Speaker 1: Good morning everyone. I hope you've brushed your teeth, because
Speaker 1: if not, you may have stinky breath. And this is
Speaker 1: not about stinky breath from not brushing your teeth. This
Speaker 1: is about halitosis, which is a real thing and people
Speaker 1: that are afflicted with it. I can't help it. It's
Speaker 1: really kind of sad. So from a please listen to
Speaker 1: halitosis colon Worst Smell Ever. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey,
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W.
Speaker 1: Chuck Bry. Do you realize that some people might this
Speaker 1: might be the first episode they listened to and they've
Speaker 1: already turned it off and they're writing an iTunes review?
Speaker 1: Something's wrong with that? Guy? Yeah, let's hope with the manga,
Speaker 1: I can't believe there is so popular? How does anyone
Speaker 1: listen to him? Yeah? What's up with the Yeah? And
Speaker 1: how are they in the top ten? And I guy,
Speaker 1: it must be like the a MSR thing. What is that?
Speaker 1: You know where that people make videos where they're like
Speaker 1: stroking your hair, but it's really they're just moving their
Speaker 1: hand by the camera. They're talking like this and what
Speaker 1: really wet and calming. But there's a subset of humans
Speaker 1: who have a central nervous reaction. I just had one,
Speaker 1: but it's pleasurable. They call him like a brain orgasm,
Speaker 1: a a M s R. I think is R a
Speaker 1: s R. I think it's a M s R. I
Speaker 1: don't remember what it stands for. But it's like a
Speaker 1: meditative video type of thing. I guess to some people.
Speaker 1: Apparently you have like a reaction to it, and it's
Speaker 1: very pleasurable, but it's non sexual. It's it's well when
Speaker 1: you just whisper neurological. To me, I had a bad right,
Speaker 1: I can imagine, so I I don't claim to be
Speaker 1: one of those people. Man, oh man, this is getting
Speaker 1: off to a good start. But we should do an
Speaker 1: episode on that sometime. We people have requested it a
Speaker 1: few times. Yeah, I want to. I'm gonna go find
Speaker 1: out what it is we have to go to the
Speaker 1: trouble of writing an article for because there's not one
Speaker 1: that's okay. I got a feel of those in the
Speaker 1: hopper that I'd like to do. I do too, I
Speaker 1: just haven't been able to get around to him. You've
Speaker 1: been lazy, No, I've been busy, I said, we are
Speaker 1: you ready? Are you familiar with halitosis? With with hold,
Speaker 1: I've got a little intro for this. You've heard the
Speaker 1: word halitosi is obviously yes, We're about to do an
Speaker 1: episode on halitosis, so I hope. So, but even before this,
Speaker 1: you've heard the word halitosis bad breath. It's like a
Speaker 1: clinical term for bad breath. And that is true, and
Speaker 1: it always was a clinical term for bad breath. But
Speaker 1: the reason, Chuck, that you and I know that the
Speaker 1: word halitosis means bad breath is thanks to a nice
Speaker 1: little marketing scheme by the three guys who ran the
Speaker 1: company that made listerine back in the nineteen twenties. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We we've talked about Dr Jodgeph lister before and that
Speaker 1: listerine was an antiseptic, surgical antiseptic, yes, and that's and
Speaker 1: it was marketed as a surgical antiseptic and then a
Speaker 1: household antiseptic. And then they said, you know what we're
Speaker 1: we need to expand our market share, so let's get
Speaker 1: into other markets. And so they said mouthwash. We'll start
Speaker 1: telling people use it as mouthwash. And they made like
Speaker 1: their office in turn put some in his mouth, swish
Speaker 1: it around. He died. So they went and reformulated it
Speaker 1: a little bit at a little water, right uh, and
Speaker 1: then bang boom, they had listering the mouthwash. The problem was,
Speaker 1: as they said, well, nobody's going to just start using
Speaker 1: a mouthwash for no good reason. We have to appeal
Speaker 1: to their low self esteem. And that's what they did
Speaker 1: by looking through a medical dictionary, finding the word halitosies
Speaker 1: and saying that's it. Yeah, it's an age old trick
Speaker 1: and ads is to prey upon your how bad you
Speaker 1: feel about yourself on a daily basis, and especially using
Speaker 1: a medical jargon. Michief who called called it the medical gaze,
Speaker 1: where it was basically like, if you add something that
Speaker 1: sounds medically to a problem that your product can can
Speaker 1: take care of you, you've got gangbusters right there. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it was an archaic term, Latin term that had
Speaker 1: gone away completely. Yeah. It comes from the Latin halitus
Speaker 1: for breath and the Greek suffix osis, which is used
Speaker 1: to indicate abnormality or a disease state. Yea, but prelistering
Speaker 1: and people weren't walking around saying the word halitosis. It
Speaker 1: had gone the way of the dodo as a word. No,
Speaker 1: And even still it was kind of like people weren't
Speaker 1: really doing a lot to take care of their breath anyway.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a thing until this group from the Listering
Speaker 1: Company said we're gonna make it a thing, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna make using mouthwash to combat this thing a thing,
Speaker 1: and they did within a decade. It was just basically like,
Speaker 1: that's what you did, you mouthwash every morning? Yeah, and
Speaker 1: they I thought it was pretty funny. And where'd you
Speaker 1: get that? Cracked? Yeah? Cracked? Yeah, it was a great
Speaker 1: article and they said They went on to use other
Speaker 1: words in advertising later on, like homatosis, which is if
Speaker 1: you didn't have a tract of furniture, and uh, bromodosis
Speaker 1: if you had smelly feet. Yeah, And I don't think
Speaker 1: those they didn't catch on as well, not like halitosis.
Speaker 1: For some reason, halitosis did catch on, and as a result,
Speaker 1: there are people out there who have haldophobia. I'm one
Speaker 1: of them. Oh yeah, not like I don't need to
Speaker 1: see a shrink, but um, my first girlfriend had halitosis. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think I can say that because I don't
Speaker 1: think she listens and I don't think she knows she
Speaker 1: was my first girlfriend. Like I never said you're my
Speaker 1: first girlfriend, right, But yeah, she had bad and I
Speaker 1: say halitosis to me, there's a difference between everyone gets
Speaker 1: bad breath occasionally, but there's a certain tang that's very
Speaker 1: identifiable that I call halitosis. And she had it, and I,
Speaker 1: you know, I felt like I had to kiss her
Speaker 1: and stuff. This is my first girlfriend. I had to
Speaker 1: learn how to do that junk. Yeah, man, And it
Speaker 1: was I have dreams to this day halitosis kissing dreams.
Speaker 1: Do you really that? I like, we'll see something like
Speaker 1: gorgeous girl in my dream and I go to kiss
Speaker 1: her and she has like this awful rotten breath. Like
Speaker 1: it's a recurring dream. So I guess I have heldophobia.
Speaker 1: I'm very aware of it and it that's why I
Speaker 1: have a tongue scraper and all that junk. Well, apparently
Speaker 1: that's one way to treat it. Yeah, we're getting ahead
Speaker 1: of ourselves, soap boiler, and I should say I have
Speaker 1: had a mild case of heltophobia. It may or may
Speaker 1: not have been warranted. I don't know. I have my
Speaker 1: own microphone cover for that reason, I know, but it's
Speaker 1: not because you're protecting other people from your halitosis. Right,
Speaker 1: you don't want your nose and other people's stuff, right, yes, Okay,
Speaker 1: because the microphone cover at one point smelled really bad
Speaker 1: and I got revolted and I ordered one the next day. Right.
Speaker 1: So how how odo phobia refers to your fear of
Speaker 1: your bad breath? You fearing other people breath? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a different thing then. Okay, Yeah, no, I was
Speaker 1: worried I had bad breath. I guess part of me,
Speaker 1: like I have that concern because of other people's bad
Speaker 1: breath about myself too, though. I think that's why I'm
Speaker 1: like manic about brushing my tongue. Oh yeah, that's where
Speaker 1: I really got it. I sat next to a movie
Speaker 1: I sat next to some dude in a movie theater once,
Speaker 1: and like he was facing forward. I always facing forward,
Speaker 1: and I almost couldn't sit next to him the whole
Speaker 1: time because it was that bad. You should have moved,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I didn't. Yeah, let's become my
Speaker 1: self punishing, I guess. No. I used to do that,
Speaker 1: Like at concerts. I always said that I would just
Speaker 1: always the time be next to the most obnoxious drunk place,
Speaker 1: and it used to just bother me and get under
Speaker 1: my skin. But then I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna start moving. Yeah, this didn't make me
Speaker 1: like I wasn't mad at the guy. Felt horrible for him,
Speaker 1: almost to the point where like I I was gonna
Speaker 1: in my car and follow him home, and then like
Speaker 1: after he got into his house, I was going to
Speaker 1: come in after him and then sit him down and
Speaker 1: then maybe we'd have like, um, some milk or something,
Speaker 1: get him all calmed down, let him sleep, and then
Speaker 1: when he woke up the next morning, I'd still be
Speaker 1: sitting in his kitchen table. And then I would say
Speaker 1: to him, I have something to tell you, And then
Speaker 1: I would say, you have really bad breath, man, and
Speaker 1: he'd say, no, crap, dude, I have a condition. Well
Speaker 1: that's why you don't necessarily want to say anything to anybody,
Speaker 1: because they may Yeah, so let's get down to this.
Speaker 1: Garlic onions. These are the things that people frequently associate
Speaker 1: how It's hostes with, yeah, which is a bunch of bs.
Speaker 1: Well no, I mean like it can give you bad breath, yeah,
Speaker 1: But that to me, that's the temporary bad breath that
Speaker 1: one gets just from food. Yeah. And the reason why
Speaker 1: you do get bad breath from, say, like onions in
Speaker 1: particulars because garlic, I'm sorry, garlic, it contains something called allison,
Speaker 1: which in the stomach is converted to all methyl sulfide,
Speaker 1: which is not metabolized and which comes back up as
Speaker 1: gas from your gut. So when you have bad breath
Speaker 1: from onions, it's not onion particles in your mouth still,
Speaker 1: that's gas leaking out of your gut into your mouth
Speaker 1: and just kind of sticking there for a couple of hours.
Speaker 1: You ever take garlic pills, Yeah, it's there they Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'd just rather eat garlic any day of the week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I eat tons of garlic. I love it.
Speaker 1: But I have taken garlic pills in the past here
Speaker 1: and there, and I will forget that I've taken one.
Speaker 1: And then you burp up like lasagna, not for breakfast.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't taste like good garlic. It tastes softful.
Speaker 1: It's medicinal garlic. I didn't find I mean, the pill
Speaker 1: didn't taste like anything, but my burps definitely. See it
Speaker 1: was for me, I always I just thought it was different,
Speaker 1: tasted different. Yeah, I'd just rather like cut the top
Speaker 1: off of a whole bulb of garlic, put some olive
Speaker 1: oil on it, wrap it and foil, or put it
Speaker 1: in your clay garlic baker and put it in the
Speaker 1: oven for a little while and show down baby. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Just squeeze those things right into your mouth. Good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's so good for you. We're in synct today.
Speaker 1: Uh so you say you you your bed is that
Speaker 1: you don't your garlic and onions don't count to you? Hals, No,
Speaker 1: I think there are There is bad breath you can
Speaker 1: just have because maybe you forgot to brush, or obviously
Speaker 1: morning breath, which we'll get to. And then I think
Speaker 1: some people, unfortunately, are have a constant state of uh
Speaker 1: this very specific bad breath. Yeah. So I think one
Speaker 1: and four people have actual halitosis. Right, that seems a
Speaker 1: little high. But maybe people are just doing a good
Speaker 1: job of masking it. Maybe so, but some people aren't. So. Um.
Speaker 1: What it comes down to, ultimately, chuck. Halitosis is as
Speaker 1: simple as the bacteria in our mouth. Yeah, the fact
Speaker 1: that we have bacteria. It's the same thing as our armpits.
Speaker 1: Why they smell bacteria breaking down stuff from our bodies
Speaker 1: beneficially in distincty little gases. Yeah, and giving off little
Speaker 1: bacteria too. Yeah. The the the average person has eight
Speaker 1: hundred types of bacteria in the mouth, and um, they
Speaker 1: don't need like it's a good thing. They don't tell
Speaker 1: kids stuff like this growing up in school because fringe
Speaker 1: kissing probably wouldn't happen, you know, Well, well then maybe
Speaker 1: they should tell kids in school there. But it's really
Speaker 1: a kind of a disgusting thing. Like you don't see
Speaker 1: people licking armpits. Some people might. Ben Stiller, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what was that in? Was it Ben Stiller who was
Speaker 1: into it? Or was it a movie? Right? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: seen that flirting with disaster ben still, but I can't
Speaker 1: remember if it was Ben Stiller who was into it,
Speaker 1: or if it's it was Josh Brolin was into Uh,
Speaker 1: Patricia Arquette's armpits, that's right, Okay, Yeah, And Patricia Arquette
Speaker 1: was married to Ben Yeah, and she let him look
Speaker 1: her armpit in the Love that movie You Can't Catch
Speaker 1: the Wind, remember that part? Um, all right, back to
Speaker 1: the mouth and how disgusting it is. Uh, they say,
Speaker 1: if you magnified just a single cell on the surface
Speaker 1: of that tongue. You would see about a hundred types
Speaker 1: of bacteria right just on that cell. So this this bacteria.
Speaker 1: When you eat and you swallow food after masticating it,
Speaker 1: which isn't dirty, it means to uh, you leave little
Speaker 1: particles in your mouth. It gets stuck in your teeth there.
Speaker 1: Maybe if like you have beginning period donal disease, it
Speaker 1: might get stuck in your gums along your teeth a
Speaker 1: little bit. The very least, it's gonna get stuck to
Speaker 1: the back of your tongue and it just kind of
Speaker 1: sits there. And the bacteria in your mouth love this stuff.
Speaker 1: It's food to them, and they break it down into
Speaker 1: particles and particles and they're like, this is pretty good,
Speaker 1: but I can't get the energy from it fully. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna break down the amino acids even further and
Speaker 1: then bam. When I do, I'm going to basically emit
Speaker 1: sulfur sulfuric gases, and that's where bad breath comes from.
Speaker 1: There's sulfuric gases that are again a byproduct of the
Speaker 1: uh bacteria eating the food particles in your mouth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: leftover proteins, yeah, and it's um. The mouth is a
Speaker 1: you know, it's a great breeding ground for it because
Speaker 1: it's clammy and warm, and it's just got everything that
Speaker 1: the bacteria loves to produce those stinky, stinky smells. Um.
Speaker 1: But dry mouth can also cause halitosis because that's what
Speaker 1: you get overnight and why you have stinky morning breath,
Speaker 1: because your saliva production decreases when you sleep, Otherwise you
Speaker 1: just be a drooling mess. Um. I wonder why that
Speaker 1: doesn't work during naps on your school desk. I don't know,
Speaker 1: you know, I guess because you don't go to sleep
Speaker 1: enough be or if like your face is pressing against wood,
Speaker 1: it's a signal of your body to increase wake up
Speaker 1: the teacher is coming. But chronic dry mouth um is
Speaker 1: something that can affect people during the daytime as well.
Speaker 1: It's called zero stomia and um. If you have zerostomia,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a harder time fighting your bad breath
Speaker 1: because your mouth is always dry. Like the mouth, the
Speaker 1: saliva just acts as a natural mouth wash exactly. Not
Speaker 1: only renses away like food particles, it rents a way bacteria.
Speaker 1: It rents is away the dead skin cells and dead
Speaker 1: mouth cells that the bacteria also eat. Um and Yeah,
Speaker 1: the dryer it is, the less that action takes place,
Speaker 1: and you've got stinky breath. Yeah. So if you're on
Speaker 1: anahistamines or um antidepressants or pain killers, uh, dry mouth
Speaker 1: is a side effect to some of those drugs, so
Speaker 1: you might have a harder time. Uh. And if you're
Speaker 1: sick anyway, you're gonna have stinky your breath to Like
Speaker 1: if you're fighting a sinus infection. Let's say it's gross,
Speaker 1: yes breath, because that mucus trickles back from your sinuses
Speaker 1: down to your tongue and sits there, Yeah, and gets
Speaker 1: eaten up to nasty stuff. This whole thing. I'm just cringing.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have one of those dreams tonight. There's you
Speaker 1: could a sninky hell toasts breath dream. Yes, the hot
Speaker 1: girl bad breath. It's always the same. Does Emily know
Speaker 1: you're having dreams about kissing hot girls with bad breath? Yeah?
Speaker 1: She thinks it's funny. She thinks it's because of my
Speaker 1: uh repressed religious upbringing, repress sexuality. Like I won't even
Speaker 1: in my dreams allow myself to kiss the model. That's hilarious,
Speaker 1: Like she'll have I call it vomit tongue. It's so gross.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that is pretty bad. Yeah, if they're the
Speaker 1: worst dreams, I can't explain to you because they're really
Speaker 1: headed in the right direction at first, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's terrible. And when you're an old mary man, that's
Speaker 1: all you got, I got you, you know, vomit tongue. No,
Speaker 1: just you know your dreams. You can't be I know
Speaker 1: it to me. I'm just can't be assaulted for having
Speaker 1: a dream. I guess you could, but that's not a
Speaker 1: very nice wife that give me my dream time. I'm
Speaker 1: going to sleep. I'm down to sleep. Let's pull out
Speaker 1: with the keyto acidosis. Man. Okay, so chuck. When you
Speaker 1: have um, when you eat onions, when you have garlicquen
Speaker 1: of food particles, all this stuff that's normal bad breath stuff.
Speaker 1: There's also other things, metabolic things often that can give you,
Speaker 1: like a a different type of breath. It may or
Speaker 1: may not be bad. One bad one is if you
Speaker 1: have liver problems, your liver shutting down, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: what's called mousey breath. Can you imagine what mousey breath
Speaker 1: smells like like? Apparently breath smells like live writhing mice
Speaker 1: interesting mousey breath. I can't think of what else it
Speaker 1: would denote. I don't know what a mouse smells like.
Speaker 1: Uh sure, I mean, have you ever smelled like a
Speaker 1: rodent cage? Yeah? But they smell like cedar and poop?
Speaker 1: Is that what it smells like? Just what they mean
Speaker 1: a cedar? Uh? So? Is keto acidosis the the no
Speaker 1: carb effect? Yeah? Okay, Yeah, that is something that will
Speaker 1: warn you about if you are trying to attain what's
Speaker 1: known as ketosis with like an Atkins type diet um.
Speaker 1: Some people, when they are reached that blissful level of
Speaker 1: fat burning, it also takes their its toll on their
Speaker 1: their mouth and their breath. Yeah, it's like a fruity
Speaker 1: acid tony smell. Okay, that sounds better than mousey. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's better. It's gotta be better than Yeah. Yeah, when
Speaker 1: you're in ketosis, you when you deprive your body of carbohydrates,
Speaker 1: it doesn't have that energy to burn right there, so
Speaker 1: it starts turning inward and going after your fat stores.
Speaker 1: And when the body burns store fat keytones are what
Speaker 1: is released as energy. You're burned his energy and this, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the smell from burning keytones is what gives you
Speaker 1: that fruity breath. Yeah, I've seen websites, you know that
Speaker 1: they now have the articles. Of course, if you're if
Speaker 1: this is the diet you want, this is how you
Speaker 1: can help yourself. And one of the tips that's always
Speaker 1: eat bread. It's like, yeah, but that all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you're not on that diet more. Yeah, so that's
Speaker 1: no solution. Yeah, you can get knocked out of keytoast
Speaker 1: is pretty easy, I'm sure. Yeah, I think eating bread
Speaker 1: would do it. So let's say you are sadly just
Speaker 1: one of those people that just has that funky breath
Speaker 1: one in four right, Yeah, if you're among that, it
Speaker 1: does seem high. Yeah, I doesn't it. And that's like
Speaker 1: chronic calitosis right yeah, where it's not just like you know,
Speaker 1: brushing your teeth isn't gonna do the trick. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that sounds like a fact brought to us by the
Speaker 1: Listering company. It might be, but like I said, maybe
Speaker 1: um of those people are really trying their hardest so
Speaker 1: you don't notice it, gotcha. And other people are just
Speaker 1: smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee all day, which is a
Speaker 1: bad combination. Yeah, it's pretty bad combination that somehow they
Speaker 1: become greater than the sum of their part. Yeah, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: but that's uh, that's breakfast for college students, you know,
Speaker 1: coffee and cigarettes. So what do you do if you're
Speaker 1: if you're gonna battle this stuff, if it's more than
Speaker 1: just something like just a breath mat can handle what's
Speaker 1: going to happen here? Well, the breath mat just good
Speaker 1: thing to mention that that can provide a little temporary relief,
Speaker 1: but it's just masking the underneath. Right, So you're really
Speaker 1: not gonna get very far as a solution, no, because
Speaker 1: all it's doing is creating the sensation of freshness in
Speaker 1: your mouth. Yeah, because it I get I don't know
Speaker 1: what breath of mints do have frequently wondered, like what
Speaker 1: is like um um mental too? Does that open up
Speaker 1: your pores so like the air feels colder and fresher? Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like what creates that sensation? You don't know? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that sounds like it don't be dumb episode to me,
Speaker 1: but I think it might be. Um. What you want
Speaker 1: to do is get to the root of the problem,
Speaker 1: which is at bacteria and uh, like we said, food
Speaker 1: particles in your teeth. Um is a big cause. So
Speaker 1: brushing and flossing and the old tongue scraper and brushing
Speaker 1: the back of the tongue you scrape the tongue. Doesn't
Speaker 1: that make you gag? No, it doesn't bother me. I've
Speaker 1: gotten used to it. I mean, you know, occasionally if
Speaker 1: I overreach, that might be a little but I'm not
Speaker 1: like retching in the back. I remember morning. I think
Speaker 1: we should keep a webcam in your bathroom when you're
Speaker 1: getting ready, just to catch those times that you do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just make ample vine compilation be hilarious. Uh So attacking
Speaker 1: the source of the food particles. And you know, I
Speaker 1: have the fake tooth now, so I have to be
Speaker 1: extra careful to really brush along there because why I
Speaker 1: think it would be like they've made it out of
Speaker 1: some new super polymer that like reflects bacteria. Now that
Speaker 1: the tooth itself is not the source, but it's um.
Speaker 1: You know, where it meets the gum is not a
Speaker 1: natural tooth. So I just have to like really brush
Speaker 1: the crap out of that area my gum, you know,
Speaker 1: get the craft out. I don't use mouthwash that which
Speaker 1: is interesting. No, I just toothpaste. Well apparently, um, it's
Speaker 1: not necessarily and plenty of mouthwashes a suggestion for this
Speaker 1: um specifically types that contain, according to the British Medical Journal,
Speaker 1: chloro hexadrine glucinate, chlora hexadrine glucinate or what you want,
Speaker 1: because they kill bacteria. I take issue with this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: one of the main functions of mouthwash isn't to just
Speaker 1: go in and kill bacteria, although most mouthwashers do that. Um,
Speaker 1: it's the swishing action loosens food particles and gets them
Speaker 1: out from in between your teeth. What I'm saying is
Speaker 1: is you don't necessarily need to use a mouthwash that
Speaker 1: kills bacteria because you kind of want healthy bacteria. You
Speaker 1: want what's called the um uh an oral ecosystem, in
Speaker 1: your healthy oral ecosystem or ecology in your mouth uh
Speaker 1: you want Remember remember the Poop Shake episode, the poop
Speaker 1: Transplant vehical transplant episode, we ended up talking about the
Speaker 1: microbiome and how important it is to humanityature, same thing
Speaker 1: with our mouth. Yeah, you don't want to kill all
Speaker 1: that bacteria now, and there's plenty bacteria that causes problems
Speaker 1: like Streptococcus mutans. Is what gives us cavities. But there's
Speaker 1: also plenty of beneficial bacteria where you would have a
Speaker 1: mouthful of dead skin cells all over your tongue if
Speaker 1: it weren't for this helpful bacteria breaking the stuff down.
Speaker 1: It's your problem. Everybody wants to kill bacteria. That's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a good thing. As a matter of fact, I
Speaker 1: think we're learning more and more that it's not a
Speaker 1: good thing. So I say avoid the mouthwash that kills
Speaker 1: bacteria and just use some sort of mouthwash that maybe
Speaker 1: has a minty flavor, but it's just really just swishing
Speaker 1: the food particles out and getting rid of the bacteria's
Speaker 1: food that's creating their stinky sulfur ducks. Yes, exactly. Um.
Speaker 1: And because getting rid of the food is a big
Speaker 1: part of it, I would suggest brushing your teeth after
Speaker 1: lunch too, you know, like, don't make it just when
Speaker 1: you get up and before you go to bed. I say,
Speaker 1: go for three times a day. Whoa man who has
Speaker 1: time for that? Everybody? Another good trick is to drink
Speaker 1: a lot of water. Um. But you know, just keeping
Speaker 1: your mouth hydrated daily basis is gonna help you. Said
Speaker 1: that saliva is like a natural mouth wash. Water helps
Speaker 1: it's it does the same thing, loosens food particles, gets
Speaker 1: rid of dead skin cells. And the back of your
Speaker 1: tongue apparently is like ground zero for it. Like I
Speaker 1: think there's like twenty times more bacteria there than elsewhere
Speaker 1: because it's like this bumpy surface that's out of the
Speaker 1: way of all this other stuff. So things really stick
Speaker 1: and accumulate back there. So that's the that's an area
Speaker 1: you want to target, apparently with the tongue scraper. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you could just brush it as well. I do both.
Speaker 1: But if you are a grown adult and you're not
Speaker 1: either brushing your tongue or using a tongue scraper, then
Speaker 1: you're not doing it right, Is that right? Yeah, somebody
Speaker 1: needs to teach you. I give a quick part of
Speaker 1: a quick you know, brush with with my toothbrush over
Speaker 1: my tongue. But I worry about killing taste buds, like
Speaker 1: I love tasting things. You're not gonna kill any taste buds.
Speaker 1: Sure you can kill taste buds with that. Uh, well,
Speaker 1: I haven't killed any, are you sure? Think about what
Speaker 1: kind of a super taster you could be without your
Speaker 1: scrap No, I do worry about that. I'm kind of like,
Speaker 1: I'd rather have low level bad breath and be able
Speaker 1: to taste great stuff, then have no bad breath whatsoever
Speaker 1: and not be able to taste. I would rather have
Speaker 1: no bad breath and still taste everything. Well, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the holy grail. What kind of like flim flam world?
Speaker 1: Are you living in it? It's called Chuck's Life. It's nice.
Speaker 1: It is nice. If none of this stuff works for you,
Speaker 1: you may have a problem, Like you might want to
Speaker 1: go see a dentist, uh, and maybe even a doctor. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: the dentist might say, go to the doctor. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: go to the doctor, see you you have a mousey breath,
Speaker 1: which means your liver shutting down, and find a new dentist.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a smell test that they do that
Speaker 1: dennists do really Yeah, what they'll do still say, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be gross, but I want you to
Speaker 1: breathe through your mouth and I'm going to sniff close
Speaker 1: to your mouth. And then they say, okay, now I
Speaker 1: want you to breathe through your nose and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: sniff close to your nose and they can determine whether
Speaker 1: it's a nasal and like a problem in your nasal
Speaker 1: cavity that can give you bad breath. You can have
Speaker 1: stinking sinuses, so gross, or if it's in your mouth,
Speaker 1: and then they can further deduce it like yeah, if
Speaker 1: this is the dentist doing this, yeah, and if it's
Speaker 1: in your if it's coming through your nose, it suggests
Speaker 1: possibly not just your sinuses, but it could be pulmonary
Speaker 1: to like you could have some sort of lung problem
Speaker 1: that's creating gases that stink and are coming out of
Speaker 1: your nose rather than your mouth. So I guess they
Speaker 1: train you to do that indental school. Huh. I guess
Speaker 1: I could have to. That's not a very popular day,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody pair up. Oh my god, there's the
Speaker 1: one guy in the corner, like eating a sandwich. It's like,
Speaker 1: what can I give a m two more tips? Please
Speaker 1: get ten more. If you eat a crunchy breakfast like granola,
Speaker 1: cereal or something like that, Okay, it's going to clear
Speaker 1: out a lot of the gunk from the night before.
Speaker 1: You just want to make sure you get rid of
Speaker 1: all those food particles afterwards. And then if you're interested
Speaker 1: in a mouth wash that is not antibacterial, really certainly now. Yeah. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's you take a half a cup of warm water
Speaker 1: and eighth of a teaspoon of cinnamon and one teaspoon
Speaker 1: of honey, swirl all together and uh swish it around
Speaker 1: and gargle it. That's like um, like old timey mouthwash apparently. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we could probably recommend apple cider vinegar just for anything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's like the wonder uh, the wonder liquid. It seems like, dude,
Speaker 1: I was once on my way to a full blown
Speaker 1: kidney or um maybe urinary your urinary infection, some bladder infected.
Speaker 1: Something was going on and it was starting to go
Speaker 1: downhill fast and muse like drink this and drink a
Speaker 1: lot of it. And I started drinking apple cider vinegar
Speaker 1: and like raw cranberry juice, like the real cranberry juice.
Speaker 1: Um over like about an eight to twelve hour period,
Speaker 1: like really hit it and um gone, and like it
Speaker 1: was happening, like the happening was going on, and like
Speaker 1: I awoarted it. He stopped the happening. I do a
Speaker 1: shot every morning now of apple cider vinegar. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: don't get just the stuff in this store that you
Speaker 1: you should be cooking and cleaning with there's the I
Speaker 1: can't remember the brand, but there's the the super potable one,
Speaker 1: the one that you think, yeah, the one that that
Speaker 1: you'll find it a health food store. Yeah. I can't
Speaker 1: remember the name of it, but there's like one brand
Speaker 1: that everyone goes to, and it's it's tough. Man. If
Speaker 1: you ever just do a straight shot of it without
Speaker 1: deluding it, it's hardcore. Yeah. Yeah. Everything I was doing
Speaker 1: was taking maybe a shot and then deluding it in
Speaker 1: like eight ounces of water, and it's still very difficult. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You can do it, though, especially when you're fighting off
Speaker 1: some sort of infection. Yeah. And you want to brush
Speaker 1: your teeth after that, because vinegar smells gross. Just brush
Speaker 1: your teeth all the time. Uh. If you want to
Speaker 1: learn more about halitosis, I don't know what more you
Speaker 1: could possibly learn, but you can try. You can type
Speaker 1: that word into the search part how stuff works dot
Speaker 1: Com and it will bring up this article. And since
Speaker 1: I said search part's time for a listener. Man, We're
Speaker 1: gonna address our April Fools prank officially here with this one. Um.
Speaker 1: I want to say, first of all, Josh, you and Ben,
Speaker 1: I've was blown away by the performance. Thank you. You
Speaker 1: guys sold it so hard, like and we just threw
Speaker 1: it together. We were like, hey, let's just try. It
Speaker 1: wasn't some big plot. We there's no practice planned for
Speaker 1: weeks and weeks like, hey, maybe we should do an
Speaker 1: April Fool's joke this year. And I said, hey, maybe
Speaker 1: I quit the show and Ben took my place, and
Speaker 1: you guys just winged it and like nailed it. Man.
Speaker 1: I was sitting here beside you and I felt like
Speaker 1: I was watching my own funeral. Yeah. It was weird. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you kept going like cut, cut, stop, stop, and we're like, no,
Speaker 1: we have to press on. So we're not jokesters typically,
Speaker 1: but it was I think it was our only one
Speaker 1: to be released on April fools Day. Was the first
Speaker 1: time we had the opportunity to release one on April
Speaker 1: Fools and look out two years from now, because that'll
Speaker 1: be a yeah yeah. But if we do, like Josh
Speaker 1: left the show, every would be like no, no, no,
Speaker 1: or they'll be expecting that oh yeah, and we'll do
Speaker 1: it and they'll be like, well, wait a minute, they
Speaker 1: thought that. I would think that, you know, maybe we
Speaker 1: could just give you like I don't know, you could
Speaker 1: have a heart attack on the show or something. Uh
Speaker 1: but anyway, we got an out worrying of people because
Speaker 1: I was dead or missing. I know, people really really
Speaker 1: reacted to that. Like a lot of people said they
Speaker 1: didn't realize how much they needed you until when we're gone.
Speaker 1: And yeah, there were plenty of people who said, like, Josh,
Speaker 1: if it had been you, I would have felt the
Speaker 1: same way. But um well I got to play the martyr.
Speaker 1: I got the plumb roll. It was nice. It's like
Speaker 1: I got a head to do nothing and just get
Speaker 1: showered with actulation. But it was it was very neat
Speaker 1: to see, like people were like, never leave, don't ever
Speaker 1: do that again, and it was pretty cool. Actually. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And also I want to say on behalf of Ben,
Speaker 1: he asked us to to let everybody know whenever we
Speaker 1: could that he actually was purposefully sounding terrible what he
Speaker 1: was doing. He like that was play acting. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the whole point was like we wanted it to be
Speaker 1: super awkward, right, I think you guys achieved that. Okay,
Speaker 1: So so go ahead, back from the dead, Chuck. So
Speaker 1: just from Matt from Athens, Georgia. Uh go dogs, Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: my girlfriend I had been listeners For years, I didn't
Speaker 1: realize just sound important to the show was to us.
Speaker 1: So until your April fools Day show. I had listened
Speaker 1: to the episode before she did, and he didn't even
Speaker 1: tell her. That's kind of mean. And I was keen
Speaker 1: on setting her up for the gag, so I sat
Speaker 1: it down in the kitchen table and told her that, uh,
Speaker 1: stuff you should know at some big news. I knew
Speaker 1: she'd be sucked into the prank, but was not prepared
Speaker 1: for what happened next. She started to cry and denounced
Speaker 1: the show with one of you gone, saying she would
Speaker 1: stop listening. She was worried about Chuck. I even have
Speaker 1: people are worried about Emily. They were like they thought
Speaker 1: Emily was in the hospital. U Chuck started um. She
Speaker 1: said she would stop listening and was worried about Chuck
Speaker 1: and started tossing out possible explanations like the best of
Speaker 1: conspiracy theorists. She was so sad that I had to
Speaker 1: fast forward to the reveal. After her surprising yet pretty
Speaker 1: cute reaction, I was hoping to swap out her emotional
Speaker 1: connection for a birthday shout out. She's a contemporary dancer
Speaker 1: and uses the ideas in your podcast and her classes
Speaker 1: in choreography. I think dances about Alan turning. I gotta
Speaker 1: see this. Yeah, it's crazy. I admit this pretty crass
Speaker 1: way of getting a happy birthday, but I think it's
Speaker 1: worth a shot. So, Matt, you didn't tell us your
Speaker 1: girlfriend's name, So we're just gonna say happy birthday to
Speaker 1: Matt's girlfriend from Athens. Happy birthday Matt's girlfriend. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: guess to Jennifer Matt enjoy sleeping on the couch this evening.
Speaker 1: You know, we fooled some of our friends. Even Joe
Speaker 1: and Dazzo texted me and said, you guys actually fooled
Speaker 1: me for about eight seconds. Is that right? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we got a lot of people who said, like, I
Speaker 1: didn't fall for anything all day, and the only people
Speaker 1: who got me the stuff, you should know, it's because
Speaker 1: you guys like destroyed it. And then the one me
Speaker 1: for a minute I thought I was off the show
Speaker 1: to us have to leave. Yeah, the ones that I
Speaker 1: felt bad about though, we're the ones who listened to
Speaker 1: it like after April one. Yeah yeah, and we're like Australia. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they didn't realize it was the it was yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: But yes, so everyone, thank you very much for the
Speaker 1: outpouring of emotion. We both feel very loved. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's sure. I mean, we know people like the show,
Speaker 1: but when you hear stuff like that, it's like a
Speaker 1: wild people gonna depend on this, and uh, we know
Speaker 1: now that we're not allowed to ever leave. Now, it's
Speaker 1: well go out in a murder suicide if anything. Cool. Agreed.
Speaker 1: So if you guys love us so much, you can
Speaker 1: hang out with us outside of the podcast too on
Speaker 1: social media. We're on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter. Just search
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know s Y s K, Josh and
Speaker 1: Chuck and any of those and it will bring us
Speaker 1: up and you will love it. And if you want
Speaker 1: to send an email to Chuck, Jerry and me, you
Speaker 1: can address it to Stuff podcast at how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production of
Speaker 1: iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.