My diary

[hopelessone]

i apologize then. No offense intended. Carry on,

[thomasthomas]

Day 9

At lunch: I ate an omelet with mushrooms. Salad.

At night: Fries cooked on oven (no oil). Ground beef.

Sensations: On the night (at a party, I'm so social for a bb boy!) I had not so cool bb. green/white mucus, green/yellow tongue. I cough quite a lot.

Edit,addendum: I start a diet on monday (I am on sunday at 21h30 in france now, but I write the diary of day 9) with no cakes, sugar. We will see what happens.

[thomasthomas]

Day 10:

At lunch: I had spanish food, sort of paella. rice, rabbit, beans, etc.

In the afternoon, I had some speculos.

At night: Carbonara pasta.

Sensations: Always that strange mucus, it is my diet or my bad week end smoking habit. Or something else. Coughing.

[halitosisux]

Green mucus is usually a sign of infection. The actual green colour happens due to chemical reasons as part of the immune response to infection in the localised area. White blood cells called neutrophils produce antiseptic chemicals using enzymes and co-enzymes (ferrous form) and its this that gives mucus its green colour during an infection. It is not normal to have green mucus.

[thomasthomas]

I ignored that. I frequently had that episodes of green mucus. I have noticed that it hurts when I incline my head to the ground. I still don't know if it is a sinus chronicle condition or something else but I remember having that moments being younger. My brother had a surgery as a child in the sinus area. It could be a clue...or not.

[thomasthomas]

Day 11:

At lunch: some noodles, red meat, vegetables.

At night: Some serrano ham.

Sensations: Mucus, headhache when I incline my head. I split some brownish, green mucus. Coughing, never had inflammation for such a long time. I want to see if this week changes the state of my tongue (I try to not take sugar anymore). It is possible I over simplify and more complex sugars exists in common food like bread.

[brightonguy]

You guys are being too harsh. Remember aydinmur said that we should eat what we want? I haven't had BB since Wednesday last week - this is my sixth consecutive day without it. Guess what? I've ate exactly what I wanted over these six days.

[hope10]

You guys are being too harsh. Remember aydinmur said that we should eat what we want? I haven't had BB since Wednesday last week - this is my sixth consecutive day without it. Guess what? I've ate exactly what I wanted over these six days.

Congratulations, how you did it??? Enjoy your new life without bb...

[brightonguy]

Thanks hope - life's been good! I'm not getting too excited at this stage though, I had at least 8 consecutive days last month when I didn't have BB and then it returned BIG TIME. So, we'll see.

What have I done? As documented elsewhere, I stopped using mouthwash / brushing my tongue and started eating more or less what I always used to before the BB started and this coincided with my 8 BB free days last month.

On Thursday I cut back on the coffee (just one cup in the morning) but in all other respects my diet is like it always was again, I’m eating cheese, and I even drank some milk….. and no BB since. I know this sounds trivial and it is, so it may just be a coincidence, I don't know. Previously I cut coffee out completely and my BB just seemed to get worse but at that time I was trying just to eat fruit and veg and not much else whilst also practising ridiculously lengthy oral hygiene procedures.

Even if my BB returns - and I'm kind of expecting it will - that does not detract from the fact that I have nevertheless learned two very important things from this forum which I encourage you all to do:
(1) Don’t use any mouthwash, don’t chew any gum (even if it’s sugar free), don’t brush your tongue. Just floss and clean your teeth for 2-3 minutes a day (thanks to aydinmur and halitosisux for this great advice)
(2) Don’t change your diet – eat what you want (thanks to aydinmur for this great advice)

Oh the irony that the LESS YOU DO to try and fix your BB the more likely you are to fix it. I’ll keep you posted guys, let’s see how long it lasts this time……..

[Susie]

brightonguy,
Congrats on you being bb free.

I agree with no mouthwash, gum I think these 2 only make things worse. I'm not sure about the brushing of the tongue. I don't brush I scrape and sometimes I think this causes my nose to produce more mucous. The diet part eating anything you want I would have to disagree. I think certain foods cause breath to be alot worse.

I'm curious how long did you have bb?

[Phantasist]

ThomasThomas,
I have two questions for you:
1) Did the ENT doctor you saw take X-rays to determine if you have a sinus infection?
2) Did the gastroenterologist test you for Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth?
I think you are correct in assuming that the underlying problem is in one or both of those areas.
I would also like to clear up something. When I made my dietary suggestions to you about eating bland foods instead of irritant foods, I did not mean to imply that this would eliminate your bad breath. There are other factors involved. The reason why I said it was because of the obdominal symptoms that you had mentioned. A bland diet providing soft roughage (such as steamed vegetables) for a couple of weeks would do you a lot of good. Small portions of meat are all right, but stay away from sugary softdrinks and sugary pastries. Help yourself by giving your digestive system a chance to heal itself. You might also consider taking probiotics to feed more good bacteria into your intestines. Get the little coated "pearls" that are not destroyed by stomach acid. You will feel better as a result. This is just a start - it is not the final answer to eliminating BB because there may be bacteria in your sinuses or intestines which you cannot kill without a doctor's help.

[thomasthomas]

Phantasist:
1)No, I assume it could be that. I have to find a competent ENT.
2)Neither. And:)...I have to find a competent gastroenterologist.

I clear up something too. I agree with your previous remark, I have always found they are pertinent. We both agree food certainly plays a role (and I make a diary for that reason, to test that hypothesis). And as I said, I don't think it is a bad idea to make a diet, I just want to find the possible underlying irritant for me, the kryptonite. I give myself three weeks to note things as they come. After that, I will give a try to adjustments (and as some want to believe, I never said I am against diet adjustment). I am checking for resources about the probiotic trend, I want to avoid disturbing my weak oral flora. It seems that some probiotics are doing some harm. If I can be pretty sure they are harmless, I will take some. To be honest, I know a little about that subject but I'm doing some knowledge update.

I saw interesting things on the back of my tongue, I don't have just white coated tongue. I have sort of "skin spots" that are not white but a normal tongue color.

Phantasist, how is going your halitosis?

Day 12

At lunch: A french cassoulet.

In the afternoon and after lunch, I failed because I ate some apple pie who contains... You guessed it, sugar.

At night: Potatoes with one chopped steak.

Sensations: I cough less. I have a more regular tongue. I can't explain my body reaction. I still have strange mucus, in the morning I spit some brown green mucus. Not very "normal".

[Phantasist]

ThomasThomas,

I'm glad to see that you are willing to make some adjustments to your food intake. Even if it is only temporary, it should diminish your abdominal distress.

The nasal mucus and the fact that you feel pain when you incline your head is worrisome. There must be something wrong in your sinus cavities somewhere. It is probably not a severe infection, because then you would be running a fever, but something is wrong. This would have to be diagnosed by an ENT doctor who knows what he's talking about.

I have been making some progress with my own condition, but I need more time. I will give a report soon.

[thomasthomas]

Day 13:

At lunch: A tortilla, salad with the usual sauce.

At night: Again some tortilla, bread, ham. Apple pie.

sensations: I need to clear my throat again and again. Not cool, not practical. But definitely located in some areas. I must have a strong acidity in my mouth or/and the oesophagus area. I don't have a lot a stomach pain.

Day 14:

At lunch: lentils, with some pork ribs.

At night: Soup, classical one, and some onion soup. As family was here, and I didn't think with my brain. I had one ball of vanilla ice. With apple pie (my mother is in fury mode, she makes apple pie one after another).

Sensations: As usual. I have smoked in the end of the afternoon (and not a cigarett). It gives me a bad acid sensation, I don't know if it causes bad breath, considering I have bad breath anterior to that. But it makes a heavier bb. It is one important pillar: an hypothetical acid oral flora. bb sufferers are like paranoid detectives, they search clues in a paranoid mode reinforced by some true and accurate reactions of people shocked by their breath.

Phantasist,

You understand I initially agreed to make food adjustment, but I wanted to find underlying cause of problem (if there is one) before making permanent change? Yes, my sinus cavities are strange. It is a serious possibility considering my brother had a surgery in that area, and my father has some mucus, some headache, throat clearing, sometimes a smoker voice in the morning.

Yes you report would be much appreciated.

[thomasthomas]

Day 15:

At lunch: Fish.

At night: A sort of pizza, with cheese, mushrooms, diced bacon.

After, I took some candies. I smoked at a birthday party (I'm not saying smoking is cool!)

Sensations: Always some heaviness, a recurrent thing is the difficulty to expel the morning mucus. Some heart pain (maybe heartburn), I have the suspicion that smoking and heart pain are connected, they occur quite near each other, even though it could be food too. But don't minimize a possibility.


Day 16:

At lunch: Another piece of pizza, some salad. I ate a strawberry piece of cake (highly sugared thing)

At afternoon: I drank one glass of coca cola. I went to McDonalds with friends. (fries, royal bacon, coca). All the good diet stuff we can find.

Sensations: Not worse than ever, I went to bed, I had the same feeling you can get when you are progressively getting angina, like some difficult sore movement. I have this thing quite often. Not smart to have coca cola, I must manage to make the transition towards less sugar diet. For the moment, I evaluate my dependence to some food, let's find which one are harmless and cause some weird reaction. I'm quite sure some does. One thing can get depressing: going to a new doctor and explaining one's problem. For me, it is very related to an irrational feeling of shame and low quality information of doctors. Let's keep going on.