different smells and what they mean

ruch · Post by **ruch** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 12:13 am

found this:
http://www.breezecare.com/article/smell ... reath.html

i would describe my current breath as smelling like something is rotting.. like garbage. maybe the closest would be rotting cabbage but am not sure.

ruch · Post by **ruch** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 4:55 am

the only thing is i read different things from different sites. another one says this:

"hydrogen sulphide, which is a lot like the smell of rotten eggs; methyl mercaptan, which resembles the smell of feces; and dimethyl sulphide, which can smell like cabbage or gasoline"

halitosisux · Post by **halitosisux** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 7:24 am

Isn't that what it also says on the Breezecare site?

I'm interested in what it says on there about the presense of high levels of Dimethyl sulphide being connected to high levels of PND.
I would describe the odour I've always ever been able to smell from rebounds, as a gasoline/cabbage smell more than any other odour. I think I'm definitely going to try a neti pot type irrigator or buy one of those electrical pulsating sinus cleaners which sprays water and reaches all the way to the back of the nose.

Interesting that Skatole smells flowery. The odour I've ever been able to detect when rubbing my tongue with a finger is best described as a yukky flowery smell. But, apparently, this isn't a very volatile chemical, and apparently doesn't appear on the breath, but we can probably taste it strongly on the tongue and the smell is very strong when it's sniffed from a finger that's been rubbed on the back of the tongue.

Stankie · Post by **Stankie** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 7:49 am

......

halitosisux · Post by **halitosisux** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 8:03 am

Stankie, I watched a brilliant documentary on BBC about a year ago, all about the history of chemistry. It's on YouTube, I can find out the name if you want to know.

I don't know how relevant this is to you/us on here talking about BB, but in it they did an experiment with a certain chemical. This single chemical was in a jar and they took it around the general public and got them to sniff the jar. Some people would get thrown back at the smell, and others would do absolutely nothing. The purpose was purely to demonstrate that there was a genetic reason why some people have the ABILITY to smell certain things and others do NOT. It was actually to show how, through evolution, we're gradually losing our smell sensing ability, a bit at a time.

Just as another example relating to this, I found out recently that 5-10% of humans are completely unable to smell Trimethylamine.

halitosisux · Post by **halitosisux** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 8:58 am

Here's one of the episodes anyway.. I'll look later for the part I mentioned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGlzJcCS ... 81&index=9

Stankie · Post by **Stankie** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 4:16 pm

halitosisux · Post by **halitosisux** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 7:17 pm

Yes, it's a possibility, especially if there's only one chemical or chemical type involved.

Most odours, like say those from a sewage treatment plant, or from a farm, probably contain a number of different chemicals, which would explain why you never hear people saying they can't smell shit in the air, or when someone farts etc. But if the body is producing one particular malodourous chemical (as is the case with TMAU, for example) then it's possible that not everyone can smell it for these reasons.

I've tried to find that particular episode but it's probably been removed for copyright reasons, unfortunately.