Nearly everyone during their life experiences “the” kiss of death! Yes, that kiss! It might be your first kiss or one from a relative, but there is no-doubt it will always be remembered as the kiss of death.
BAD BREATH! (Halitosis)
Ever asked yourself how on earth did someone’s breath become so strong or repulsive? Worse still, how did your own breath become so potent? Actually the answer’s quite simple!
Bad breath is a result of bad digestion, an excess of strongly aromatic foods, alcohol, stress or dampness that’s giving off heat and making the breath smell nasty – to the recipient – you or another. Often we can’t smell our own breath, which can lead us blindly into a never ending cycle of unknowing or acceptance.
There are many stories of embarrassing instances where people have actually stopped talking, meeting and greeting other or becoming reclusive due to experiencing or being informed that they have bad breath.
For some it is often a lot easier to stay ‘a breath’ away than to have someone suggest "man go brush your teeth”! Unfortunately unless you know the other person well, often nothing is said at all, they just seem to ignore you or turn their heads in another direction as you speak to them.
If you are lucky, someone may comment “What have you been eating? My dog has nicer breath than you!" Sound cruel; well they may inadvertently be doing you a favour.
Bad breath may not have to be the way.
When food accumulates in the stomach, not breaking down in the time required, it ferments creating heat or heat that rises and representing an example of bad breath.
Another example is when someone has experienced a stressful situation causing their liver to over heat aggravating the stomach, which causes the stomach energy to rise instead of descend, leading to bad breath. Another common consideration will be internal dampness. Just as a house becomes damp our body will also become damp, leading to the familiar smell of mould – not nice to experience.
Dampness will accumulate in the body and in time this Yin energy will become what is considered damp heat or too much yin (negative energy).
The smell of damp heat can be likened to wet carpet ‘slowly’ drying or worse still wet nappies that have not enjoyed the refreshing sun and natures curing winds. Gross, you bet, true? You bet.
Dampness can be explained as a sticky sludge in the body, difficult to circulate as it slowly moves from one part of the body to another. Dampness therefore represents a digestive problem.
So what to do?
The stomach, spleen and intestines make up the digestive system. The intestines are not usually the cause of the problem unless you’ve experienced digestive difficulties for some time. Problems usually involve the stomach, spleen and liver. The stomach doesn’t like heat; the spleen on the other hand enjoys warmth.
The stomach feel comforted by a little moisture; however the spleen will be aggravated by excessive moisture, so a medium in the relationship between the two is required, needles to say the liver has its own favourite climate.
If you personally experience bad breath, start by reducing all heating foods from your diet. This might include chillies, curries, deep fried or oven baked and junk foods. You can assist this process by adding more green ingredients, foods high in water content like cucumber, lettuce and green leafy vegies – or supplementing your diet with a green wheatgrass ‘alkaline food’ ingredient to balance the Ph within the body.
This suggestion will address stomach heat; however let’s not overlook the spleen weakness or possible dampness issues. Consider cooking all green vegies with a slice of ginger – as ginger is a natural source of heat. You can do this by placing a little ginger with vegies whilst steaming or stir frying.
If you prefer stir-frying be sure to do so on a low heat, remembering not for to long or it could lead to over heating the ingredients.
Stress heats up the liver and this inturn affects the stomach. You can counteract this process by calming the body with cooling or calming teas and going for GENTLE walks, (in non-stressful environments like a park). Follow this process with a high vegetable diet and you’ll find the liver and anxiety levels will soon calm down.
Stress causes heat in the body, leading ultimately cause a viscous cycle of anxiety, sleepless nights, irregular bowel movement and unstable female period cycles. Over time any concentrated heat will start to make its way up to the throat – and this can eventuate in bad breath or offering some poor person, the kiss of death.
In order to maintain a fresh breath, keep the body calm, stay away from heating or damp foods, drinking ample water throughout the day to flush the body of toxin build-up. Don’t rely on chewing gum; this only goes to aggravate the stomachs digestive system, fooling it into the misconception that food is arriving. Not good.
Bad breath has nothing to do with teeth and gums, unless you have a rotting teeth and gums or chose not to undertake regular oral hygiene, Instead it has everything to do with rotting stagnant foods that continue fermenting in your stomach.
If you find yourself unsure as to the cause, step back and carefully consider your life, (work and family pressures) but more critically your diet.
If you feel stressed all the time it’s likely that the liver is under attack. If you experience clammy hands/feet and have a thick coating on your tongue, then it’s probably the spleen. Should you suffer from mouth ulcers, experience sensitive teeth and a dry mouth then it’s probably stomach heat.
Should you relate to any of the above symptoms, then come and have a consultation, before that person of your dreams suggests they’d rather kiss a stranger or worse still their dogJ
Until next time,
Breathe fresh on others, be cool, take care of your diet and be happy!
Kind regards,
Scott Cansdell
http://www.backonyourfeet.com.au
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