Hydrogen Peroxide for Bad Breath!

I have a post-nasal drip and I have used antihistamines in the past and sometimes they dry it up, but sometimes they don't.  While I am still looking into cures for the post-nasal drip, I am also trying to find some ways to keep my breath fresh and my mouth feeling clean since the post-nasal drip wreaks havoc on my mouth.

Breath fresheners and mouth washes just don't work for me. They work for maybe 10 minutes and then I get this sulfer-y taste in my mouth, especially after using Listerine.  Research brought me to something usually used for first aid:  Hydrogen Peroxide (3%).  

What to mix:

Use whatever quantity you want but you need to cut it 50% with water.  The first time I used it, I used half a cup of hydrogen peroxide and half a cup with water...it was WAAAY too much.  Start here and then adjust your quantity based on how much you use (but always use equal parts water to Hydrogen Peroxide):

2 Tbsp 3% Hydrogen Peroxide

2 Tbsp Water 

(I bought a gallon of Distilled water to try all my experiments out with but I am sure tap water would be fine as well)

YOU MUST MIX A FRESH BATCH EACH TIME!  Hydrogen Peroxide breaks down quickly in the light (hence the dark bottle it is in) so each time you use it, quickly mix up a little batch.

What to do with the mix:

Two to Three Times a Day....

1-Gargle with the mixture.  Get it all in the throat and around the whole mouth and all over the teeth.  

***DO NOT SWALLOW!***  Gargle for as long as patience allows (I'm doing it for about a minute now but hope to build  up to longer and longer times as time progresses) and then spit.

2- Take a toothbrush and brush your teeth with whatever is left over on your teeth. 

3- Then, brush your tongue

4- Then, take a tongue scraper (found in any drugstore) and scrape your tongue as far back as possible, getting out as much of the icky stuff as possible.

5- I then take my regular toothpaste and brush my teeth.  I haven't decided if this makes the process less effective or not.  But, I like the tingly bubbly feeling in my mouth that I get when the toothpaste mixes with the  hydrogen peroxide. I will keep experimenting.

I use the Orabrush (left) but any tongue scraper will work.

I have been using it twice a day for 3 days now.  My mouth definitely feels cleaner.  It is not perfect. I still don't feel 100% confident all the time.  But, it is SIGNIFICANTLY better.  The posts say to swish it around my mouth for about 3-5 minutes but I haven't had the patience to do that.

BONUS:

My teeth are definitely whiter!

Tips:

A.  DO NOT SWALLOW hydrogen peroxide!

B.  Pretty much any drugstore brand of Hydrogen Peroxide will suffice...look on the back, it should say 3% hydrogen peroxide under active ingredients.

C.  Don't pre-mix anything.  The Hydrogen Peroxide will breakdown and not work.

D.  Keep the Hydrogen Peroxide in its container, closed.  Putting it in something that is not opaque will have the Hydrogen Peroxide breaking down and then it won't work.

I did try Therabreath oral rinse in the past but I only used it two or three times because the directions were so lengthy:  http://www.therabreath.com/soc/use.aspx

So, I can't tell you if they worked or not.  My goal is find cheap, easy and effective solutions.

I plan to keep exploring options but for now, I do like the Hydrogen Peroxide.

Boric Acid for Yeast Infections!

This post is about two things:  vaginal yeast infections AND vaginal bacterial infections.


"Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the name of a condition in women where the normal balance of bacteria in the vagina is disrupted and replaced by an overgrowth of certain bacteria.  It is sometimes accompanied by discharge, odor, pain, itching, or burning."

From the time I was 15, I suffered with yeast infections.  I spent thousands upon thousands of dollars over the years on suppositories, supplements and creams but nothing worked for very long.  I only wear cotton underwear, use only unscented products and never sit around in wet clothes.  Sex could never be spontaneous because I would make the guy scrub everything, especially his hands.  But, the minute I had sex, I would wake up the next day and WHAM…yeast infection.  Nothing helped.

Then one day, I was dating a particular guy and I woke up after we had sex and I had a discharge and odor unlike anything I had ever encountered.  It seemed to fill the room!  I ran to the doctor and he said I had a bacterial infection (anyone who has ever had one knows that the word “horrific” does not adequately describe the odor).  He gave me suppositories (in the directions it said that if I drank any alcohol, I would have a psychotic episode!  It actually used the word psychotic! LOL).   The bacterial infection went away but in its place was a yeast infection…a different set of suppositories…which led to another bacterial infection….and this vicious cycle went on for a few YEARS.  And by a few years, I mean about THREE years.  It was horrible.  I had to time sex at the exact right moment or I couldn’t have it.  It seemed I could not get the balance inside me right.

My gynecologist just kept prescribing the same crap over and over again…and I was too stupid to question him.  Out of desperation, I finally spent weeks doing research on the Internet.   I finally decided that Boric Acid seemed to be the answer….I found posts that said it helped not only yeast infections but bacterial infections too (not quite).   


In January 2011, I ordered the following items from Amazon:


EmptyGelatin Capsules, 1000 capsules, '00' size $13.20
These capsules get filled with the Boric Acid.


BORICACID POWDER HUMCO 6 OZ $6.30
(it says NF on it…apparently that is the ONLY type that should be used in the capsule.  The other type is to kill roaches.  It has to be 100% pure Boric Acid and have the NF on it)


CapsuleConnection, CAPSULE FILLER MACHINE FOR SIZE "00"  $17.50
For a while I filled the capsules by hand…it was SOOOOO tedious.  It is definitely worth spending the money on the machine.  It is a little hard to figure out how to use the machine but once you do, it is a breeze.  I am not techy…so if I could figure it out, most people can.

I had a bacterial infection at the time and after I filled a bunch of the capsules, I put one inside me (vaginally) before I went to sleep.  When I woke up in the morning, the smell was GONE.  That led me to believe the bacterial infection was gone and I was SO HAPPY.  What I found was that as long as I put a capsule inside me, the smell would stay away but if I stopped, it would come back.  I did not want to go back to the gynecologist again because I felt it was a complete waste of my money.


About a month or so later, my friend and I were talking and she totally by chance blurted out  “Oh my God…I just had this horrible bacterial infection.  I took something for it and I’m feeling so much better.”  It turns out her doctor gave her some kind of ORAL pill for the bacterial infection…my doctor had only prescribed suppositories for me.  I ran to my doctor and begged him to prescribe it (Metronidazole (Flagl)) for me.  He insisted it wouldn’t work.  I begged him.  I took it and that was the end of the bacterial infections!  That was about February 2011 and it is now August 2012.  My boyfriend and I have sex all the time and I have never once gotten a bacterial infection.  So, the Boric Acid does get rid of the nasty smell but it does NOT get rid of the infection.

So, now that the bacterial infections were gone, I focused on the yeast infections.  I put the capsules in every night for  about a week even though the symptoms had gone after a couple of days. I then decided I would do it once a week and see how that worked. I had read all sorts of posts on maintenance…how often people used the capsules after the yeast infections were gone.  After a couple of weeks, I stopped completely, except RIGHT AFTER SEX.  So every time I have sex, I put a capsule in afterwards.  If I fall asleep before I do it, I make sure I put it in the next morning.

Occasionally, when I’m about to get my period or if I feel like my body doesn’t feel “quite right” I will pop one in just as a precaution but generally I use them only when I have just had sex.  After suffering for more than 20 years, I have not had a yeast infection or a bacterial infection since the beginning of 2011!!

Here are some of the answers to questions I had before I started using the Boric Acid capsules:


A.    They are odorless and tasteless…but the Boric Acid is probably not something my boyfriend wants in his mouth so  I wait 2 days before having oral sex performed on me. I will have sex the next day, though.  Sometimes there is a little bit of the Boric Acid that comes out but it doesn’t bother me.  Because of that, I try to wait until day 2 after I have put a capsule in to have sex so that it is completely dissolved and gone.


B.    The capsules dissolve and then the Boric Acid comes out so definitely put on a panty liner and bring some with you to work to change once or twice during the day.


C.    The Boric Acid works so fast.  The itching and burning will be gone by the next day or at the very least, a significant decrease….but keep using the pills even if the symptoms disappear.


D.    I used the machine and filled like 50 pills. I keep them in a Tupperware with a note saying that they are suppositories and should not be taken orally (in case anyone comes across them).  This way they are always handy and convenient.


E.    I have a new gynecologist!

Stuff That Does NOT Work

Save your money.....I will update this page whenever I come across something I have tried that doesn't work.

Nature's Way Chlorofresh, 90 Softgels:  I ordered this from Amazon.com to see if I could freshen up bad breath and any lingering odors coming from my body...just a general freshening up. I spent about $10 on the bottle. It did NOTHING.  Absolutely NOTHING.