No smells at the Sept 13/14th 2008 UK Meetup in London!

Scientist42 · Post by **Scientist42** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 7:11 pm

As some of you know, we just had our UK Group Meetup in London last weekend and 8 of us attended on both days. Thankyou for your support to those of you who attended.

As usual, most members could not smell other members. However, I made sure I got completely inebriated the night before the meetup. Believe me, this is the one way of making sure you smell your very worst the following day!

Quite honestly, if people could not detect me in a big way then, they were unlikely to ever smell me. Well, I did detect a reaction in 1 or 2 members on the Saturday (I had the booze on the Friday night) but on Sunday there was no response from anyone.

Nobody actually admitted to being able to detect my breath odour on the Saturday but I feel they may just be being polite. What do you guys think?

Have any of you met others from the group before? Could you also not smell each other?

Arun (aka Scientist42)

halihope · Post by **halihope** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 6:31 am

It is great that 8 persons were able to attend the meeting but I think or understand that people are asked to be completely honest so is not good if people denied smelling anything but had a reaction. We are very much interested in knowing what happens at these meetings and what people's input is.

Scientist42 · Post by **Scientist42** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 6:16 pm

Hi Halihope,
Yes indeed, we encourage members to be completely honest with one another at the meetup. I am hoping there will be more information about our Meetup posted on Maria's Blog soon so watch this space! :-

http://mpdela.blogspot.com/

As you can see, there were 15 people who attended in total over the 2 days. It was a pretty amazing occasion, so much was learned from each member, kind of like information overload. With time, we will document all this, probably on the MSN site I run with Maria and Cabel:-

http://groups.msn.com/BodyOdorSupport/_whatsnew.msnw

Arun

mizz123 · Post by **mizz123** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 6:12 pm

Can you post the info on this site.

Thanks

mpdela · Post by **mpdela** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 2:26 am

Hello everyone,

Sorry I haven’t written sooner but I’ve been recovering from my long trip to the UK from Miami, Florida, as I'm trying to post everything that happened there in my blog, as Arun said. I still have more posts I would like to put up regarding the Thames Festival 2008 Meet-up, and it will take a few days or a week or two to complete all these blog posts.

It would be very repetitive and time consuming for me to also post the same information in each forum, so instead, I would like to invite all of you to read in my blog about what we did in this meet-up in London, at http://mpdela.blogspot.com/ I hope you find the information interesting.

María

katie · Post by **katie** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 1:45 pm

Hey guys,
Just a note to say I really enjoyed the meet-up. It was my first time attending one and I cannot describe what a huge increase in well-being I have experienced since last weekend. As I tend to isolate myself and do not have anyone to discuss my illness and issues with, personally it was wonderful to be able to share with others who understood and to do so in a safe and supportive environment. It was also amazing just to relax and have fun without worrying about being accepted or not because of bb. I think it is hugely important to our mental well-being that we do socialise, and feel accepted by others.
I can honestly say that I didn't smell any odour whatsoever from anyone present...and I'm not just being polite Arun as you suggest in your post...

!!
Thank you so much to all who were there for your kindness and friendship over the 2 days. It has meant so much to me.

Scientist42 · Post by **Scientist42** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:46 pm

Katie,
I am so pleased you posted because you are a regular member of this group and I feel it is important for people here to realise these Group Meetups do have profound benefits in terms of our mental well-being.
All the other attendees have said similar things.

I hope more UK members who, for whatever reason, remain shy will make the effort to investigate future meetups further.

It was wnderful meeting you Katie and wonderful to feel that we had found a new friend in you.
Arun

integral · Post by **integral** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 12:38 am

If nobody could smell anything from anybody, what makes you people think you have bad breath? Did you guys try halimeter tests?

Scientist42 · Post by **Scientist42** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:03 am

Integral,
I have an unusual kind of bad breath known as severe intermittent bad breath. I have recently had very reliable feedback about this from people in Thailand who I have paid specifically for feedback. I suspect less than 1% of halitosis sufferers have this unusual type of halitosis but it does also bear some similarities with normal halitosis.

My bad breath is VERY UNUSUAL and NOT the same as what most halitosis sufferers have. Most halitosis sufferers suffer from a constant halitosis which is made more severe by factors such as diet. Diet also affects my odour but it also seems to be influenced by other factors such as stress.

My breath odour is different to what many halitosis sufferers experience since when my breath odour is weak there is no odour at all. When it is really strong it can fill up a whole room even when my mouth is closed. In contrast, most halitosis sufferers will only smell when they open their mouths.

A Halimeter is a crude instument which detects mainly hydrogen sulphide and to a lesser extent methyl mercaptan and to an even lesser extent dimethylsulphide. When I tried it a few years back it gave me a low reading. Either it was not detecting my halitosis or my halitosis was not present at that particular moment in time!

There are other members in the meetup who have had tried the halimeter with varied success. A few say it gave a high reading and this was reduced after scraping the tongue and rinsing with peroxide-like treatments. However, many say the Halimeter did not work for them and yet they still get feedback from others that their breath smells constantly.

I have attended ISBOR conferences in the past and there were papers published to suggest that the Halimeter could detect most patients' Halitosis. This is not my experience though. In my experience (meeting halitosis sufferers) the Halimeter could not detect most people's breath odour. I really can't say what the exact percentage is but the future database that I am currently constructing will reveal all this information and more.

Many people who have halitosis can not smell their own breath and this has given rise to suggestions that a significant proportion have either imaginary or exaggerated halitosis. Unfortunately most 'Fresh Breath Clinics' are in the business of making money so you can not expect an unbiased answer there.

They will usually tell you that your breath does not smell and verify this by showing you that you have a low Halimeter reading. They then show you that their treatment has reduced your Halimeter reading! This is supposed to make you want to continue treatment! Duhh! this all sounds pretty illogical to me!
Arun

integral · Post by **integral** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:49 am

Scientist42 wrote: My breath odour is different to what many halitosis sufferers experience since when my breath odour is weak there is no odour at all. When it is really strong it can fill up a whole room even when my mouth is closed. In contrast, most halitosis sufferers will only smell when they open their mouths.

Sorry to hear about your issue. However, how about other people on the meeting? If neither of them could sense any other members' breaths, how can one conclude that any of them had chronic bb?

Scientist42 wrote:However, many say the Halimeter did not work for them and yet they still get feedback from others that their breath smells constantly.

What kind of feedback was that?

Scientist42 wrote:This is not my experience though. In my experience (meeting halitosis sufferers) the Halimeter could not detect most people's breath odour.

Neither could your nose?

Scientist42 wrote:They will usually tell you that your breath does not smell and verify this by showing you that you have a low Halimeter reading. They then show you that their treatment has reduced your Halimeter reading! This is supposed to make you want to continue treatment! Duhh! this all sounds pretty illogical to me!
Arun

No, really, I'm sorry, but this doesn't make sense. Why would in the world any clinic detect bb in anyone with bb and then tell them they have normal breath, in a hope that they will buy something from them? It just doesn't make sense, sorry. Any clinic that would detect something, would be interested to take one's money to offer them treatments for what exists, not for what doesn't exist.

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