Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

I had a blood test done a few months back for various other medical reasons and came back with a low white blood count. I was just going over the results last night and saw that they referred to it as "Mild Neutropenia".

Basically it means you have a higher risk of bacterial infection, and less chance of getting rid of these infections. Bad Breath is a bacterial infection. Some of the symptoms of neutropenia listed are gum disease and sore throat.

I really dont know if this is relevant at all, but check it out for your self http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutropenia

so, how's everyones white blood cell count???

how`s your white blood cell count now? I do remember that mine were low too in one of my blood tests. Have you found anything that corrected it?

Bad breath bacteria don't cause an infection. When bacteria infects, it infects the tissue and causes inflammation such as strep throat. Bad breath bacteria merely attaches to the tissue superficially.

This is not to say your condition doesn't play a major or total role in your bad breath.

thanatos wrote:Bad breath bacteria don't cause an infection. When bacteria infects, it infects the tissue and causes inflammation such as strep throat. Bad breath bacteria merely attaches to the tissue superficially.

This is not to say your condition doesn't play a major or total role in your bad breath.

bb bacteria most certainly do cause infection. don't forget all the studies that link vsc producing bacteria to oral health problems like gingivitis.

either way, it doesn't matter whether or not the bacteria cause infection. if u have a low white blood cell count then less bacteria are phagocytosed (taken up and degraded) in general. i would guess that this can serve as a risk factor for overgrowth not only of opportunistic bacteria that cause strep throat, pneumonia, etc, but anaerobic bacteria as well.

sweets07:
Are there any supplements or treatments that could increase the white blood cell count? thanks.

jc wrote:sweets07:
Are there any supplements or treatments that could increase the white blood cell count? thanks.

i would ask your doctor. i don't think it's that common to have low wbc counts but it's not common to have ch either. i think people usually only have low wbc counts when they are immunosuppressed from chemo or they have HIV. in the case of neutropenia, your neutrophils are low and they only come into play if there is inflammation caused by an infection like from bacteria entering a cut on your hand or something. those cells are most of the pus you see when you let a cut just sit there.

anyway, i would guess that if other types of white blood cells that just sit around your tissues (macrophages and dendritic cells) are low, those are the ones that cause problems. we had a seminar recently on colitis, and the paper demonstrated how defective dendritic cells can lead to an overgrowth of very aggressive anaerobic bacteria in the gut. whether these mice presented with bb who knows. but it is possible that humans may have these defiencies and we just don't know. this paper is very new.

best everyone! and stay positive you never know when your miracle might happen. and like i said before in other posts, oceanside it right, stop using all these mouthwashes... they are so problematic.

thanatos wrote:
I'm specifically responding to the statement saying bad breath is a bacterial infection which it is not. Gingivitis is a bacterial infection. Strep is a bacterial infection. Bad breath is not a bacterial infection.

Being your WBC is low, do you notice infections anywhere in your body?

i see. gotcha.

as a side note, i think that there is a medical answer for most people's ch, or a least a specific imbalance that needs to be addressed. our bodies are setup in such a way that is favorable towards probiotic bacteria colonizing our gut and elsewhere. i just wish more scientists focused on this so we can really get somewhere in terms of diagnosing all the different reasons people present with halitosis. i wish we could take the people who don't have to wear deodorant and hardly grow bacteria in their mouths (or at least the plaque and bb causing kind) and study their immune systems compared to those who have ch. that would be great!

That`s a very interesting finding about colitis, sweets07. I hope they would dig deeper into that.

I used to get pus on my cuts easily coz I had a weak immune system since childhood. Now it`s a different story , probably because of all the supplements I took throughout those years with bb. I think my WBC are normal now coz my doctor didn`t mention anything about it in my last tests. I`ve tested negative for HIV & other infectious diseases in all of my tests during the span of 14 years but I still think that my immune system have a defect that`s making it possible for these bacterias to survive in my body. It`s like my body had already accepted them into its system.