There’s no question that humans are smelly creatures — from our stinky feet to our putrid arm pits. There’s not much we can do except scrub with soap and mask our odors with deodorant.

But if the malodorous stench is coming from your mouth, scientists are closing in on the cause. Blame a bug —Solobacterium moorei, to be specific.

Researchers at the State University Of New York at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine have identified a tongue bacteria that they say is associated with severe bad breath, Reuters reported.

Not much is known about the bacteria strain, although the researchers said it originally comes from, gag, human feces.

So it seems Dr. Billy Goldberg was right after all when he blamed the “poop fairy” for bad breath (back when Body Odd was a podcast).

Halitosis can be a sign of a medical problem such as liver or kidney disease, but even when it’s not that serious, it’s embarrassing and distressing — and often equally awful for innocent bystanders. It can kill your love life and make life miserable for your co-workers.

In a small study of people with chronic bad breath and a group without, the researchers collected culture samples by scraping an area of the tongue’s surface. They also used a halimeter (bad breath machine) to rank the participants’ breath from “no appreciable odor” to “extremely foul.” They found the S. moorei bacteria in every one of the participants who had halitosis. Only a few of the subjects who didn’t have halitosis had the bacteria, and all of them had a gum infection, which can eventually cause halitosis.

Men were more likely to have the bacteria than women, although it wasn’t clear why.

Most people worry about bad breath sometimes, although the researchers estimated that fewer than a third actually do have hard-core halitosis.

With the finding, the researchers are hoping that new treatments can be developed to help rid us of the stinky breath scourge. So maybe someday you’ll be freed from constantly chewing breath mints or compulsively cupping your hands around your mouth and nose to see if you offend.

Regular bad breath is usually caused by volatile sulfur compounds, or simple bacteria. It’s also connected to dry mouth or respiratory tract infections, sinus infections or gastrointestinal problems.

If you don’t actually have S. moorei, but just want to get rid of simple morning mouth, there are some things you can do (and should, for the sake of fellow man).

Commercial mouthwashes don’t do the trick for long, although brushing your teeth for several minutes and scraping your tongue helps. Drinking green tea may also help control it.

“You have bad breath” can be tough to say to someone you like. Maybe now it’ll be easier: just say, “Excuse me, I think you have Solobacterium moorei. Would you like some gum?”

不能否認人類是有臭味的生物－我們的臭腳丫和我們難聞的腋窩就可以證明。但我們可以用香皂和除臭劑來掩飾這種氣味。

然而如果這種臭味是從嘴巴里面發出的呢？科研表明這是由一種臭蟲－具體說是一種單細胞細菌導致的。

據露透社報道，美國紐約州立大學布法羅分校牙科研究人員認為口腔惡臭與一種寄生在舌頭上的細菌有關。

對這種細菌的底細尚未摸透，但研究人員表明，這種細菌最初來源于人類糞便中．

這樣看來，當初Billy Goldberg醫生把這種單細胞細菌稱做是＂臭蟲＂是無可厚非的。

口臭可以說是內科疾病的一種，就好象我們說的肝病或是腎病一樣，即便沒有肝病或腎病那么嚴重，它也足以令患者難受的，尤其是當患者和不知詳情的人談話時。口臭可能會給患者的愛情生活帶來麻煩，同時也會給他們的同事帶來煩惱。

在一次調查中，研究人員將參與調查的人分為兩組，一組為慢性口臭患者，另一組為非口臭患者。研究人員首先把從參與者舌頭表面刮下的東西作為樣品研究，又用一種口臭測量器分別對兩組參與者的口氣進行檢測，結果表明每個口臭患者的口腔中都有一種單細胞細菌。另外只有極少數非口臭患者口中存在這種細菌，但是所有參與者都存在牙齦感染問題，而這也是最終導致口臭的原因之一。

在感染這種細菌上男性比女性感染的幾率大，但原因尚不明確。

據研究人員估計，真正患有口臭的人不足1/3，但很多人有時仍會擔心自己的口氣不清新。

研究人員希望隨著進一步的調查研究，一種新的治療設備可以誕生來消除人們的擔憂。總有一天人們可以從口香糖時代解放出來，再沒必要因擔心自己口氣不清新而本能的捂嘴巴了。

口氣不清新通常是由某些揮發性硫磺化合物或是某種單細胞細菌導致的。但口腔感染，呼吸道感染，鼻炎或者腸胃問題也會導致口氣不清新。

對于口腔中沒有這種單細胞細菌，只是想在早晨清新自己口氣的人來說,下面的方法還是值得借鑒的。

商業洗口藥不能解決長期問題，你可以試下用幾分鐘時間細細刷牙，并刷下舌頭，或者經常喝些綠茶都可以起到很好的效果。

如果直接對你喜歡的人說：“你口臭”實在是太冒犯了。不妨換種說法：“很抱歉，你口腔里是不是有單細胞細菌了，來個口香糖怎么樣？”