Got morning breath? New research suggests a bowl of yogurt may be in order.
In a rather unorthodox pursuit, microbiologist Kenichi Hojo and colleagues at Tsurumi University in Japan recently gave 24 volunteers, many prone to halitosis, two 3-ounce servings of sugar-free yogurt every day for six weeks. They found that volatile sulfide compounds, the rotten-egg smell excreted by bacteria that nestle in our mouth's many crevices, decreased in 80 percent of the volunteers who had bad breath (16 of the 24 had bad breath before the study began). They also found that fusobacteria, the microorganisms that produce the smelly compounds, decreased in the mouths of many volunteers, although the researchers haven't deciphered why.
Hojo got the idea for the study because plain yogurt has shown a few other digestive-tract talents, including alleviating intestinal problems and reducing the risk of tooth decay. He himself eats more than a pound of plain yogurt a week.
In a rather unorthodox pursuit, microbiologist Kenichi Hojo and colleagues at Tsurumi University in Japan recently gave 24 volunteers, many prone to halitosis, two 3-ounce servings of sugar-free yogurt every day for six weeks. They found that volatile sulfide compounds, the rotten-egg smell excreted by bacteria that nestle in our mouth's many crevices, decreased in 80 percent of the volunteers who had bad breath (16 of the 24 had bad breath before the study began). They also found that fusobacteria, the microorganisms that produce the smelly compounds, decreased in the mouths of many volunteers, although the researchers haven't deciphered why.
Hojo got the idea for the study because plain yogurt has shown a few other digestive-tract talents, including alleviating intestinal problems and reducing the risk of tooth decay. He himself eats more than a pound of plain yogurt a week.
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