Oral hygiene is not always the culprit of bad breath

Now that I’m an old married person with two children, Valentine’s Day isn’t quite the event it used to be. Now it’s all massively commercial, but even so, it’s nice to have a day where it’s just about doing something nice for the two of you (I know, I know,

people in couples should appreciate each other every day and shouldn’t feel the need to make a big deal just on one day. I’m still sucker for it though).

And with that, I thought of Emily who came to see me a couple of months ago. She was convinced that her boyfriend was going to pop the question on February 14 and she wanted to be the perfect version of herself. The thing that had been niggling at her since they started dating (or actually, for the majority of her adult life), was her bad breath.

In the early days, she thought it was to do with oral hygiene, but a multitude of breath-freshening products later, she realised that that only served to camouflage the problem. As I explained to her, she needed to look lower down the digestive tract.

REAL CAUSE OF BAD BREATH

But first, a word about saliva: Its acidic nature means that it discourages bacterial growth. When your mouth is dry, bad-breath-causing bacteria tend to thrive. I advised Emily to steer clear of alcohol as it dehydrates the body and lowers saliva levels (alcohol-containing mouthwashes should also be avoided).

But the real cause of bad breath often lies lower down in the digestive tract. The job of the gut is to break down food and to absorb the goodness from it. But if large amounts of putrefying, bacteria-laden digested food hangs around for longer than it should, the resulting toxins get absorbed into your bloodstream. They then pass into your lungs, and get exhaled through your breath.

Getting the gut moving can greatly improve the situation. And this means gradually boosting certain types of fibre in the diet.

While you can get this from beans, lentils and whole grains, crunching on enzyme-rich fruits and vegetables like apples and carrots is also beneficial – all that chewing also produces plenty of saliva. It may also be worth staying away from ‘smelly’ food like onions and garlic.

Finally, I asked Emily to drink plenty of water – at least two litres, staggered throughout the day, is needed to keep the mouth moist and fresh and the bowels regular.