Hi, Dr. Grundy. My name is Raseli Solis. I’m from Guadalajara, Mexico, and your word helped me to understand inflammatory in a completely different way. Through your program, I’ve been improve my health, reduce inflammation, and gain confident to travel international while I’m taking care of my body. Thank you for your work that you are doing, and please keep going because we need you.

Five tips to get rid of bad breath. If you’re dealing with bad breath that won’t quit, or you know someone who is, that’s actually a sign that something else is going on. But what can you actually do about it? Stay tuned. The Dr. Gundry Podcast is brought to you by Thrive Market, the easy way to make healthier swaps without the overwhelm. Go to thrivemarket.com/gundrypodcast for 30% off your first order, plus a free $60 gift. Here’s my first tip. So tip number one, oil pull before you brush. So you can use coconut oil, you can use sesame oil, or olive oil. And what you do is you put it in your mouth and pull it through your teeth, anywhere from three to 10 minutes. So what does this actually do? It actually loosens the biofilms bacteria hide behind so that brushing can actually clear them out.

(01:46)
Now, it’s an ancient Ayurvedic practice, but it’s not a new biohack. It’s been done for thousands of years. But we now know that bad bacteria can exist in the mouth, just like bad bacteria can exist in the gut. But these bad bacteria protect themselves with biofilms, and these are nearly impenetrable fortresses that these guys can live behind. And oil pulling really, really helps it. In fact, we had Guru Nada on episode 221 talking about how oil pulling dramatically saved him from having a root canal, and he’s got perfect teeth now for a very long time. And again, that’s episode 221, so check it out. All right, here’s tip number two. Also from him, scrape your tongue. Another old Ayurvedic trick. So many of the odor-causing bacteria live in your, on your tongue, not just on the teeth. Now, what that does, it’s basically like raking your tongue.

(03:08)
And there are numerous devices for tongue scraping, but the idea is just to aerate all of those taste buds. And your taste buds can also get coated with these biofilms. So getting those biofilms loosened up is a great way of fighting bad breath. Now, as you probably know, using a toothbrush isn’t interested in scraping your tongue. And a toothbrush basically skips this entirely. So you don’t have to do it very often, but get yourself a tongue scraper and add that to your regimen. Now, these two tips alone will help. But if your bad breath keeps coming back no matter what, it’s worth understanding why. And it starts with something most people never think about. Your mouth and your gut aren’t separate systems. Believe it or not, a healthy gut usually correlates with a healthy mouth and vice versa. They’re actually intrinsically linked. First of all, remember, digestion doesn’t start in your stomach.

(04:16)
It starts the second you start salivating. And your mouth is actually the second largest microbiome in your body. There’s up to 700 species live there. I see a lot of patients who believe they have SIBO, and they’re told that bad bacteria from their lower intestines has grown up into their small bowel where they shouldn’t be. The interesting thing is, when you actually look at people who actually have SIBO, two-thirds of people have oral microbiome living in their small bowel where they’re not supposed to be. And only a third have lower colon gut bacteria in their small bowel. Now, why does that happen? Well, first of all, we have a real barrier against oral bacteria getting into our lower gut, and that’s stomach acid. These bacteria usually cannot survive stomach acid. Now, sadly, many people have very low stomach acid. Why? Because so many people are on PPIs or antacids or just think that taking Tums or Rolaids or Pepto-Bismol is a normal part of eating because they get such heartburn without realizing that they changed the barrier against this oral microbiome.

(05:51)
The second part that we’ve learned is that normally the acid in the stomach produces what’s called the acid gradient. Colon bacteria hate acid. If you don’t have acid in your stomach, then the lack of acid in your small intestine allows colon bacteria to grow up into your small bowel. And that often is where that bad breath comes from. It’s the oral bacteria or colon bacteria that are thriving.

(06:29)
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(07:34)
Now, another thing that you’ve gotta look for, do you have bleeding or receding gums? Believe it or not, that’s basically leaky gum. The same broken barrier mechanism as leaky gut. Now, again, this is all part of what I call the whole lowbiome. The gut, the mouth, the skin microbiomes, all one interconnected system. So if the mouth is out of balance, it’s not just a breath problem. It’s a whole system problem. And here’s where bad breath actually comes from at the bacterial level. So again, bacteria don’t just float around. They build biofilms, protective huts. In fact, believe it or not, bacteria can see who’s around them, and they can actually count how many of their favorite species are around them. And it’s called quorum sensing. Bacteria wait until they get the right amount, and then they actually start multiplying and taking over. Now, the good news is that there are only about 2% of oral bacteria that are actually bad.

(08:52)
The rest of them keep them in check. So here’s the part that most people get backwards. Number one, you would think that alcohol-based mouthwash, or additives like Tricosyn, literally carpet bomb everything, good bacteria included. So the problem is, like we’ve learned in the gut, you kill off the good guys, but the bad guys rebound even stronger. And the good guys aren’t there to fight them off. And so some chronic bad breath is being caused by the exact products people think they’re using to fight it. And sometimes it’s not a hygiene issue at all. A dead root canal or a cavitation, a jawbone inflammation can actually sit there silently with no pain because the nerve is dead. So stick around, because the last three tips cover what to swap out and what to do even if it’s still not going away. So if bad breath is chronic, despite brushing, flossing, waterpick, a proper mouthwash, what should someone actually check out?

(10:11)
So if you’ve done all of that, there’s two things you really wanna check. First of all, you wanna check some markers of inflammation that are readily obtainable by your healthcare provider. A simple one is HSCRP, C-reactive protein. Number two, you can get a fibrinogen level. Number three, you can get myeloperoxidase. Number four, you can get other inflammatory markers like TNF-alpha, IL-16, but most of your providers are not gonna order that for you. Many times, if these markers are elevated, there is something more serious going on. One could be leaky gut. One could be that you’ve got the wrong bacteria in parts of your gut, like I talked about before. But one thing that’s frequently amiss by regular dentists is that many times a regular dental x-ray can actually miss a hidden infection. Can miss a cavitation or an abscess at the bottom of a root canal or at the bottom of your roots.

(11:28)
Well, why don’t you feel that? Why doesn’t it hurt? Well, unfortunately, if the infection damages the nerve, you will not feel it. And that’s something that happens surprisingly more than you might think. So ask your dentist to get a full mouth CAT scan. These are now available in many dental offices. Many times you have to go to a endodontist office, but they’re easy. You sit in a chair, it goes past your mouth, and you get a full CT scan of your mouth. And you’ll be amazed by what can sometimes be there that you didn’t know about. All right. Tip three to get rid of bad breath. First of all, ditch the alcohol-bathed mouthwash. It dries out your mouth, and dry mouth is worse for breath. Many of my patients have an autoimmune disease called Sjogren’s syndrome, which is dry eye and dry mouth. And many of my patients are using a transplant drug in their eyes to get rid of their dry eye, but don’t realize that the same thing is happening in their mouth and that their bad breath is coming from the fact that they don’t have enough saliva production.

(12:55)
Also, watch out for Tricosin, SLS, and artificial sweeteners in toothpaste. So what do you do? Well, you look for a hydroxyappetite-based or probiotic toothpaste instead. Don’t look for a fluoride-based toothpaste. Fluoride kills bacteria. The goal isn’t to sterilize your mouth. It’s to rebalance, just like we talk about with the gut.

(13:30)
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(14:19)
All right, tip four. Floss daily, not just before a dental visit. Now, a number of years ago, I published a study looking at people who were asked to floss every other day for six months. And believe it or not, they normalize their HSCRP and inflammation marker. Now, why did I choose every other day? I really don’t like flossing, but I could do it every other day. My wife is a nut. She flosses twice a day. She’s really smart. And what was really interesting about this study is that daily or twice daily flossers drop their CRP even further. Or if you find that’s difficult, just use those little picks if flossing is difficult. In fact, there are some interesting studies that toothpicks, the old-fashioned, actually works better than flossing. Or add a daily water pick routine. I know it’s a bit of a pain, but you don’t want pain coming out of your mouth.

(15:27)
Also, the reason you do this is because trapped food between the teeth is a classic hidden odor source that brushing alone won’t fix. Many times I’ll ask my patients who do floss. Next time you floss, particularly your back teeth, pull the floss out and smell it. And I’ll bet you, it really smells nasty. That’s those bacteria fermenting what you left behind and your toothbrush didn’t get. So just because you’re brushing twice a day, you’re not getting to the real issue. Now remember, this isn’t just a mouth issue. Whatever’s happening in there is actually showing up in your bloodstream and your gut too, and I can measure it. Would you believe it that people with receding gums, with periodontal disease have bacteria in the plaque in their coronary arteries? Sadly, it’s true. All right. Tip five. How about if you have persistent bad breath despite a clean diet and a good routine?

(16:41)
There could be a hidden infection. If you’ve had a root canal and a crown, that’s a dead tooth. There’s no blood supply, there’s no immune system, and there’s no nerves to alert you. Now that infection can sit there silently for years. Cavitations, that’s jawbone inflammation, often found at old wisdom tooth extraction sites. It’s the same deal. Now, neither of these usually show up on a standard x-ray. So you need to get a cone beam CT scan to see it in 3D. I like to tell a story of two of my patients, both dental hygienists. They had elevated CRP with no explainable cause. We looked everywhere. Chronic urinary tract infections, leaky gut, couldn’t find a reason. I asked them to get a CT scan of their mouth. They looking for this problem. And they both laughed at me. They said, “Don’t you think, as a dental hygienist, I know what’s going on in my mouth?” I said, “Hey, let’s find out.” Turned out both of them had abscesses under old root canal crowns.

(17:59)
And both the dentists were shocked when they pulled off the crowns and pus came running out of their teeth. The good news is once that was fixed, both of them, their C-reactive protein normalized. So when should someone actually ask their dentist for a cone beam scan? If we’ve done everything that we’ve just talked about, and you’re still having problems with bad breath, it’s time to look deeper. Now, is this something a regular dentist can catch? Well, a lot of dentists now have CT scans in their office. But many times you’re going to have to go to someone who’s a endodontist to find that office, but they’re actually very reasonable. Do you need to see a biologicalistic dentist specifically? Well, not necessarily. Although my experience is that most dentists are still not really interested in cavitations and old wisdom teeth sites, which won’t really show up on a regular x-ray.

(19:11)
So think about going one level deeper. Now, here’s one final bonus tip. Consider taking a probiotic specifically designed for improving the oral microbiome. And there are actually several out there. And these are usually in tablet form that you chew. And there are also several prebiotic, probiotic toothpaste that you should consider brushing with. And as always, everything often comes down to your diet. So make sure to follow my yes and no food list in all my books. And the list is absolutely available for free on Gundry MD and drgundry.com. So you got no excuse for your bad breath.

(20:04)
Now it’s time for the question of the week from @BroderRoadhi8233 over on YouTube. On my episode about 11 things I do every day. They ask, “Can I have a cup of black tea with my shot of extra virgin olive oil because water and oil don’t mix well. Thank you for all you do.” Well, yeah, you can actually have extra virgin olive oil in your black tea as well as coffee. Uh, however you wanna get it in and make it taste good is great with me. And thanks for your support. Now it’s time for the review of the week from @yumamahmoodM4Q over on YouTube on my episode about hydrogen supplement. They said your videos have motivated and inspired me to be stronger and prioritize healthy lifestyle above all. You are a blessing to us all. Well, thank you very much, Yuma. I wanna let you know what I’ve learned, what works for me, what works for my patients, the thousands of them who put up with what I asked them to do.

(21:10)
And thank you very much.

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That’s a wrap on today’s episode. And before you go, I wanna leave you with one task. If anything you heard today made you think, made you wanna dig deeper, or gave you something you’re going to pass along to someone you care about, please take 15 seconds and leave a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I know that sounds small, but those reviews are how Apple and Spotify decide which shows to surface to new listeners. And this show only grows when people who’ve never heard of it suddenly find it. That person finding this podcast today could hear something that genuinely improves their life or the life of someone they love, maybe even saves one. Everything I share here comes from my research when writing my next book and my clinics where I’ve been seeing patients six days a week for over 25 years, working with nutrition and supplements as the primary treatment.

(22:53)
This is real world medicine. Help me get it to more people. And thank you. Truly thank you. I’m Dr. G, and I’m always looking out for you.