Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works. Hey, they're
Speaker 1: brain stuffers. Have you ever woken up seen someone else
Speaker 1: and have them say, hey, Christian, your breath smells like
Speaker 1: a hot bathroom. You might respond by saying, wow, that
Speaker 1: was totally uncalled for. Everyone's got bad breath first thing
Speaker 1: in the morning. But then this hypothetical person who's calling
Speaker 1: you by my name for some reason says, everyone, Okay,
Speaker 1: prove its smart guy, why do we get morning breath? Well,
Speaker 1: if you find yourself in this situation, here's how I
Speaker 1: recommend that you proceed. You can start by telling them
Speaker 1: that bad breath in general is caused by all kinds
Speaker 1: of things. Obviously, what you ingest, like garlic, onions or
Speaker 1: alcohol can contribute. Their strong odors go through your blood
Speaker 1: stream and are exhaled by your lungs. And some bad
Speaker 1: breath is caused by systemic infections or something gross in
Speaker 1: your lungs or gastro intestinal tract. May be it's a
Speaker 1: dental problem like gum disease or trapped food particles under
Speaker 1: a broken filling. Even sinus infections and diabetes can give
Speaker 1: you bad breath, but the most likely culprit is bacteria.
Speaker 1: There are millions of bacteria just in your mouth, and
Speaker 1: these little living beings excrete teensy tiny bits of waste
Speaker 1: with a pungent odor. This is what usually makes your
Speaker 1: breath smell bad, especially in the morning. The reason why
Speaker 1: it's worst in the morning is dry mouth. When your
Speaker 1: mouth is wet, saliva washes away and controls bacteria with oxygen.
Speaker 1: But when it's dry, like when you first wake up,
Speaker 1: these bacteria just hang out like disgusting couch potatoes. They
Speaker 1: devour compounds, proteins, amino acids, and any leftover food in
Speaker 1: your mouth. The wastes they excrete are called volatile sulfur
Speaker 1: compounds v scs for short, and they're comprised of hydrogen sulfide,
Speaker 1: methyl mer captain, and dime methyl sulfide. All of these
Speaker 1: stink like an old sock soaked in the juice of
Speaker 1: rotten meat. So when you're asleep, you're producing less saliva
Speaker 1: to control these nasty bacteria smells. There's not much we
Speaker 1: can do about it happening, but brushing your teeth, flossing,
Speaker 1: and you know, drinking water before bed will help reduce
Speaker 1: the amount of compounds of the bacteria can feast on.
Speaker 1: Brushing again first thing in the morning wouldn't hurt either,
Speaker 1: So I guess what I'm saying here is brush your teeth.
Speaker 1: Check out the brain stuff channel on YouTube, and for
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com.