1. < Digestive Health

Intermittent fecal/sulfur breath odor

Posted by pbleonar @pbleonar, Jun 8, 2017

After scouring the web, I'm certain I'm not the only person with this problem, and not the only person who's been told they were imagining it. Anyway, the issue is I have intermittent odors when I talk (yes, I've been to the dentist 10+ times-- all say my oral hygiene is on point and xrays and inspections showed nothing). The only time it's practically non-existent is when I eat an unhealthily low-carb diet. Like others online, I've had CT scans, Barium swallows, endosocopy/colonoscopy, screening for parasites (getting one more from an IDS before crossing that off my list). All showed up negative. I tested positive for SIBO, but after researching that for the past 3 years, I'm certain SIBO is more of a symptom than a primary causal problem. Furthermore, even when I treated SIBO with heavy antibiotics, it did absolutely nothing for my breath-- and yes I was cleared of SIBO after a couple rounds of work. yet, the moment I eat carbs, I still get a "did someone just s*it themselves?" comment.

I guess what I'm getting at is I'm tired of doctors just saying it's IBS and SIBO and then proceeding to do zero investigating afterwards. I want to get down to the root cause of this, but most doctors are either too apathetic or too incompetent to do anything. Are there any researchers who specialize in studying and diagnosing hard to find problems in the GI tract? Between the 3 GI docs, 2 ENTs, 2 NDs and 1 IDS, I just can't take normal doctors anymore. I want my life back and I want a specific root cause so I can work on progressing from there.

Further notes: Diarrhea actually cleared up when I ate junk food and I had zero bloating, albeit the odor remained.

Xifaxan and neomycin did nothing for the odor, nor did the elemental diet. I actually think the elemental diet made the smell as bad or
worse than before.

*******Nitazoxanide********** worked wonders for the month I was on it. Solid stools even with foods that normally cause my ibs to flare up.
It's exactly the reason I felt there was more going on to everything than just SIBO and IBS.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Digestive Health Support Group.

lon | @lon | Apr 27, 2022
In reply to @yayofbaby "I have same issue been dealing with it for 18 years now. I went to over..." + (show)
@yayofbaby

I have same issue been dealing with it for 18 years now. I went to over 10 doctors and dentist. But unlike some ppl hear. mines smell all the time but if I eat certain foods like McDonald’s or candy or alcohol, the smell can fill up a room. My family won’t even drive in the same car as me. I’ve done all the antibiotics nothing works. I do have post nasal drip sometimes and I recently coughed up a tonsil stone but I never seen one before and I don’t see anymore but the bad breath remains. I just went to a doctor who said if the smell persists after 2 months of antibiotic treatment that I should get my tonsil removed

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I had tonsil stones also. Do you eat dry cereal? If so stop. Just my opinion, dry cereal causes tonsil stones. Do not swallow any kind of dry food as it will clog holes in your tonsils and sour causing bad breath.

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Diddy890 | @yayofbaby | Apr 28, 2022
In reply to @texasmimi "For several years I had a severe undiagnosed hiatal hernia. There was a large "pocket" above..." + (show)
@texasmimi

For several years I had a severe undiagnosed hiatal hernia. There was a large "pocket" above my diaphragm in which food collected and basically rotted causing a very putrid smell of rotting food that nothing could cure until my condition was diagnosed at Mayo, Rochester and surgically corrected with a nissen fundoplication. After the surgery I never had this rotting food smell that others noticed nor did I experience any of the prior GI issues caused by this condition. I am 6 years post surgery and have no GERD nor GI issues. Good luck with determining the causes of your issues

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How did you go about making an appointment with Mayo Clinic and do you love near Rochester. And how did they diagnose the hiatal hernia ?

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1 reply
texasmimi | @texasmimi | Apr 28, 2022
In reply to @yayofbaby "How did you go about making an appointment with Mayo Clinic and do you love near..." + (show)
@yayofbaby

How did you go about making an appointment with Mayo Clinic and do you love near Rochester. And how did they diagnose the hiatal hernia ?

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Have all your medical records and scans. Call the main number for the Mayo location. Describe your issues/symptoms/past treatment. They will give you a preliminary patient number. Place that number on your records and scans and mail to the address Mayo will give you the department and the address to mail this to.

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irr4et | @irr4et | Apr 29, 2022

My father had this problem and his GI Dr advised him to take a soil based probiotic at bedtime for 6 wks the switch to a full spectrum probiotics for two mos, and every 6 mos switch to a different brand. This eliminated the offending breath. I wish it was ok for me to mention brand names here but it isn’t. I would go to a good supplement shop and get them there.

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1 reply
Diddy890 | @yayofbaby | Apr 30, 2022

So did nitazoxinide cure your symptoms?

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Diddy890 | @yayofbaby | Apr 30, 2022
In reply to @glamma55 "Thank you for advice… like I mentioned before, I tried everything, I don’t use alcohol mouthwash..." + (show)
@glamma55

Thank you for advice… like I mentioned before, I tried everything, I don’t use alcohol mouthwash at all…been to every dentist they even written letters for me to give to my general practitioner. I been to gastros, ents, had tonsils removed, sinuses removed.

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You got tonsils removed ? And sinus and that didn’t help?

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Diddy890 | @yayofbaby | Apr 30, 2022
In reply to @mikepr101 "I will absolutely update on my condition. So I have had 3 endoscopy done, seen 3..." + (show)
@mikepr101

I will absolutely update on my condition. So I have had 3 endoscopy done, seen 3 different GI doctors, had esophageal Manometry test and they all checked out to be good. My dentist says my mouth is in good condition and does not see why I should have bad breath. The last visit to my GI doctor it seems they believe my condition to be mental, for some reason the fowl odor does not appear when I am at the doctors office, why I don’t know.. my ENT had stated that for some reason I have gastric acids in my esophagus which was the reason for me having esophageal manometry test performed.
I do get acid reflux so I currently take prescription for Pepcid once a day and this helps with the acid not the fowl smell. I am trying now over the counter remedies for cleansing see if I have any different reactions. I would like to consult with a bacteriologist at Mayo Clinic in Florida but that’s out of network for me and in my brief conversation I believe Mayo Clinic requires several thousand dollars to be seen.

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You should eat bread or take a shot of liquor before seeing your doctor so they can smell it.

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1 reply
jojododo | @jojododo | May 1, 2022
In reply to @yayofbaby "I have the same problem do you think it could be from a hidden tonsil stone..." + (show)
@yayofbaby

I have the same problem do you think it could be from a hidden tonsil stone ?

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I don't know but I don't have much experience with tonsil stones. Ents have checked and they never saw any stones. Though one of them said I have very deep tonsil crypts.

I just think if I had stones I would have fairly persistent bad breath. But mine is more like farts of death. Literally, just super foul farts from my mouth. And it happens randomly throughout the day. Just like if you had a gassy fart problem.

I know some will think well at least you don't have bad breath all the time. But honestly with low level bad breath you can function as long as people aren't in your face. But with my fart bombs, it can clear out a room. Even in the outdoors, people have reacted or made comments along the lines of smelling gas or someone pooping.

It's destroyed my social life and stunted my career. I remember one time it happened once when I was talking to my ceo. She just smiled nervously and quickly ended the conversation. I never talked to her again on a one on one basis. I remember having dinner with her when I first started working at the company and my manager told me after the dinner that the ceo really liked me. Three years later, I left and that initial first good impression went nowhere. And it was because I was so self conscious about the fart breath that I just held back. I just hid.

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1 reply
Diddy890 | @yayofbaby | May 1, 2022
In reply to @johnboade "my particular issue with some of the same effects comes from eating too much sulfur rich..." + (show)
@johnboade

my particular issue with some of the same effects comes from eating too much sulfur rich foods (important to have) cabbage, eggs, dark leafy greens, etc and sulfites in wine, processed foods etc (sulfites preservatives -- lots of different types), beer with sulfite preservatives, apple cider etc etc.my system does not process properly and the sulfur in my blood builds up and is expelled out my breath (I believe). Could be a genetic matter like SelenBP1 possibly resolved with future gene editing when perfected. Meanwhile I limit my intake of the above -- need medical advice here because the sulfur rich foods are important -- and that helps greatly

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Have you ever donated blood?

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Diddy890 | @yayofbaby | May 1, 2022

I want ask has anybody tried to start working out vigorously in hopes that that might help the GI problems?

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