to the gluten free bakeries. I vowed to take care of my digestive health because I know that without it and without my fresh breath I can't truly live my life.

I still see my naturopathic doctor and we decided for me to stay away from those foods for another six months. The goal is to see if in the future I can tolerant eating those foods.

My suggestion:
Please go visit a caring doctor to help you take a history of your health and who truly cares about healing you. A lot of the work was own my own reflection and paying attention to my body as I knew my doctor was only there to help me not do everything for me. We were a team, but she was the right teammate!

I had a hard time deciding what kind of doctor to go to. Should I see a chinese doctor, a homeopathic doctor, or a naturopathic doctor? My family doctor wouldn't recommend a gastroenterologist! He pointed out to me that I might have a psychological problem because of my depression during my late teenage years. This is why patients go "doctor shopping!" I also went to see another family doctor before I resorted to seeing a different kind of doctor. This other family doctor told me that I shouldn't go "doctor shopping." So sad that they couldn't come around to the patients' perspectives and experiences, but instead chose to feel insulted because I was honest enough to tell her I wasn't being taken care of from the other doctor. Put that aside....after some reading up on those info., I chose a naturopathic doctor because I heard that they were very caring and they practiced differently than the family doctors that I knew. Also I chose the doctor that had knowledge on digestive problem because of my own digestive symptoms. I'm thankful that she was a good choice.
I think that your well-being and your life are worth the try!

Please feel free to share any thoughts.
Hanh


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compor
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Post by compor »

Hello goodwill,

Nice to hear that you are doing okay. It looks like you have a way out.

We have quite similar problems. Fecal smell, white coating on tongue, metallic taste, abdominal pain, gas and heart burn. I am not sure which food types cause the problem but after some meals I feel the burning sensation coming up from my stomach to my throat. Smell gets much worse.

Can you tell me more about the allergy tests? Do they take blood samples after you consume different types of foods?
Stankie

Post by Stankie »

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Last edited by Stankie on Sat Aug 17, 2013 4:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ma51fyfy
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Post by ma51fyfy »

@goodwil

what type of test is it ? is it a igg-test?
goodwill
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Post by goodwill »

Hi all.

Basically I ate as many kind of foods as I could for two weeks, and then the doctor took my blood and sent it to the lab for testing.

I did the igG test (AllerGSpot). It puts all the foods into categories such as dairy, fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains, meant, fish, miscellaneous (chocolate, cinnamon, coffee, honey, etc).

The thing with this food allergy test is that if there were foods we didn't consume then those foods wouldn't get measure. So if we are allergic to these particular foods we didn't consume than it's not much help, especially if we keep on eating them without knowing these are problem foods.

Also, I noticed that on my diary and meat sections there were no indications of allergic foods. However, when I did eat them, my breath did smelled and the occasional acid...except for the chicken if I cook it as a soup. Anything that was hard on my digestive system gave me symptoms and again smelly breath. So I just avoided the diary and the meat all together. Also, my doctor told me to eat fruits, veggies, and nuts, but they were also giving me problem....little did I know it was the way that I prepare them! I will explain...

So I was worried I wasn't eating healthy, so I did some research and came across the GAPs diet (by Dr. McBride). I told my doctor about that but she didn't agree with Dr. McBride. This is understandable to me as my doctor is a Canadian trained doctor. Here in Canada there is a standard for "healthy diet" which consist of greens and fruits as well as nuts and certain form of fats (the food pyramid, etc). But after insisting, she let me tried the first stage of Dr. McBride's diet for a month, and if things didn't work out that I would follow her recommendation. Actually, Dr. McBride's diet helped me to a large degree. My bad breath didn't go away but all my stomach pain, etc went away. I was also taking probiotics (20 billions per day) and avoiding problem foods. After that month, I started to add in the veggies and fruits as my doctor recommended but then I was having stomach acid and stomach pain again. So we decided that I cook all my food such as cooking chicken soup with the veggies, and not eating any raw for awhile. From then on, no more pain and my mind was clear, but the bad breath was still there (semi-mild). Still I wasn't eating any diary and cooking meat any other way such as frying or baking...I made sure they were cooked very well in soup or casserole format. Initially my doctor didn't agree with Dr. McBride's ideas and she probably still doesn't, but cooking the food thoroughly helped me so she just incorporated that aspect into my initial diet. She told me to eat nuts and grains, but I was also reacting to the nuts so I just took it out without telling her. Basically, I heard her feedbacks but I wasn't just going along with everything she wanted me to do, especially if it was not helping me such as the nut (if there is pain forget it.). I wanted to eat healthy but if my body can't take it I didn't want to force it. However, I can eat nuts and diary now without problem, but I do try not to eat too much of the hard foods (red meet, beans, etc) for my digestive system. It took over a year on a very strict diet to heal my digestive gut, and I'm not going to let it get out of hand ever again.

I hope it is okay to post a link.
http://www.adelaideclinic.com/eNews%20p ... ec2010.pdf

On another note, no allergy tests are "completely" accurate, so it has much to do with everything else that we do. Things like paying attention to our body's symptoms at different times of the day and with different foods and drinks. Some reactions can occur 12 or 24 or days after we have eaten our foods. But it helps to keep a notebook of foods that give us problem...I did that for awhile.

On a totally different note, someone wrote this on another website. An inspiration note on another aspect of what we all go through.

"Chronic and persistent bad breath is a handicap like any other, and can change your life for the worse. It requires strength of character to endure, patience and hard work to overcome, and an ability to cope with rejection and embarrassment and isolation. It is emphatically NOT the end of the world, however, and you can use the non-social time to improve your mind, learn about the world, explore interests and discover that you are much, much more than what is reflected off people."

In truth we have no choice, but to develop into stronger people because of what we go through. Choosing this is much healthier than drowning in misery. Best of luck to you guys and ladies.

Drop me a note if you have any thoughts.
goodwill
goodwill
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Post by goodwill »

@ Stankie

I would suggest that you have a look at the GAPs diet as well.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... rview.aspx
In the video, she talked about skipping the allergy test and instead concentrate on "healing and sealing the gut." I don't know, maybe you might want to do the test anyway just to know what foods in the GAPs diet you should also avoid.
http://www.gaps.me/preview/?page_id=28

Maybe it's for you or maybe it's not, but pls have a look into it.
good luck
Stankie

Post by Stankie »

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Last edited by Stankie on Sat Aug 17, 2013 4:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Stankie

Post by Stankie »

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Last edited by Stankie on Sat Aug 17, 2013 4:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
goodwill
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Post by goodwill »

Hi Stankie,
1) I was on the first stage of the introductory diet for two weeks (I actually have my experiences written down in a notebook) :D
By the third week I was on the second stage, minus the eggs (I wasn't able to take it as taking it caused pain). The glee was ok to eat. I was on this stage for the third week and fourth week. Then my doctor ordered to try adding beans etc into the soup and casseroles, but my stomach and intestines started to hurt again so we took out the beans, etc. I went back to the first and second stage for another month. That's when my breath started to clear up a bit and no more pain. So we started on stage three, minus the sauerkraut and any other foods I couldn't take. I often tried a very small amount of foods that were newly introduced such as the sauerkraut. I remembered drinking a lot of the juice though. In all, I was on the introductory diet + some minor changes here and there (taking food I couldn't handle out or adding in foods she thought were good for me that I could handle) for approx. 6 months. From the first time I went on the first stage I was also taking probiotics pills along with the fermented foods. I was and is still taking the HMF Powder (Genestra brand). Some people react to certain probiotics brand so if you do try it I hope it works out for you.
I was on the full gaps diet for 1 year. Now I can eat anything as long as they're not my allergy foods, but I mostly stay away from the hard foods (the ones that used to cause me pain) if I have time to prepare my food.

The thing with this diet is that I had to keep on going. Once I started to feel better and my breath started to clear up, I was very tempted to eat all the "good food"...then the pain would come back along with the bad breath. The idea is to keep going until the gut is fully heal. That can take 6 months to 2 years. If you do it right, it will obviously be shorter than if you cheat with the foods that are bad for you.

2) At first I didn't know how to ferment my foods or even know how to do it properly, so I got someone I knew who does her own fermentation to show me. After that, I made a big bucket every month...mostly for the juice. I was already taking the HMF powder so I didn't have to eat the solid part of the fermented foods or take a lot of the juices.

I hope that helps.
Last edited by goodwill on Sat Jan 26, 2013 5:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
goodwill
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Post by goodwill »

Oh, also during the first 6 months I didn't drink any cold. Everything I had was at room temperature or a little cool but never cold as this caused stomach problem too. After that, I was able to drink cold water, certain pop drinks, cold juice, etc.
ma51fyfy
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Post by ma51fyfy »

goodwill,

what kind of food are you allergic to?

Is it ok just to avoid that food or do you need this special diet of the link you posted?

I requested a igg test one week a go and i am just waiting for the results.
goodwill
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Post by goodwill »

Ma51fyfy,
Congrats on taking the test. One step of the many steps you can take. I hope this step turns out well for you. In this post, the underline part answers your question.

I guess it would depends on what problems you have that is/are causing your bad smells. If you know that your symptoms are caused by your digestive problems than your goal would be to heal your digestive system. If you don't know what is causing your symptoms then you need to keep a journal of your day to day body reactions. For example: I had post-nasal-drip and I read that post-nasal-drip is a symptom of allergy. So I had to see what I was allergic to. I was mildly allergic to dust and pollen, but I still had post-nasal-dip when I was away from those things. So we turn to food and after eliminating my allergy food + foods that were causing my digestive system problems for awhile, my post-nasal-drip went away.

According to the GAPs diet (the link I provided) the goal is to heal the gut completely so to eliminate the problems associated with digestive pain, and bad breath as a result of digestive problems. The acid that comes up through the esophagus causes inflammation in that area and in the long run can cause other problems. So it is best to deal with the problem as soon as possible.

Avoiding allergy foods can certainly help to heal the gut. But that alone may not be enough as non-allergy foods can cause digestive problems too, and as a result can also contribute to the inflammation of the digestive lining. As long as the digestive is inflamed, it cannot go through a healing process. To heal it completely we have to be consistent and diligent in not making our digestive system work too hard because of the food we eat and drink. In the first link I provided, Dr. McBride talked about the purpose of the GAPs diet.

My goal was to heal my digestive system, especially my intestines and stomach. So I incorporated many aspects from different people and their systems such as those of Dr. McBride's and those of my doctor toward the process of healing my gut. Her diet, in its strict sense didn't help me entirely as I was having digestive problems with the eggs and the solid part of the fermented foods so I avoided these foods from her diet suggestion. I used the aspect of her diet that helped me such as cooking the foods fully in soup format or casseroles, then later in other format. Basically, I use ideas I was exposed to that I thought would help me, and I had a doctor to throw these ideas at for collaboration. I also read a lot about foods and digestive health from books and college journals for my own knowledge. I couldn't hand over my health to my doctor or anyone else. These readings helped me a lot in deciding what was right for me and what was not.

I was particularly concern about not giving my body want it needed while I was eliminating so many foods out of my diet. But the more I read, the more I learnt that most of the processed foods were actually not going to help heal my gut anyway, so I avoided that all together at the beginning 8 months. I cooked my own foods, eat a lot of fresh stuff (that were well cooked), and I took my multi-vitamin, my iron pills (as my blood test indicated I had low iron counts), drank lots of water, and I avoided everything that my digestive system was reacting to such as alcohol, diary, red meat (except when cooked as soup in a slow cooker), processed foods, beans, etc....later when my pain went away I SLOWLY introduce each of these foods. I am still in the process of slowly introducing some foods...slowly to avoid harming my digestive system again.
ma51fyfy
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Post by ma51fyfy »

thanks for your reply, goddwill.

I received my IGG results yesterday.

I'am allergic to diary products like cow milk (on a scala of 1-4 it is a 4).

Gluten and other stuff like pepper is just a 1. So I dont think gluten is the problem in my case. Beside that there were 83 types of food with level 1 reactions.

But what really makes me thoughtful is the case that i didnt drink milk the last weeks. Ok there were diary products like cheese, but can it really be the problem?
Yesterday I ate out @ a chinese restaurant. And today my BB is really worse again. But there werent any diary products. How can this be the case?

I really have no clue if the IGG Test is reliable and if diary products are the problem in my case. Besides, I have no stomach pain, just BB.
rikki
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Post by rikki »

Hi Goodwill. I am very happy to hear about your success. Considering that I have tried everything now, this diet will be my next step as I have terrible digestive problems. Was wondering if you lost a significant amount of weight on this diet? I am already slim and can't afford to loose much more. Also, How much better would you say your bb is now compared to before starting the diet?
rikki
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Post by rikki »

Goodwill, also, did you have any BO or just bb?
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