Feeling nervous about being kissed under the mistletoe this year, because you suspect you have bad breath? If someone close to you has overcome their embarrassment enough to let you know, here’s some clues to help you locate the cause: It’s likely to be something out of balance somewhere in your digestive tract.
First, check your gum health. Rotting food stuck between your teeth (because you didn’t floss) or rotting gums from periodontal disease will smell pretty awful. So if you haven’t been attending to your teeth with good hygiene and regular checks with the dentist, this is a good place to start.
Next, check your tonsils. They’ve got lots of crevices and crypts where smelly bacteria can establish a chronic low level infection. You can suspect a chronic infection when you have tonsils that are OK except when you’re run down, when they ‘flare up’. Sometimes long term treatment with herbs and homoeopathy is needed to help your body’s immune system overcome a chronic infection like this – but when the infection goes, the bad breath can too.
One of the most likely sources of bad breath can actually come from your intestines, a long way further down. This long tube contains a seething mass of bacterial populations. The good bacteria have an important role; to ferment and digest food particles so that the cells lining your bowel wall can absorb them. Good bacteria love a steady supply of fibre to feed and breed on, from a variety of sources (fruit, vegetables, legumes and grains). Most people like to think that they eat plenty of fibre, but when they keep a food diary, the reality is that they’re eating only about half as much as they need. Non-starchy vegetables are one of the best fibre sources for people with bad breath.
The bad bacteria also like to ferment food – but they will create bad smells and gas. The good bacteria and the bad bacteria compete for space and food. In a healthy body the good bacteria dominate, assisted by plenty of digestive enzymes. However if you’re stressed, run down, or ill, then digestive enzyme production can slow, and bad bacteria can take over. They’re opportunists, after all. The results can be gassiness, bloating and bad breath.
So there’s your pre-mistletoe checklist for the cause of your bad breath: Check your teeth and gums, your tonsil well-being, and the population health of your intestinal bacteria.
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