Body Odor

Just as others have mentioned, I had bad breath for a while due to ketosis ( just the 1st few weeks), but no problems with body odor. 

Don, is this you? http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/1412/

I have heard of this in one person a few years out from his DS on the yahoo DS group.  He was able to control it with some type of pill.  I really can't remember what it was, but if you head on over to that group and ask, someone will chime in and help you. Amazing that you are this far out from the JIB!

JIB (jejuno-ileal bypass) surgery (aka intestinal bypass).

Thanks for those of you willing to help.  I realize now that not all here are. I am certainly not anti-DS or "anti-drastic".

And no my avatar is only a pix I found on the web. I edit my posts so they look nice (duh). I think that about covers those who are criticizing me :-(

I am currently 350 I guess, down from 500, and I am aware of the difficulty of reaching all the trouble spots when bathing. I always thought of ketosis and a "Dr. Adkins diet" related issue.  I will research it.

Some sites and papers casually mention "body odor" as a possible result of DS, others don't, but I have never seen any discussion on it.

And that was my basic question, precisely where I might find formal discussion of the body odor I see mentioned relevent to the DS.

Hey Don! Glad to hear you are a REAL person! We've been through a lot of trolling lately on our little FORUM....and one tried to get Pre op DSr's all riled up about the diaherrea and body odor thing - sorry! Anyway- nope- I haven't had one person tell me I have any odor....and I am with LeaAnn on the 2 she's seen mentioned. I think it is entirely individual and probably as a lot to do with other body infections- skin; fungus; yeast overgrowth etc. Anyway, glad you are a REAL person heehee

I found out what the body odor problem is. I have what some get that have had gastric bypass. Blind loop snydrome. Its an overgrowth of bacteria in the stomach that is seperated from your pouch. Its treated with an antibotic called flaygel. my surgeon said to prevent it in th future eat yogurt everyday and take a probotic. go to mayo clinic .com for more info. Hope this could help someone else.

Hiya, Don!

I've been around these forums for a LONG time (you'll notice I've been a member since 2003).  That's when I first started fighting for my DS, that it took me 2 years to get.  Anyhow, in ALL that time I've seen ONE post from someone claiming to have body odor due to their DS.  Since the DS greatly reduced the side effects of the older surgeries like the BPD and the JIB, it's just incredibly rare.  We really get seriously pissed off that the side effects listed on our forum home page lists the body odor because it *IS* so incredibly rare with the DS.   Incredibly rare indeed, and also very perplexing.  No one seems to have a clue what causes it.  Have you tried the flagyl yet?  Everyone kind of theorizes that it's from a bacterial overgrowth in the bypassed loop of intestine.  Anyhow, here's a link to that one post: Topic: Post-op body odour

Okay, so I lied.  There's ONE more that I remembered from duodenalswitch.com, and I managed to find the post fairly easily because I remembered that this person said they seemed to ooze odor from their "pores."  I did a search for "pores" and found it easily.  Here's the link, but you probably have to sign up for DS.com to access it.  Again, everyone that replies on this thread is pretty much clueless and thinks it's just ketosis that happens just very early postop during the fast weight loss phase.  Since it's such a rare condition, it's difficult to find anyone that understands what you're going through.  Sorry I can't be of more help:

http://www.duodenalswitch.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5897&highlight=pores

Lea Ann and I are probably thinking about the same poster.  He is Canadian and a younger man.  He claimed to always smell similar to dead fish.  He was quite thin in his avatar.  As I recall, he was a hit and run poster who said what he said and exit stage right.  No chance to really get a lot of info from him.  He seemed quite genuine but who knows for sure. Purely for my own education, I did some digging and I learned there is a stinklikeafish disease.  Sorry, I don't remember the name of it.  But it's there.  It's very rare and I think most of the cases I read about were from the UK.  It has nothing to do with hygiene or personal cleanliness.  Read up on it.  There may be some suggested treatments buried in the information somewhere. One thing I wouldn't hesitate to try(because it won't hurt you) is chlorophyll tablets.  I believe you have to take them for a while to be able to judge if they work.  And they're cheap too. Someone else will probably say activated charcoal but I would do chlorophyll first because the charcoal has the potential to screw up some of your vitamin/mineral absorbtion.