Nutrition For Bad Breath

Treviso radicchio Bad breath

What Are The Reasons For Bad Breath Also Known As Halitosis

Halitosis is a term used for bad breath. It is often difficult to know if you have bad breath and usually you will be informed you have bad breath by someone else. There may be many reasons behind having bad breath and one of the first things to think of is oral health. Regular brushing, flossing with dental tape and water flossing to go under the gum line can be very helpful.

Having an infection may be a reason for having bad breath and it is important to have regular dental visits to make sure your teeth and gums are all in good health. Using mount rinses can give temporary relief but does not deal with the underlying problem.

Some foods can cause strong breath and also not being able to digest food well may contribute to bad health. As we age our digestive secretions are diminished so this can lead to incomplete digestion leading to bad odours.

Having a slow gut transit time (the time the food takes to travel from the mouth to the toilet), being constipated, having SIBO or other gut infections can all contribute to bad breath.

Having low stomach acid especially is a major factor in developing bad breath as you need good stomach acid to digest your dietary proteins. If your food stays in your stomach longer than needed it will lead to bad breath. One reason for having low stomach acid apart from old age can be having an Helicobacter Pylori infection. This bacteria resides in the stomach and does this by lowering the stomach acid.

How I Helped My Client With Bad Breath With Nutritional Therapy?

A middle aged lady consulted with me with the request to solve her bad breath. This was reported to her by someone close to her. She was feeling very self conscious and was very keen to get rid of it. After we established that her oral health was good and that she did not have any decay or cavities in her teeth I took the clients full health history.

She was 58 years old and had a relatively healthy diet with little room for improvement. Her digestion was good with regular daily bowel movements. She did not experience bloating or camps however she did not feel hungry either. This suggested to me that she may have low stomach acid levels and reduced digestive secretions. As you need optimal stomach acid levels to kick start the rest of your digestive processes such as bile flow and digestive enzymes. I also recommended for her to include bitter foods in her diet such as radicchio, endive, rocket leaves, fresh lemon tea, radishes and artichokes and dandelion tea.

Initially I recommended that the client to take some digestive bitters to stimulate digestive juices at the beginning of each meal and recommended some digestive enzymes. I also recommended she has some private testing for Helicobacter Pylori and a SIBO test. She was not able to have the SIBO test done but her Helicobacter Pylori test returned positive results. So I recommended a probiotic to deal with this infection and further support for her to help breakdown her food that included betaine HCl, and fermented foods.

The client continued with the protocol at the recommended duration and 6 month later she has contacted me to tell me her bad breath has gone. She was very happy with her outcome.

Sometimes it is important to look deeper than where the problem is. With Nutritional Therapy I was able to solve this clients health challenge by investigating the root cause.

Get in touch with me if you have a health challenge you need help with.