TMAU Solutions

  There was a survey done where 90% of people were diagnosed with TMAU, and around 50% complain of a fecal odor. See this video from 29:36: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB3zN5JkD2I&list=PLx3aGntejtWVlKDa22-qsbgdG0bgx0vwK&index=7 The video is put out by credible people (see very start of the video for credentials) and discusses the survey they did. The point is that if you have FBO there is a good chance you actually have TMAU! Only 10% of people with TMAU have a bad fish smell, because TMA smells only smells like fish at very high concentrations. At lower concentrations it smells either simply offensive or garbage-like. Only around 3.5% of people who are diagnosed with TMAU complain about a fish smell, which also means that only around 1/3 of people with a fish odor are aware they smell like fish. For details see: https://www.tesble.com/10.1016/j.amjmed.2011.05.030 Also see my recent posts for more information on this topic. Around 1/3 of people with a malodor comp...

  I had a post the other day with an idea of having some member of the medical community spend up to a week or two with a person so they can observe the odor, since it is likely intermittent in nature. I thought a bit more, and I have a new, and much easier idea, that was largely inspired by a reply to my post. The idea is to request a stress test. A stress test is when someone runs on a treadmill, and a doctor monitors their heart looking for any issues. This is usually done when someone complains of chest pains. This would be a simplified version, where the heart does not need to be monitored, and the whole point is for the person to work up a sweat so the doctor can actually detect the odor. I have talked before about how for most people, it is likely their sweat that smells bad. The correct medical term for this would be Bromhidrosis, not TMAU, as I have said in an earlier post about visiting a doctor about this. A stress test to work up a sweat should allow the doctor to...

  I have been going through a book on the subject of abnormal human body odor written in 1992 by two Japanese doctors. I was very surprised at just how good the information in the book is, even with how old it is. Link to the book: https://sci-hub.se/https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-4-431-66908-1 Here is what it has to say about fecal odors: (from page 36) According to Leyden et al. (1981) common axillary odor is generated by aerobic diphtheroids, and incubating micro- cocci with apocrine sweat produce an odor akin to that of isovaleric acid. Short-chain fatty acids and ammonia are the major odor components produced by apocrine sweat that has been degraded by bacteria, but other unidentified sub- stances may be present as well. That could explain the various odors, ranging from sweaty, rancid, and fecal to sour and sweet, that are sometimes detected, indicating individual variations in the chemical composition of axillary perspiration. The ax...

  The body has two main types of sweat glands. These are the apocrine and eccrine glands. The apocrine glands are normally the ones that create odors, and are normally the ones responsible for Bromhidrosis, which means someone has abnormally bad smelling sweat, that hygiene can't fix. These glands are primarily located in the underarms, genital area, anal area, and in the area of the breasts. It turns out they also exist in the scalp and certain areas of the face, but this is not usually mentioned in medical texts. If the odor is coming purely or mostly from the underarms that indicates Apocrine Bromhidrosis, which is by far the most common form of it. Axillary Bromhidrosis would be the fancy way of saying that you have abnormally bad smelling underarm sweat. The axilla refers to the underarm area. The eccrine sweat glands are all over the body, and I confirmed this includes the underarms. It is possible to have Eccrine Bromhidrosis, but this is far less common than Apocrine B...

  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....

  If you check out my profile [on reddit] to see my last couple posts, one of them examines where the 1/40,000 figure for the incidence of the true form of TMAU (Trimethylaminuria) comes from. It turns out that this number varies widely between different populations that have been measured. For New Guinea, the figure for the severe form of inherited TMAU-1 is 1/400 people. My post explains how these numbers can be accurately calculated. This is not even counting TMAU-2 which is more common than TMAU-1. In addition, I have found medical documentation that only the most severe 10% of TMAU cases involve a bad fish odor, the rest are either just generically offensive, or involve a 'garbage-like' smell. Link: https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1196/annals.1384.011 (the link is only actually loading the PDF file some of the time for some reason). The source for this is the late Dr. George Preti, who was the worlds leading expert on TMAU, and had an odor lab with...

Based on reading the experiences of other people with this condition, I think the most hopeful idea is the idea of learning to care less about the reactions of others, (and the possibility of the odor being present) rather than actually curing this physically. Most likely, most people will try the path of dietary change and supplements for a couple years, and they will then exhaust that path. Most people will at best report some limited improvement of their condition (I am an exception to this), but nothing like a cure, or a profound reduction in the problem. The good news is that there is a second path to getting the same basic result, and that is learning to simply care less about this over time. Some people report dramatically improving their situation through this, which is the main reason I have confidence in this approach – this is not just an untested theory. The discomfort that people feel when out in public is not just because of the concern that there is a bad odor pres...

I have made an associated YouTube channel with lots more information and content at:  https://www.youtube.com/@tmausolutions I hope everyone will check it out, because I think it is a very valuable resource for anyone with a TMAU like condition.

  What A Correct Hygiene Routine Looks Like:   The first thing for EVERYONE who thinks they have TMAU to do is to confirm that there are no problems with their hygiene routine that they may not be aware of. Because TMAU is usually a devastating, lifelong situation, it is essential to definitively rule out all the reasonable alternatives before accepting that you really do have a TMAU like disorder. The main alternatives to TMAU are a mistaken belief that you have a malodor condition (‘Olfactory Reference Syndrome’, which I cover elsewhere) or a possible hygiene issue that you are not aware of. I am including a possible dental problem that you are not aware of in with the hygiene topic - and that must be ruled out as well. Even if it looks like you probably have TMAU, you MUST definitively rule out the alternatives rather than saying that ‘probably’ is good enough. The younger someone is, the more likely it is that a hygiene issue is the real explanation for the malodor s...

  DISCLAIMER:  I am not a doctor or medical professional of any kind, and nothing here is medical advice.   So, I have been thinking for a while now about the long term life outcomes for people with this condition, and if they vary widely. My conclusion is that they likely vary in a truly dramatic way based on whether or not someone is able to find love, get married and have their own family, or if they are completely cut off from this. Most people posting here are young, and I don't think most people understand how what matters to them will change as they get older, in dramatic ways. It is certainly possible to understand this at a young age though. I understood it as soon as the unimaginable reality of this situation dawned on me at 18, and why I knew I needed a cure, which I was incredibly fortunate to receive through major dietary change. This is a long post, but I think its well worth taking the time to read, since the topics it covers are so important. For ...

  DISCLAIMER:  I am not a doctor or medical professional of any kind, and nothing here is medical advice.   One of the major problems people with this condition have is that doctors claim they can't smell them and dismiss them. I have what I think is some important advice on getting around this. The most important thing is to use correct medical terminology when describing your problem. If you just show up to the doctor and say that you have a malodor problem, there is a good chance that the doctor will not even be convinced that is a real thing. Combine this with possibly not being able to smell you, and they will likely dismiss you as having some kind of delusion. The term TMAU is mostly being used here as general term for any malodor condition. This is NOT the medically accurate term to use unless you have the true form of TMAU. The true form means you can't convert TMA into TMAO. You would respond positively or negatively based on the amount of choline in you...