It is important that people realize that what most people are describing is Bromhidrosis and not actually TMAU

 

Have you ever wondered why its called TMAU? This is shorthand for Trimethylaminuria. This is an extremely rare disorder where the body can't convert TMA into TMAO, and the result is a rotting fish smell. It is controlled with a low choline diet to minimize TMA intake, and usually will start at birth if it is TMAU type-1, and usually sometime well after puberty if it is TMAU type-2, since that form is the result of liver damage, and it starts after the damage occurs.

The term 'Bromhidrosis' is greek for 'foul smelling sweat'. TMAU is really a specific form of bromhidrosis. I used to follow a yahoo group (yahoo groups have since been shut down) that was very similar to this subreddit. At this time (2005 was the last time I looked there) the terms 'Bromhidrosis' and 'TMAU' were clearly kept separate. People only said they had TMAU if they had a rotting fish smell and responded to the low choline diet, and everyone else said they had bromhidrosis. The TMAU forum was much smaller than the bromhidrosis forum, which in turn was much smaller than the hyperhyrdosis fourm (hyperhydrosis is a disorder involving massive amounts of odorless sweat being generated).

The problem is that today, the term 'Bromhidrosis' has largely been replaced by the term 'TMAU'. The problem is that TMAU still ALSO refers to Trimethylaminuria - at the exact same time! You have the term TMAU referring to two different things at the same time and this leads to serious problems. As I have discussed in an earlier post about visiting a doctor about this, the medical community has no idea that when you say you have TMAU, what you really mean is that you have Bromhidrosis, not that you actually have TMAU!

If you tell a doctor you have TMAU, they will assume you are saying you are suffering from Trimethylaminuria. The fact that you don't mention anything about a bad fish smell, or responding to a low choline diet will make them suspect you are actually delusional. If you go online searching for info on TMAU, you are going to find advice saying to avoid choline if you look at medical sources, rather than communities like this. Now, there is some debate here about whether or not other types of odors like fecal ones can be a part of TMAU, but I think the real key is whether or not you respond to a low choline diet.

If the problem started at, or a few years after puberty, and nobody ever said anything about a fish smell, and the amount of choline in your diet does not affect this, than there is no reason to think you have Trimethylaminuria. What you are describing instead is best described as Bromhidrosis. Often, what happens here is that someone says they have TMAU, and someone counters by explaining how what you have does not line up with the published science about Trimethylaminuria. So, everyone needs to understand the difference between the true form of TMAU, meaning Trimethylaminuria, and the term TMAU really being used as a new term for what the medical community would call Bromhidrosis. You have the term TMAU having two different definitions at the same time, and only some people are aware of this, leading to problems.

A related topic is that some people think the odor is just coming out of their pores, rather than through their sweat. It is important to get to the bottom of that, because if it is the sweat, then there are some high-risk, high-return options to have a medical procedure done to destroy the sweat glands and possibly control this.

The idea of bad smelling sweat (Bromhidrosis) is well documented in medical literature - and this was my own situation. I have never read anything from a medical source that documents the smell just coming directly out of the pores like a vapor. Again, this issue is important because it determines the possible treatment options.

This is my post on seeing a doctor about this condition: https://www.reddit.com/r/TMAU/comments/1c5dk2x/important_advice_for_seeing_a_doctor_about_this/

This is my post on the medical options to destroy/remove your underarm sweat glands: https://www.reddit.com/r/TMAU/comments/199ky6e/search_for_medical_treatments_and_then_look_for/

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