The following information has been gathered and compiled over a period of years, through personal experience, while traveling, teaching classes that include T’ai Chi, Qi Gong, herbal information, martial arts and other health related subjects. The article also contains feedback from students and anecdotal information from readers of my columns. The following are my opinions and deductions from those sources.
Some years ago I was a professional athlete. At that time I was given a free membership to an athletic club in return for advertising and promotion. Some of the members were serious body builders. Many of them seemed to be under the belief that the way to build muscle mass was to eat large amounts of animal protein. A significant number of them told me they were constipated almost all the time. Most of the time I found it difficult to carry on a conversation because they had terribly bad breath and if they were sweating, they smelled like urine.
I had encountered that in others who were people I knew from racing bicycles, doing marathons and triathlons. We often ate together after the race was over and I found, almost to a person, those that had strong, and sometimes overpowering, body odor were also those who ate very little along the lines of fruit and vegetables.
A lot of the cyclists, body builders and others would go to the local store or sweet shop and have a large bowl of ice cream and wash it down with a large soda, after a workout. They’d be pumped up for a period of time and then crash big time on the drive or flight home.
I’m still in contact with some of them and most who have continued the same lifestyle choices and eating habits have had many diseases or health concerns. They also look, and say they feel, many years older than they are.
One possible answer may still be fasting. The colon, or large intestine, contains bacteria that breaks down undigested food and produces intestinal gas. Some of the gas is absorbed into the blood stream and eliminated from the lungs when you exhale. As much as twenty percent of the hydrogen produced in the colon during the digestive process is exhaled through the breath.
If the metabolic system and digestion is compromised due to any reason, bad breath can be the result, as well as toxins circulating through the bloodstream. Improper digestion can lead to leaky gut syndrome. Leaky gut syndrome is when large pieces of undigested food enters the blood stream through the intestinal walls. Chronic bad breath is a symptom of underlying problems, some of which may turn out to be serious.
Our choices of food may be the culprit. If beans are a problem, there ar two possible remedies. We’ve found that sprouting the beans works for us. Put the beans in a large bowl and cover the beans with enough water to prevent the beans on top from getting dry when they swell up and absorb some of the water. It takes a couple of days and you have to change the water daily. Or, you can use apple cider vinegar if vinegar isn’t a problem. Some people experience candida type problems from vinegar. Cook the beans in the normal way and about half an hour before the beans are done, remove one quarter cup of the liquid and replace it with one quarter cup of vinegar. Bring the beans back to a boil and cook for at least one half hour. Salt lengthens cooking times so add it after the beans are done.
Another possibility to consider is an overgrowth of unfriendly bacteria in the gut. Any antibiotic regimen will kill the good bacteria as well as the bad. If the bad breath, or body odor, problem can be traced back to an antibiotic treatment, it might be advisable to consider taking a probiotic . Probiotics can help re-establish friendly intestinal flora. If poor digestion is suspect it might be advisable to take a digestive enzyme. Cooking destroys enzymes and enzymes aid in the digestion and assimilation of nutrients. Fasting may be another possible answer along with colonics.
Fasting and colonics should be under the care of a qualified health care provider. In the future I will be posting an article on raw foods, wheat grass, colonics and where you can go for a vacation to learn the health benefits of living, whole foods.
