What is Halitosis?
Bad breath or halitosis can cause personal distress, difficulties in relationships and social problems, making it a very awkward and troublesome condition. And yet, up to 25% of people suffer from halitosis at some point in their lives.
Most people experience transient bad breath, often after waking or after eating certain foods such as garlic or onions, but when bad breath reaches the point where people step back when you are talking; it becomes a problem well worth addressing.
What Causes Halitosis?
While halitosis is sometimes caused by poor oral hygiene, there are a number of other underlying conditions that may trigger bad breath - in fact many people find that despite great efforts in oral care, they still suffer from the condition. Some common causes of halitosis include:
- Poor oral hygiene
- Tooth decay and/or gum disease
- Having a dry mouth (often caused by stress, fasting, smoking, and alcohol consumption.)
- An over growth of certain bacteria in the mouth and digestive system
- Candidiasis
- Sinus infections
- Side effect of certain medications (especially those that cause dry mouth as a side effect)
- Smoking
- Certain foods can cause bad breath such as garlic, onions, anchovies, and high protein diets
- Poor digestion
- Constipation
- Poor liver health
Help for Halitosis
While there are plenty of short-term products such as gums and fresheners on the market, most do not last more than a couple of hours and tend to only mask the bad breath rather than address underlying causes.
For this reason, many people are now turning to natural herbal and homeopathic ingredients such as Kali. Phos, Silica and Sweet Fennel to successfully help them with halitosis. Kali. Phos is well known for its antiseptic and cleansing properties and is effective at addressing putrefactive conditions such as halitosis, foul smelling flatulence and stools.
Silica works by cleansing the cells of toxins and ridding the body of bad odors, while addressing some of the underlying causes of bad breath such as gum disease, sinus infections and mouth abscess. Lastly, sweet fennel has a long history of use for treating digestion problems and is a popular aid to sweeten the breath.
