Breakfast and Bad Breath

Our mother’s always told us to eat a good breakfast, and they were right, but most of them probably didn’t know the link between breakfast and bad breath. Experts agree that having something to eat before heading off to work or school does a lot to eliminate oral malodor. And beyond that, it gives you energy to get on with the day, keeps your blood sugar up, and helps you maintain a healthy weight. There are good reasons why we feel hungry when we get up in the morning.

So what’s the connection between breakfast and bad breath? First, our mouths tend to be quite dry when we wake because saliva production slows down while we sleep. Saliva is important for flushing the oral cavity and keeping oral bacteria in check: lack of it during the night explains why everyone tends to have halitosis in the morning. Eating causes a natural response of increased saliva production and gets the mouth flushing again at the start of the day. For extra saliva production, watermelon and celery are reported to be especially effective.

The underlying reason we have halitosis in the morning is that the reduction in saliva allows anaerobic bacteria that live in the mouth to multiply. These organisms, which release bad smelling gases, are found in the highest numbers in the grooves of the tongue at the back of the mouth. Many dentists and oral malodor specialists recommend brushing the tongue to keep the numbers of these bacteria down, and eating cereals and foods with a lot of fiber in them can also have a cleansing effect. Eat a whole grain breakfast and bad breath is less likely to be a problem for the rest of the day. It’s that simple.

A third connection between breakfast and bad breath has to do with the way the body produces energy, and also explains why people on low carbohydrate diets often have oral malodor. If there is no carbohydrate to digest, the body turns to breaking down fat instead. It helps to burn body fat but it also produces by-products of protein metabolism that are expelled on the breath. Thus the person who skips the morning meal is likely to have halitosis in the morning, and may notice it clearing up after they eat lunch.

It looks like eating a healthy breakfast really is good for us in a lot of different ways.

Helicobacter pylori and Bad Breath

Researchers in Japan have found a link between Helicobacter pylori and bad breath (halitosis). Helicobacter pylori is known to cause stomach ulcers, and doctors have long suspected that some cases of bad breath (halitosis) are linked to stomach problems but, until now, scientific proof has been lacking. The study, reported in the Journal of Medical Microbiology (J Med Microbiol 57 (2008), 1553-1559), looked for the presence of H. pylori in the mouths of 326 subjects, 251 of whom suffered from oral malodor. The results indicted an association with not only halitosis, but also gum disease.

Does this mean stomach ulcer and halitosis go hand in hand? Not necessarily. Not all people who carry H. pylori have stomach ulcers, just as not all of them have oral malodor. The authors of the recent report suggest that gum disease may predispose people to having H. pylori in the mouth—that is, gum disease may create the ideal conditions for the bacterium to multiply in the mouth if it is introduced. Poor oral health, then, may be a stepping stone to Helicobacter pylori and bad breath.

Obviously, contact with this organism can increase the risk of both stomach ulcer and bad breath, since any organism that is found in the mouth is presumably also found in the stomach. Once assumed to be a harmless environmental bacterium, it is emerging as a significant cause of human health problems. It remains to be seen however, whether the evidence linking Helicobacter pylori and bad breath sparks additional research and increased efforts to find good antibiotic treatment.

For oral malodor sufferers, knowledge of a possible cause and effect relationship between Helicobacter pylori and bad breath may spark a desire to be tested for the organism. There is a blood test available for screening, though it’s probably not known whether it will detect the organism in oral tissues. Ironically, a urea breath test has also been developed, the results of which may be questionable now that we know the bacterium can live in the mouth: this test may not differentiate between stomach ulcer and bad breath. The reported study used detection of specific DNA, an approach not likely to be available to the general public.