Does anybody know any other causes for B.O?

[possiblehelp]

If you're having systemic body odor meaning you have numerous different smells is the only possible cause for it is a genetic deficiency like TMAU or some undiscovered genetic deficiency? Or can there be some undiagnosed vitamin deficiency and mineral deficiency? What I see when I look this up on the internet is some people say the only possible cause would be a genetic problem and then others say that you could have a vitamin deficiency. Which one is it? Or is it a combination of both? I went out to the grocery store yesterday with two of my bestfriends and they said they never smelled me and while I was at the grocery store I told them to pay attention to other people at the store reaction to me. When people came around me they said nobody reacted and I noticed no one reacted either and the crazy thing is that I ate everything Im not supposed to eat.

I even asked my managers and they told me I dont smell bad which is really confusing because I always hear one of my managers say "Whats that smell?" and I would ask him what it smells like and he would say "All kind of weird smells" so I know he's smelling me but nobody believes that its me. I even told him I think its me and he said "I smelled you and all you smell like is snuggle, why do you insist on smelling bad? If you smelled bad you wouldnt be working right now" and then he laughed at me like I was crazy. Even when a strange odor comes out and everyone smells it, they still dont believe its me because when they get close to me all they smell is soap and fabric softener and they keep giving me hours for work every day like they have no problem with me working there. Its starting to make me wonder if the odor thats coming from me is not detectable or either it floats away from my body where nobody would believe the odor comes from me.

But like I was asking is it possible I have some sort of vitamin and mineral deficiency along with bacterial overgrowth. People on here seem to not believe me when I say I have a bestfriend with the same problem and she came over my house the other day and all of the sudden there was this huge explosive fart smell and I asked her what she ate for breakfast and she said she had eggs and she even said herself that shes been smelling a fart smell around her even when shes not around me. I find it weird. Anyways here are some of my health problems

1. Potassium deficiency I went to the doctor because I was feeling really sick, (and no I havent done a low choline diet ever, I have been eating what ever I want). Would there be any link to my odor problem with this? Or not?

2. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I haven't been diagnosed with this, but I have been feeling soooo tired and out of breath that I couldn't get out of bed. I haven't been on any restrictive diet or anything. But I remember feeling so tired and out of breath and it felt like my immune system was low, and I was getting allergic to outdoors and I never had that before. This chronic fatigue is becoming more and more often.

3. Acne and Boils My skin is HORRIBLE!! I never used to have this type of problem, I use to be known for clear skin, now I have ugly acne and boils all the time on my face and scalp and I have a lot of lipomas under my skin. Although, my aunt did say adult acne runs in the family I guess my whole odor and skin problem could be genetic or hormonal, but I can't diagnose my ownself. I need to get tested.

4. Constant sneezing and mucous in throat and lungs I have been coughing up mucous and and I could feel it in my lungs, and I sneeze a lot. It could be because of the mold in my home. I finally came up with the money to get it checked out. Mold might be a big factor in the worsening of my odor because mold is known to cause liver problems and damages DNA maybe it caused my already mutated gene (If I have one) to become even more mutated.

5. Dry lips, no matter what I do my lips are always dry. I went through a phase where my lips kept cracking all the time but it stopped doing that, but I woke up this morning with cut on my lip I don't know how it got there. Maybe I scratched myself in my sleep.

6. Sores in mouth, I have gotten those a lot lately, it's calmed down though.

7. Blueish fingernails Every time I get in the cold my nails turn a blueish color and I know it's a sign of poor circulation. I got my heart checked out and they said my heart was healthy. Just slight coldness makes my hands pale and my nails blue. The doctor told me that my hemoglobin levels were normal a few months ago, so whats causing it? I forgot to mention that my aunt says low circulation runs in our family too, maybe that predisposes me to B.O in some indirect way?

8. Red horizontal lines on finger nails just below the top of nail. It seems like it might be blood collecting in these spots. I also developed new dark streaks down the middle of my nails. I heard that might be a B12 problem.

9. B12 Deficiency I haven't been diagnosed with this either but I think it might be playing a role in my odor. I looked up b12 problems and it said that unpleasant body odor is one of the symptoms. I have been a vegetarian since 2003 and never drunk milk, ate meat and I never really replaced protein with eating nuts. All I ate was fries and everything besides dairy products and meat, although I did eat cheese. Do you guys think b12 deficiency might be linked with TMAU like symptoms? Maybe some of have similar symptoms to TMAU but have some sort of deficiency in b vitamins. Is it true that some symptoms can be exactly the same a s a disease but be a whole other different disease? Meaning are there any vitamin deficiencies that can cause the exact same symptoms of TMAU? I doubt it, but maybe it could be.

So what I want to know is, are there any causes of systemic body odor besides a metabolic disease? Could there be a vitamin or mineral deficiency causing your metabolism to be out of whack or is it always going to be TMAU or some unknown metabolic disease because I really don't understand how I would come down with this sort of problem out of the blue all I know is that I never ate nutritious foods and now I'm suffering because of it.

[trundlebee]

I'm gonna be honest, I have no clue what could be causing it (much like my own illness) but you are lucky that people don't think YOU smell.

[tintin10]

Hi Possiblehelp,
Remeber there are two forms of tmau, there's primary which is genetic and then there's secondary which is acquired when the wrong sort of bacteria gets into parts of your gut where they are not supposed to be. As I mentioned in my reply to Trundlebee you should look up small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and dysbiosis.
Remeber too if you don't absorb your food properly then this gives you a double whammy, food lies rotting in your gut giving rise to s.i.b.o. and also you don't get to have all the essential vitamins thats in those foods. I'm pretty sure that's whats wrong with me. I have a problem with eating meat so like you I guess I'm deficient in B12.
Actually I had to give up eating red meat a while ago as sometimes it caused my odour to flare up to its absolute worse. While I still smell real badly the one thing I do notice is that my energy levels are a lot higher. Like you I often got chronic fatgue but thats seems gone now so maybe that could be something for you to consider.

[bethemiracle]

Possiblehelp,
I'm glad you're getting your mold checked. I DO think mold causes ALL KINDS of problems and if you go to your doctor you should tell them about your mold and they can check you for the exact problems that mold causes.
When you went to the store with your friend and nobody smelled you did you do something different, like take B12? Does your friend smell you. What are the reactions you're getting that tell you you smell? It really sounds like you are NOT smelling at work. When your manager smells something maybe you could do some investigating and see if you can find another source, like somebody eating or heating up their lunch or something

[jaxthemax]

possiblehelp

That is the same problem I'm having. My family says I don't smell, my doctors or therapist say that I don't smell, and I even asked some people if I do or do not smell and they say no. However, there are times where people act strange towards me as if I still do smell. I wonder if only some people can smell us and others can't or maybe it's just our paranoia getting the best of us. I do have dry lips and my fingers do turn purple when it gets cold

[dcba]

If you want to know whether you smell, go workout at a gym. The smell becomes more prominent when you sweat. People will rub their noses when they walk pass you if you do smell.

[possiblehelp]

Thanks everybody for taking the time out to reply. I am pretty sure that I have an odor about me because the other day that I was at work I smelled this horrible musty smell come out of the blue and the people who I was conversating with acted like they didnt smell anything. I think I might have a slight genetic deficiency along with SIBO like you guys told me because it takes days and days for me to have a bowel movement and I also get bloated and my stomach sometimes cramps up for no reason. I also think its a hormonal problem because my menstrual cycle should be coming shortly and I notice when it get closer to my menstrual cycle I will smell more than one smell like 2 smells and they are usually bad. But there is one thing that is really puzzling me, a lot of people on here who tend to say I am jumping to too many conclusions but seriously I have a Best Friend who hangs out with me and she has a odor problem herself!! It is not me, she has her own odor and so do I but she has a odor problem. Sometimes when she gets up I will smell a sewage smell on her, and sometimes a bad fart smell she just told me the other day she was at work and it was lunch time and she happened to be eating McDonalds and then she said out of the blue a huge fart smell came out and filled the whole lunch room for 40 MINUTES!! And then she said that it had a mixture of a fart smell and a dead skunk smell and I told her that it sounds like a TMAU type problem but I didnt want to diagnose her because it could be anything I just told her I have been having problems too that just happened around the same time that these odor problems started happening to her. Maybe I do have some mild genetic problem but I might also have a bacterial overgrowth like you all mentioned. Also, my other best friend told me about my other best friend that I've been telling you about told me that she smelled a fish smell on her too. So I dont know whats going on here. Also, flys and nets seem to be attracted to me they always fly to my nose and on my face maybe thats where my odor comes from.

[samboy]

Hi, possiblehelp.

During the period I was regularly going to the doctor for some blood tests (which was some few years ago), the results always revealed potassium deficiency in my blood as larger than average amount of potassium would be released out of the body through the urine everytime I urinated.

Not sure if I still have this problem, but there could be a link. Who knows?

[shooga]

you should try cutting out all sugar. sounds like yeast over growth to me. i had chronic sinusitus, raw red corners of my mouth, white tongue, dry lips, bad odor, itchy scalp, dry skin in general, bad boils, joint pain, foggy brain, bad memory, felt very bloated/gassy, had bad taste in my mouth, craved sugar like an addict. Try biofeedback like ondamed or PFG if sugar avoidance doesnt work. I had been on antibiotics many times and it put my bacteria/yeast balance way off. It can slow your bowel way down too. Also add a really good probiotic - like on you find at the health store.

Good luck! be your own health advocate.

[shooga]

Also - I was a strict vegetarian for a long time too. think about what yeast does to your... nether regions... it is fungus that eats away at your skin when not kept in check by your ph. That may be why your lips are cracking. also the flax oil would help.

Add a good omega acid like flax seed oil. as a veg you NEED it. also dose yourself with magnesium. it is called natures valium- great for anxiety and stress management. It is essential for brain function and heart function... If you are often cold a magnesium deficiency may be a cause. the bluish fingernails may be pointing at that.

Also add the b12 and potassium- f you think they might be a problem they probably are.

[shooga]

also the sinus stuff is possibly a yeast allergy. If you are a carb junkie vegetarian please rethink your diet- i was a terrible vegetarian for most of a decade and now i have degenerative disc disease from my bad diet - and i am only 31.

[bethemiracle]

Is flaxseed oil ok for TMAU?

[possiblehelp]

Samboy maybe potassium deficiency could be an issue. You see I think I'm dealing with a mold problem in my house. I think maybe mold victims have low potassium??, because I have read things on the internet about this family who had a bad mold problem and their son's potassium levels were low. I also found something on the we that says potassium boosts your immune system, and there's evidence in the body odor community that a low immune system has some effect on your body odor because of the bacteria in your gut gets overgrown when you have a lower immune system. So since potassium is good for your immune system and me and you have a low potassium count maybe this has some indirect effect on our body odor?

Trimethylaminuria hasn't been fully studied and nobody really knows if there's other causes for it besides genetic disorders. Maybe we have a temporary form of it because of our potassium levels and immune system?

Here's something I found on the web, it doesn't say anything about B.O but it says something about the immune system: "Additionally, people can prevent themselves with increased intake of potassium and calcium. These minerals help the body to boost the immune system against mold. Doctors recommend detoxification of the body. If patients develop serious symptoms of toxic black mold syndrome the doctor may prescribe antihistamines."

[mpdela]

Hi possiblehelp,

Potassium is an electrolyte that conducts electricity in the body for proper nerve – muscle function. I know this from being a mom of a cross-country and track runner who was always concerned about perspiring away his potassium from so much running and ending up with muscle cramps. So we always had greenish bananas (mostly greenish and some yellow), since that’s a good source of potassium. The medical books say that potassium is important for proper function of all cells.

When the body is low in potassium, it could become a very stressful state to the body, and stress does trigger odor. To be honest, I have never noticed anyone in my family’s odor being triggered by potassium or lack thereof. I’ve tried to find an article online that talks about microorganisms feeding on potassium, and couldn’t find any. In the case of choline, for example, the bacteria “feeds on” choline, and “excretes” TMA. I haven’t found any literature that says that something similar happens with potassium.

Regarding allergies and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This is something my whole family has battled with throughout my entire lifetime, and after consulting with countless experts, this is what they have told us. Allergies are the immune system reacting to environmental things as if they were a threat to the body that could potentially make you sick. For example, if you are allergic to grass, then when you go outside, your immune system perceives the grass as a threat to your body, and it will react as if you had just been exposed to the flu virus. How do you feel when you get the flu? Do your sinuses and lungs get congested? Are you fatigued (as if you were feverish, though you are not)? Do you want to just rest or go to sleep?

But what else happens when your immune system goes on the attack, whether it is a reaction to a flu virus or grass in your yard, the warning signs of potential danger tells your body to begin to secreting mucous in your sinuses and lungs to create a protective coating and to cleanse the perceived threat out of the body, histamine begins to come out of the pores of your skin (whether you see it or not), and basically, your body goes on a releasing fluids mode as if you had the flu. And if you have an odor condition that your body normally tries to eliminate through mucous membranes, secretions, and body fluids, then the VOCs will surely come out these at this opportunity (allergic reaction), thus, intensifying your body odor that may be perceived by a sensitive olfactory system.

I sometimes wonder if an overactive immune system, as in the case of allergies or autoimmune diseases, could possibly trigger an allergic reaction when it perceives odorous chemicals in our own bodies produced by bacteria in our gut, such as, but not limited to trimethylamine (TMA). And perhaps the same holds true for persons who suffer from bromhidrosis. I wonder how much of the hyperhidrosis is a result of an immune reaction to secretions from bacteria or other environmental stimuli on our skin. This are just my own unprofessional and personal questions.

Is the immune system reacting to volatile odorous chemicals (VOCs) that are the end product of an unfinished metabolic process due to deficient metabolic enzyme(s)? The proof of this would be to determine which volatile organic compound (VOC) is triggering a physical response, and eliminated it from the body, to not reintroduce it in the body with the wrong foods, and then we can see if the immune system settles down and the allergies go away and autoimmune system stops attacking the body. This seems to be what happened to my older son who had body odor since infancy and suffered from severe allergies and asthma, and it all stopped when he controlled his odor.

Well, as you can see, I have raised more questions than given answers. But I think you have raised good questions that most certainly need to be researched. Thanks for the mental stimulation.

María

[Arun Nagrath]

PossibleHelp,
I think the only way we will know what other symptoms might be linked to the odour is if everyone lists their various symptoms/results/illnesses in the manner in which you have done. Well done.

Out of these, the one that I suffer often is cracked and bleeding lips. Does anybody else suffer this?

Fatigue symptoms can be a sign of many different illnesses including stress. When these symptoms have occurred over a long period of time then CFS is diagnosed. Nobody really knows what causes CFS but some scientists think that it might be related to a virus and some kind of genetic susceptibility. I have a sister who suffers from this. I have also known a disproportionately high number of members on this site who either have this or who have close relatives who have this. It's strange but there may be a connection.