Bad Breath Halitosis Forum

Hello all,
I am 38 years old, and I developed BB when I was 20 years old. The onset seemed sudden; one day I was fine, the next, friends started offering me gum and mints. At first I thought it was my stomach and so began using Breath Assure: nothing changed. Things just got worse. I progressed to antacid tablets: again no change. I would brush my teeth every two hours with no relief. My mother suggested I drink water with fesh squeezed lemon juice: no cure. I gave up red meat, then dairy, then meat all together. You know what happened of course: no relief.

I expreienced a number of embarassing moments when I was put down publicly about my breath. I have gone through severe depression. I have suicicdal thoughts at leat once a month, but I am holding out for a cure. In my late twenties I discovered Therabreath. It appeared to work for a week, but my BB returned with a vengeance. I stopped using it and tried Profresh, Closys, BreathRX, Smart Mouth, probiotics, and then back to therabreath again (I believe there was a change in the formula when I hit my mid thirties because it seems to have worked a little better, but still no cure). My breath used to smell like death, but now it smells like fish. I have been to a specialist who did the usual halimeter test. I was given an antibiotic solution to rinse with, which helped my BB slightly. However, to date I have not found a cure. I forgot to mention that I developed PND maybe a year after I noticed my BB, and a year after that was the first time I coughed up a tonsil stone.

It has been a nightmare for me these 18 years. I used to be a devout christian, but after extensive praying (I've put a lot of time into this), I am on the verge of losing my faith. I avoid social situations as much as possible. Office meetings send a shot of terror to my gut as we generally must sit in close quarters. My occupation (the field I really love) requires constant public contact so every day fills me with dread as I must talk to patrons. Every time I board an airplane, I mentally prepare myself for the reaction of the passenger next to me: first, they are pleasant until the smell hits them, and they find a quick way to end the conversation as well as pray for a short flight. The irony is that I am by nature very sociable, but I have become introverted now. The good news is that I have learned to enjoy time alone with my thoughts, reading a good book, or watching TV and movies. If I could live my life completely alone I would be okay, but as a species we live in communities so I must interact in person at some point. The internet has given me some relief in that it has reduced face to face communication, but even if I order something online, I have to face the delivery person.

A side note: maybe God is punishing me for all the times in my teens that I spoke badly of someone who had BO or denigrated someone, or called someone stupid. If BB is my punishment, it is well deserved. Jeez, do I sound Catholic or what?

Lastly, (sorry for this dissertation) this may not come as a consolation to some, but this condition has made me a better person. I am less likely to be judgemental now. I still have a lot of prejudices I must shed, but I think I am getting there. Here's to a cure and thank you for this site and the ability to talk. Tears are welling up in my eyes as I write this.

With much love and appreciation

Sean

Welcome to this site Sean. You might want to look more into TMAU if you haven't done so already. It's a metabolic disorder in which one can't digest trimethylamine, which results in the giving off of a fishy smell and/or other foul smells.

And I don't think God is punishing you because of what you've done in the past. We're all siners and if God was getting back at people for the sins they had commited there wouldn't be anybody on earth.

I dont know how an adult can believe in god. Wake up, we have invented these silly stories because we cannot handle the fact we are alone. Oooh, im gonna burn in a pitt of fire for all eternity. Please.



i believe it when i see it

Funny how everyone with a strong faith here has mentioned BB as a possible punishment from God..

It's possible to live a good life, enjoy the marvels of the world, and do so morally, without putting yourself under the fist of a vengeful God.


I was raised a Catholic and went to private school for 12 years. I'm very familiar with the faith and the people in it.. And at around age 15 I actually thought about it for the first time and realized how ridiculous it was... I'm not going to try to convince you that your god doesn't exist... But don't even bother tryiing to blame god for something you can't explain.

As history shows, that tactic repeatedly fails.. There's something happening or changing in your body, probably at a microscopic level, .. Unfortunately the state of medicine as it is now has not delved too deeply into issues surrounding BB. What's happening in all of us can be explained relatively simply.. We just don't have the means or experience to understand it. Give medicine more financial support and another 10 years and I'm sure this problem will not only have been cured, but possibly reversed.

If we stopped wasting billions of dollars on killing people and making old rich people richer, we'd have a much more progressive state of humanity.. Medicine and technology should be the top priorities of mankind. Inviting a god into progress only reverts it and creates hate.

Amen!

To Sean - My story is very similar to yours. I am 36 and have been living with bb since I was 20. I too grew up Catholic and have prayed for a miracle many times. I have been discouraged and have questioned why this is happening to me. I have finally resolved to thinking of bb like a handicap. Why are people born with handicaps? My beliefs have changed over the years, and now I believe in reincarnation and that eventually, when you are a truly faithful, giving, kind, well-balanced human being that you will live eternally in heaven. I believe that people with handicaps such as ours are learning what it is like to be ridiculed and be humiliated. Maybe in a past life we teased others and judged others. Now we are learning to be more compassionate towards others. There used to be many passages in the bible about people having past lives, but they were taken out by the heads of the church because people were committing many sins and didn't care about being virtuous.
I'm no where near being a "Holy Roller", but I do not only look at things scientifically like the others that have posted here. I am very spiritual and have psychic abilities, and I know there is a spiritual reason why things concerning our hearts and our minds happen to us.
To the non-believers - us "ADULTS" do not wish to be judged because of our faith, just as I would not judge you for the lack of yours. We are all simply here together trying to become better people.

Sean - keep your faith and learn from this and you will be rewarded eventually...

rewarded eventually......right. I cant begin to explain how much this kind of mentality frustrates me, and try not taking offense because my opinion cant really physically harm you but..

do you know how many people have lived and died with bb, who had prayed their whole lives and lived virtuously till 100 years of age without ever being rewarded?? Its like sticking you head in the clouds and telling a starving child in sudan to pray because in the end he will be rewarded. Well the end being pretty soon considering the 5 year life-expectancy of these kids whose mothers and sisters were raped and murdered, so when this kid takes his last breath with a bloated stomach that hasnt eaten in 5 weeks i guess it should be a consolation that he will be rewarded in the next life.

NOTHING that the teachers or popes or gurus have told us is true. we must discover the truth for ourselves. The conditioning of the mind through religion, society, state, etc is why we suffer. To feel guilty for something i did in a so-called past life or to be punished for it....im sorry but you speak of ideals and conclusions based on your particular conditioning, none of which holds any truth or significance. Find the truth for yourself. Not what a book or a Guru or a pope or a priest or a government has told you to think. You may think you are a catholic, or an american, or a muslim or a hindu, or a democrat but you are none of those things because those are all just words and words are not real. The only thing you are is a human being. A living, breathing thing. Cut you open and whats inside is the exact same thing as whats inside another one on the other side of the planet. All the labels and beliefs and conclusions and prejudices and thoughts go out the window, because they have all been put into the mind from the outside.

check this out if interested. its a book called Freedom from the Known, by Jiddu Krishnamurti. free to read.

http://jiddu-krishnamurti.net/en/freedo ... known.html

and a link to a collection of all his lifetime works:
http://jiddu-krishnamurti.net/en/index.php

I meant that in your next life you will be rewarded. We are on a spiritual journey and it doesn't end here with this life. Just because our bodies stop working doesn't mean our spirit life ends. Having bb has effected my spiritual being, yet not my faith. God does not punish - it's not a punishment. It's a learning experience. He did not wish it upon us, it simply happened like a crippling car accident or stroke. As for all the evil in the world - God has given us free will - he does not control us. Some people are not very advanced spiritually and/or they are mentally ill. Either way, their journey has just begun.

i just feel that to create the illusion that the suffering in the world is happening for a reason, and that there must be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow as it were, is blinding yourself from the fact. Religion, imo, was created to numb the masses, silence them and keep them controlled. Why are the poorest countries also the most religious? Poor, suffering people cling to hope, which is not real, because the notion that they will be rewarded in the afterlife is better than facing the fact. So they dont rise up, make changes, they become complacent and go on suffering, because they will be rewarded later. Its silly. But it works for the governments.

you were right about one thing, we have free will. So instead of sitting around praying to a stupid god that cant make a change, we must find the solution to bad breath ourselves.

Hello all,
Sorry it took so long to reply. I've been in a transition with my job so time has been little. I want to thank everyone for welcoming me to this site. Your replies have all been helpful. I feel so depressed all the time that I find prayer/religion/faith etc. can be cathartic. I have reassessed my belief system especially after this long suffering with bb. As Bartelby says in the movie Dogma (I am paraphrasing here): I just kept on talking but I feel he (god) just stopped listening.

Science, with its experiments and tests, has developed several cures and/or reasons for disease. I will look to science to help me. I am still depressed but this board will now be catharsis.

Thanks for this great site!!!
For the Cure!!!

Sean

ah welcome back sean! good to see you haven't offed yourself.

This must have been going on for hundreds of years and why hasnt anything be done about it and why hasnt a cure been found?

i wouldn't be so sure.. with industrialization came a lot of things were're just starting to learn about.. between chemicals and preservatives in all of our food and pollution out the wazoo, chronic BB could actually be a relatively new kind of problem.. i have a hunch that 200 years ago, common allergies didn't really exist. at least not in the way they effect us today.