Bad breath may be a symptom of a medical disorder. Diabetes can cause the
breath to have a smell like nail polish remover, while breath ammonia smell can
be a sign of Kidney Failure. What are the causes of this symptom? How to deal
with this problem then?
Causes
Breath ammonia smell or an ammonia or metal taste in the mouth occurs in
Renal Failure due to waste build-up in the body. This can cause bad breath,
changes in taste, or an aversion to protein foods like meat.
The fundamental cause of this condition is the decrease or damage of kidney
function. In normal condition, the kidneys are responsible for cleansing the
blood by filtering waste products out of the body and keep the balance of
electrolytes. However, in Kidney Failure, the kidneys are not able to function
adequately, thus leading to the build up of wastes in the blood such as urea
nitrogen. Ammonia smell appears from the nitrogen released by microorganism of
urea enzyme. This smell will get worse with the continuous aggravation of kidney
disease.
Treatment
Breath ammonia smell is tightly associates with Kidney Failure. One
conventional treatment for this condition is dialysis. It aims at help patient
to remove more urea and creatinine from the blood stream. As the dialysis
proceeds, there may be reduced concentration of ammonia in expired breath of
patients.
Though the symptom can be relieved temporarily with dialysis, the root
cause-damaged kidney function is not eliminated, so patients will still suffer
from this problem. Therefore, a fundamental way is needed which can remove the
toxic substances in the body as well as rectify the electrolytes imbalance.
In Shijiazhuang Kidney Disease Hospital, such a systemic therapy known as
Immunotherapy has been developed. Besides eliminating the bad breath,
Immunotherapy aims at protect the residual renal function and repair the damage
kidney function maximally. Once patients' kidneys can function as usual, the
symptom like ammonia smell will disappear completely.