Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

Today, I recalled that I had earlier read of a tree resin found in Greece called mastic and it had been used for centuries to deal with gastric and bad breath problems. I had no idea what the substance looked like. So I googled mastic and got to Wikipedia. I recognised the resin in the picture as I'd seen it in all the local marketplaces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mastic.jpg

I had never known what it was in the stores. So I went down to the shop to buy some and not really knowing what to do with it, I made myself a camomile tea and put it into the tea to dissolve. I drank the tea and ate the gooey remains of the resin (UUUggghhh - but will try anything) and my bad breath instantly cleared. The warm wafty feel has gone. It is now 5 hours later and my husband says that my breath smells clinically fresh, as if I've just been to the dentist.

I don't know how to describe it but it feels as if the whole of my insides have been disenfected with a strong longlasting mouthwash.

Now I need to work out if it was a combination of cloves, cinnamon and previous doses of antibiotics, plus the prebiotics that made it work or whether it was the mastic on its own that worked. I haven't had any side effects as of yet.

Check out the website and see if you can get hold of some of this resin - I think this one might be a goer.

This is from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastic A 1985 study by the University of Thessaloniki discovered that mastic can reduce bacterial plaque in the mouth by 41.5 percent. A 1998 study by the University of Athens found that mastic oil has antibacterial and anti-fungal properties. Another 1998 University of Nottingham study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that mastic can heal peptic ulcers.

An interesting bit of history I found on
http://www.greekproducts.com/mastic/index.html was that during the Ottoman Empire the Sultan used to give the mastic to his harems for fresh breath and white teeth! How about this for a bit of confidence boosting!!!

Yeah here's something that I won't need to order from abroad (I live in Greece)
I heard about its effects before, but never tried it. I also remember seeing on TV a report about a university prof from thessaloniki who made studies on mastic and they said that it can cure h.pylori.

Also, mastic is a type of chewing gum, so you just chew it and probably eat it too

Lucky you Noptical. I only managed to get it in it's natural form, so will have to live with softening it in boiling water and drinking the gooey stuff for now. Can you get some of the gum and see if it has an effect on you?

I can't believe the stuff, it's now been 7 hours and my breath is still feeling really clean.

According to simonthescribe,
http://www.simonthescribe.co.uk/article ... Pylori.htmmastic is related to pistachios. " Just by ‘coincidence’ I found out that Pistachio nuts seemed to relieve the discomfort. It was no surprise when I found out that Mastic Gum, which comes from a related tree called Pistacia lentiscus is a classic remedy for gut inflammation that has been in use for thousands of years."

Although I don't suffer from gastric problems, I'm going to add pistachios to the diet - maybe it too has some sort of antibacterial properties.

Yes I'm planning to buy some mastic but I'm starting a probiotic treatment tomorrow (not for bb, mainly to restore the gut flora that an antibiotic damaged a few months ago) so I don't want these 2 interfere with each other, I'll wait a couple of days.

probably wise. I tried so many things today that I don't know if the it was the overdose of cinnamon, cloves or mastic that did the trick or combination thereof (probiotic included). i have a funny feeling that it's the mastic, like I said before I feel as if all the insides have had a good disenfecting treatment done to them and killed all the bad bacteria.

I have a friend who's starting the mastic treatment tomorrow, so we'll see how it goesfor her.

this is very interesting. ive never heard of it. do you think pure mastic is available in the US? hope this works for you. thanks for sharing.

Very interesting, I have to do some research if it's available in Finland. Probably no because I haven't ever seen such, but perhaps I can find some wine made of it

awoke and it's back with the same poopy smell, but apparently not as bad as yesterday morning. I've dissolved some more mastic in boiling water and had a bowl of porridge with cloves and cinnamon and my breath is as fresh as ever... will monitor during the day. I'm teaching tonight so will try the mastic before I go into class and will report this evening.

Carlos and Succ, I don't know where else you can get it. I'm in the ME atm and had never seen it (although had never looked for it) until I got here. There are lots of spice and herbal remedy shops here with baskets full of the stuff. I always wondered what it was. It wasn't until i did the search yesterday that i recognised it from the picture. On my next trip to the pharmacy and health shops I'll see if I can find some other preparations and will report back. If you can't find it, I could send you some to try if you like. But give me a few days to see if it works and if the effect is not reduced via daily use.

Cyber:
How long does it work for you? Do you still get reactions from your students or is it just your husband that can smell it? Thanks.

I only started trialling it yesterday. Read my comments at the end of the H. Pylori thread regarding the BB which came back after the TT. I wasn't teaching yesterday so had no other reactions to guage except my personal whiffer sniffer. I'm teaching shortly so will report later this evening.

sounds interesting. but when you say local marketplaces do you mean grocery stores like publix or bi-lo? or something else? actually, are you from the states? are they called by the word mastic in the states? this experiment sounds interesting but also quite inclusive.

No, I'm not in the States. I currently live in the ME. I don't know if it's called anything else. Somebody else reported it on this forum some time ago. After the antibiotic effect wore off my BB came back and I started looking at other things people had reported. I couldn't believe it when I found the pics of mastic in wikipedia because I had seen them in the local spice and herbal shops and instantly recognised them. And they're cheap - a small bag is about £5 and I think it would last about a month. i don't even know what it's called here because the shopkeepers speak very little english. I haven't been to the health shops yet, but will find out if there are any other preparations containing the stuff next time I'm down there.

OK, I've been trying out all sorts of things on myself during the past three days and here are the findings. These are not clinical trials, just experiences, so please treat it as such.

1) The mastic wears off after a few hours and the bad breath slowly takes hold again of its host.
2) The relief mastic brings can be attributed to the mastic itself and not in combination with camomile, propbiotics, cloves or cinnamon.
3) I don't think it's a cure but it provides the longest lasting cleansing properties that I have ever used in my life.
4) It starts working within half and hour of taking it and lasts a few hours.
5) The inside of me feels that it's had a disentecting treatment and my breath and teeth smell fresh.
6) It doesn't have any odour and has a very mild taste with a light sour tang to it.
7) I have drunk a walnut sized blob dissolved in water for good effect.
I have also sucked it as you would a mint the size of a tic-tac for almost immediate effect. It lasts about an hour in your mouth and the after effect a few more hours.
9) I have eaten the resin after it has been sitting in water and it's liking eating a jellyfish (EEUUUgh!) and I don't think the effect was as good as sucking or drinking the water.

I don't know if the effects will wear off from long term use, but will be reporting any changes.
I haven't taken it before going to sleep, but will this evening to see if the effect lasts all night.

coeric, other names for mastic are:-
Pistacia lentiscus, lentisk, and mastix.