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?”

不能否认人类是有臭味的生物－我们的臭脚丫和我们难闻的腋窝就可以证明。但我们可以用香皂和除臭剂来掩饰这种气味。

然而如果这种臭味是从嘴巴里面发出的呢？科研表明这是由一种臭虫－具体说是一种单细胞细菌导致的。

据露透社报道，美国纽约州立大学布法罗分校牙科研究人员认为口腔恶臭与一种寄生在舌头上的细菌有关。

对这种细菌的底细尚未摸透，但研究人员表明，这种细菌最初来源于人类粪便中．

这样看来，当初Billy Goldberg医生把这种单细胞细菌称做是＂臭虫＂是无可厚非的。

口臭可以说是内科疾病的一种，就好象我们说的肝病或是肾病一样，即便没有肝病或肾病那么严重，它也足以令患者难受的，尤其是当患者和不知详情的人谈话时。口臭可能会给患者的爱情生活带来麻烦，同时也会给他们的同事带来烦恼。

在一次调查中，研究人员将参与调查的人分为两组，一组为慢性口臭患者，另一组为非口臭患者。研究人员首先把从参与者舌头表面刮下的东西作为样品研究，又用一种口臭测量器分别对两组参与者的口气进行检测，结果表明每个口臭患者的口腔中都有一种单细胞细菌。另外只有极少数非口臭患者口中存在这种细菌，但是所有参与者都存在牙龈感染问题，而这也是最终导致口臭的原因之一。

在感染这种细菌上男性比女性感染的几率大，但原因尚不明确。

据研究人员估计，真正患有口臭的人不足1/3，但很多人有时仍会担心自己的口气不清新。

研究人员希望随着进一步的调查研究，一种新的治疗设备可以诞生来消除人们的担忧。总有一天人们可以从口香糖时代解放出来，再没必要因担心自己口气不清新而本能的捂嘴巴了。

口气不清新通常是由某些挥发性硫磺化合物或是某种单细胞细菌导致的。但口腔感染，呼吸道感染，鼻炎或者肠胃问题也会导致口气不清新。

对于口腔中没有这种单细胞细菌，只是想在早晨清新自己口气的人来说,下面的方法还是值得借鉴的。

商业洗口药不能解决长期问题，你可以试下用几分钟时间细细刷牙，并刷下舌头，或者经常喝些绿茶都可以起到很好的效果。

如果直接对你喜欢的人说：“你口臭”实在是太冒犯了。不妨换种说法：“很抱歉，你口腔里是不是有单细胞细菌了，来个口香糖怎么样？”