MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries - Ep. 88 | 15,000 Coughs/The Putrid Smell

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

“15,000 Coughs”: When an 11-year-old girl develops a worrisome cough, her workaholic mom drops everything to get her help. But nothing seems to work. Soon, her daughter is coughing almost constantly – 15,000 times a day – and doctors have no idea how to stop it.“The Putrid Smell”: A woman spends her life dealing with an embarrassing and infuriating problem: she smells like dead fish. But she can’t smell it herself – and she can’t fix it. It’s so bad, she can’t form any meaningful relationships or keep a job she enjoys. Isolated and alone, she begins to worry she’ll spend her life on her own…Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterFollow MrBallen's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music, the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes publish for free every Tuesday. Prime members can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Or, you can listen episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Start your free trial in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or by visiting https://wondery.com/links/mrballens-medical-mysteries/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to new episodes of Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Sometimes a medical condition does not have to be life-threatening in order to be life-destroying. Small persistent issues can become exhausting, transforming from minor annoyances to something that totally upends your day-to-day existence. And for the people in today's two stories, their conditions made their lives truly unbearable. In the first story, an 11-year-old girl's persistent 15,000-café day struggle left

doctors baffled and her mother desperate for answers. Despite countless tests, nothing seemed to explain the chaos, until one psychologist uncovered a chilling possibility. In the second story, a six-year-old girl's first day of school would turn into a nightmare when classmates began bullying her for this mysterious smell she couldn't understand. Years of isolation and confusion would follow, until a shocking discovery revealed an unexpected truth. From Ballen Studios and Wondry, I'm Mr. Ballen and this is Mr. Ballen's Medical Mysteries, where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we

all can't escape, our own bodies. So if you liked today's story, please place a note on the windshield of a random car that says sorry about the damage along with the follow buttons phone number. When Luigi Mangione was arrested for allegedly shooting the CEO of United Healthcare, he didn't just spark outrage, he ignited a cultural firestorm. Is the system working or is it time for a reckoning? I'm Jesse Weber. Listen to Law and Crimes Luigi exclusively on Wondery Plus.

Inspired by the hit podcast Against the Odds comes the gripping guidebook How to Survive Against the Odds. Learn how to handle whatever nature throws at you through gut wrenching true stories of life or death situations. This might just be the most important book you'll ever read. Go to survivalguidebook.com to get your copy of How to Survive Against the Odds Today or visit your favorite bookstore. And now here's our first story called 15,000 Coughs.

In late April 2013, 38-year-old Alejandra Soto was in her kitchen, loading up a tray with Gatorade, a bowl of soup, a package of throat lozenges and an inhaler. Upstairs, she could hear her 11-year-old daughter, Maggie, coughing in her bedroom. Her cough sounded bad, but it was a vast improvement compared to the past few days. Maggie had come down with a severe case of bronchitis, a condition that develops when the airway to the lungs becomes inflamed, causing a persistent cough. Alejandra had taken the week off from her demanding office job to take care of her daughter. She knew there'd be an avalanche of emails waiting for her when she got back to work.

But her daughter's health came first, and she did not want to take any chances. Back when Maggie was a baby, she developed a severe case of pneumonia and almost died. Ever since, Alejandra had been incredibly cautious any time Maggie developed any kind of respiratory illness. Thankfully though, Maggie did seem to be recovering from this latest bout of bronchitis. She'd been on medication for the last four days and seemed to now have more energy and strength too. Alejandra hoped that in another few days, the bronchitis would disappear completely. As Alejandra grabbed the tray of supplies for her daughter off the kitchen counter,

her phone lit up. It was more calls from clients that she was missing. She took a calming breath and reminded herself that in a few days she'd be back at work. Then she could put in some overtime to catch up and everything would go back to normal. A few weeks later, in mid-May, Alejandra was setting the kitchen table for dinner while Maggie sat at the far end doing her homework. And at some point, Maggie just started coughing, and she was coughing so hard that her face turned beet red.

Instinctively, Maggie reached for her inhaler, which she had been prescribed back in April for her bronchitis, and she breathed in the medication. And right away, her cough quieted down, and so she went back to work. But just minutes later, Maggie started coughing again. As Maggie took another puff from her inhaler, Alejandra rushed over and began rubbing her daughter's back, trying not to show how concerned she was. Two weeks earlier, Alejandra had thought Maggie was getting better, and so she sent her to school. However, just a few days ago, Maggie had developed this dry cough. Now, Maggie had said she felt fine, but she was actually coughing more now than she had been before. Alejandra had taken her to the doctor's office for an exam, but the pediatrician

just said to keep using her inhaler. The cough would clear up with time. Except now it seemed like Maggie's cough was only getting worse. And so Alejandra sat down next to her daughter at the table and told her that it might be time for another doctor's visit. She'd see if the pediatrician could squeeze them in tomorrow and then maybe afterwards they could grab some ice cream. Maggie said she liked the sound of that, and then she got up to help her mother bring dinner to the table. The following day, Alejandra sat in the pediatrician's office, ignoring the constant buzz of emails

on her phone, while the doctor examined Maggie. He listened to her lungs with a stethoscope and told Maggie to breathe in deeply, and as she did, she exploded into a coughing fit. The pediatrician was sure that Maggie's bronchitis had cleared up. He told Alejandra that her daughter could be having some kind of allergic reaction, like hay fever, and so she wanted Alejandra to try over-the-counter allergy medications and see if maybe that alleviated the cough. On the way home, the mother and daughter grabbed some allergy medication from the pharmacy, along with some ice cream cones from the ice cream shop, as promised. Maggie took the allergy meds with some water in between looks of her cone, and within a few minutes, her cough seemed to be getting a bit better.

Alejandra hoped that maybe now this would be the end of her coughing fits, and by tomorrow morning, they could go back to their usual routines. A month later, Alejandra sat inside of a dimly lit acupuncture spa that smelled like incense. Her daughter Maggie was lying on a massage table in the center of the room, looking completely calm as an acupuncturist pressed thin needles into her forehead. Alejandra tried not to flinch as she watched. She was very squeamish about needles and was impressed by how little they seemed to bother Maggie. In fact, this was the calmest Maggie had looked in weeks. She wasn't coughing at all.

Generally, Maggie's cough had gotten drastically worse. Most of the time, she was coughing about every four seconds. She coughed all day long from the time she woke up to the moment she fell asleep. Somehow, Maggie could sleep through the night without coughing, but the rest of the time, she coughed incessantly. Maggie also said that her nose, throat, and stomach all hurt, which only made sense to Alejandra. She estimated that Maggie was coughing more than

10,000 times a day. Alejandra was genuinely scared for Maggie's health, and so at this point, she was basically willing to try anything to help her daughter. And since Western medicine did not seem to be solving Maggie's cough, Alejandra had decided to try something different. Acupuncture. And so far, the acupuncture appeared to be working. Maggie's cough went away while the acupuncturist placed the needles around her body. Alejandra had no idea why this treatment seemed to work when so many others had failed, but she was not about to question it. After the acupuncturist had finished applying all the needles, they slowly began to take them back out again. She had Maggie breathe in

deeply and sit upright as she worked. Alejandra felt relieved. They'd actually found a treatment that seemed to work. However, after all the needles were out and Maggie got off the table, she immediately began to cough. Two and a half months after that, Alejandra sat in a hospital examination room, watching a neurologist test her daughter's coordination skills. The doctor had Maggie mimic his movements as he balanced on each foot and tapped his nose and did a few dance moves. Maggie laughed in between coughs as she followed his choreography.

It was clear the doctor was good at working with kids, and Alejandra was grateful for that because it had been a long day. They'd been at the hospital since that morning, putting Maggie through a battery of physical exams, lab tests, and imaging scans. The doctors wanted to explore every possibility because at this point, Maggie was coughing an average of over 15,000 times a day. Alejandra did her best to put on a brave face in front of her daughter, but inside she was a mess. For sure, she was terrified that something mysterious and

potentially deadly was making her daughter ill, but Alejandra had to admit that she was also very stressed about all the work she'd been missing to make all of these doctor's appointments. Eventually, she would have to clock a lot of extra hours just to catch up, which meant more time away from Maggie. Now, she would do anything for her daughter, but physically and emotionally, she was reaching a breaking point. At some point, the neurologist told Maggie to have a seat, and then he bent over his clipboard to scribble a few notes.

Alejandra held her breath, hoping the doctor would have some kind of news. But instead, he said there was nothing wrong with Maggie's coordination skills. However, the neurologist said he had a theory about what might be wrong with her. There was one last specialist he wanted Maggie to go see. A week later, Dr. Daniela Vega took notes while her new patient, Maggie, sat at the kids' size table in her office, coughing away as she worked on a puzzle. Dr. Vega was a psychologist, and Maggie had been referred to her office by the neurologist at the hospital.

Dr. Vega asked Maggie to describe her symptoms. Between coughs, Maggie told her that her nose and throat hurt, her stomach ached, and sometimes she got these tingly sensations in her thumbs and pinky finger. She said she coughed all day long except for when she was sleeping or receiving acupuncture treatments. Dr. Vega made a few notes while Maggie continued to cough and work on her puzzle. But just a moment later, Maggie clearly stopped doing her puzzle and let out a huff like she was bored with the puzzle and with disappointment. Dr. Vega asked a few follow-up questions, but now Maggie's answers were short. There was an edge of annoyance in her

voice. But to Dr. Vega, it made sense. Maggie had been to so many doctors at this point, she'd very likely answered all these questions dozens of times, yet still she was coughing. As Dr. Vega watched Maggie cough, she noticed she had a little routine. Maggie would scratch her nose, then squint, and then cough. Every few seconds, she'd scratch, squint, cough. Over and over like clockwork. Dr. Vega made a note of it. Then the doctor put her clipboard down and asked Maggie what kind of music she listened to and what her friends were like at school. Maggie looked surprised, but she started telling Dr. Vega all about her classmates, her favorite subjects at school, and what she wanted to be when she grew up.

Suddenly Maggie was animated and engaged and seemed to love how intently Dr. Vega was listening to her. And while she was talking, Maggie barely coughed. Dr. Vega scribbled down a few more notes on her clipboard and thanked Maggie for sharing so much with her. Then she led Maggie back out to the waiting room, where her mother was busy typing out emails on her phone. Alejandra stuffed her phone into her bag and rushed over to her daughter to ask how it

went. Maggie very eagerly told her mother all about how she and Dr. Vega had talked about school and all the different things going on in her life and how fun the appointment was. And then after that, Dr. Vega asked them to wait for just a few minutes while she ducked into her office. She just wanted to re-read Maggie's case file to make sure that the hunt she was forming was correct. Once she was back in her office, Dr. Vega pulled up Maggie's medical history. Specifically, she wanted to read the section about Maggie's case of pneumonia when she was only 18 months old.

Dr. Vega suspected that there was nothing physically wrong with Maggie. Rather, her persistent cough was actually a vocal tick, a completely psychological phenomenon. The conversation she had just had with Maggie about her friends and about school and what she wanted to be when she grew up tipped off the psychologist. When Maggie was talking about things that interested her, she coughed less. The cough also disappeared completely when she slept, which would not necessarily happen if this cough was caused by an infection. But, perhaps most importantly, Maggie didn't seem worried about her cough or about trying to get better. It was almost like she subconsciously

knew that she wasn't actually really sick. Dr. Vega suspected that part of what brought on this tick was Maggie's severe case of pneumonia when she was a toddler. When she was ill, her mother, Alejandra, had slowed down and paid way more attention to her. And then ever since, anytime Maggie had a cough or flu-like symptoms, once again, her mother would be extra attentive.

Dr. Vega was pretty sure that subconsciously, Maggie was coughing to get attention from her mother, who seemed to be constantly overloaded with her work. And so while Maggie's cough was actually real in the sense that she really did feel this need to cough, the underlying reason for it was not physical, it was all in her head. Once Dr. Vega delivered this diagnosis, Maggie was treated with a low dose of an antipsychotic, as well as daily talk therapy that included breathing and muscle control exercises. After only a week of treatment, Maggie's cough rate decreased from almost a thousand

coughs an hour to just about 40. Then her doctors decided to try her on a different antipsychotic, and after only 12 days on it, Maggie stopped coughing altogether. Emiotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS. It's a terminal illness that progresses with devastating swiftness. It takes away the ability to walk, talk, eat, swallow, and eventually breathe. But ALS cannot take away hope for a brighter future. This June, join ALS Canada at the Walk to End ALS. Your participation and generous donations will fund community-based support

and the best ALS research in the country. Find your local date, register, or donate at walktotendals.ca. In the early hours of December 4th, 2024, CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of Midtown Manhattan. This assailant pulls out a weapon and starts firing at him. We're talking about the CEO

of the biggest private health insurance corporation in the world. And the suspect. He has been identified as Luigi Nicholas Mangione. Became one of the most divisive figures in modern criminal history was targeted premeditated in Minnesota terror. I'm Jesse Weber host of Luigi produced by law and crime and twist this is more than a true crime investigation we explore

a uniquely American moment that could change the country forever is awoken the people to a true issue. Finally, maybe this would lead rich and powerful people to acknowledge the barbaric nature of our healthcare system. Listen to Law and Crime's Luigi exclusively on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Spotify or Apple podcasts. And now here's our second story called The Putrid Smell. In August 1986, on the first day of first grade, six-year-old Eloise Taylor walked into her brand new elementary school. She felt excited to be around all these people her own age. She'd been looking forward to meeting her classmates all summer and couldn't wait to

make friends. She got in line with all the other kids in her class and followed her new teacher, Miss Brody, down the hall to their classroom. Miss Brody gave Eloise the desk right at the front of the room, and Eloise was determined to be her best student. She began unpacking her school supplies, then sat at her desk and turned around to say hello to the girl right behind her. But when she did, that girl just wrinkled her nose and made a face like Eloise had done something wrong. She turned her back to Eloise and started whispering to other classmates. Eloise was confused, but she didn't have time to dwell on it, because Ms. Brody called

for attention and began passing out a worksheet. First day of school had officially begun. Eloise listened intently as Miss Brody began her lesson. And she figured Miss Brody must have noticed how well she was paying attention because during the lesson, Miss Brody kept pausing to look over at Eloise. Eloise sat up a little straighter, confident she was making a great first impression. And so she wasn't surprised when Miss Brody tapped her on the shoulder right after lunch and asked her to join her in the hallway. She figured she was going to tell her what a good

job she was doing. But once they were in the hallway, Miss Brody crouched down and asked her if she had taken a bath the night before. Eloise was confused but nodded and said yes. Miss Brody just pursed her lips like she wasn't sure if Eloise was actually telling her the truth. She asked Eloise a few more questions about her hygiene, like if she bathed every night, how many times a day she brushed her teeth, that sort of thing. Eloise did her best to answer, feeling more and more like she was in trouble for something, except she couldn't understand what she'd done wrong.

As soon as they went back into the classroom, Ms. Brody announced that they were all going to move desks. She'd made a new seating chart during lunch. Eloise dutifully emptied out her desk and waited as Ms. Brody gave out the new seating assignments. She called Eloise last, and she put her all the way in the back corner of the classroom, right by an open window. Eloise felt like the whole class was staring at her as she shoved her books into her new desk. As soon as she sat down, the kid right in front of her began inching his desk forward, like he was trying to put space between them.

Eloise didn't understand why nobody in her class wanted to be near her, so for the rest of the day, she just kept to herself. When the final bell rang at 2 p.m., Eloise shoved her homework into her backpack as her classmates began filing out of the class. Some of the boys passed by her desk on their way out the door, and each one of them whispered fish as they walked by.

Eloise didn't really know what they meant, but her face still went red hot. She tried to linger behind the rest of the class as they all walked to the parking lot to wait for their parents, but one of the girls turned around and told Eloise out loud that she smelled like manure. Then a couple of boys started chanting, dead fish, dead fish, over and over again. Eloise immediately burst into tears. Luckily, she saw her dad's car right at the front of the pickup line, and so she sprinted right over to it.

She climbed into the passenger seat and told her dad what happened, that her new classmates hated her. Her dad let out a long apologetic sigh, almost like he'd been expecting this. Then he told Eloise that for some reason, ever since she was little, she would occasionally start smelling like fish. Her doctors had no idea why this was happening, it was just something she was born with.

Eloise was stunned. She wanted to know why her parents had never told her about this. But her dad didn't have a good answer. He just said that they didn't want her to worry about it before it became a problem. Eloise was quiet for the rest of the ride home. She couldn't smell this fish odor herself, but clearly it was strong enough to stink up her entire classroom. And now she had no idea how she was going to go back to school and face the same ridicule every day.

Over the next several years, Eloise tried to keep to herself. But some of her classmates still bullied her. And when she entered middle school, the bullying only got worse. One afternoon in sixth grade, Eloise was headed to class when a couple of eighth graders cornered her in the cafeteria. They threw tuna fish sandwiches at her and laughed about how bad she smelled.

Their taunting drew a crowd, and suddenly the whole hallway seemed to be laughing at her. Eloise tried hard not to cry, but holding back the tears took so much concentration that she didn't have the energy to fight back or walk away. She just stood there, taking the ridicule, until the school librarian stepped in and told everyone to go to class. The librarian shielded Eloise until the hallway cleared out. Then she invited her to clean up in the bathroom and come have lunch in the library. Eloise nodded, her whole body shaking with adrenaline.

She couldn't take the bullying anymore. She had to figure out what was causing the fish odor and find a way to make it stop. From that day on, Eloise ate lunch in the library. Though there were no computers in the school at the time, the librarian helped Eloise comb through the school's collection of encyclopedias and other textbooks to try to find a cure. However, two years later, by the time Eloise graduated eighth grade, she hadn't found anything. And doctors weren't able to help either.

Nobody was able to figure out why Eloise smelled so bad. Eight years later, around 2003, Eloise sat down at her workstation at the local bank. She was newly graduated from college and working on her master's degree in education. Her dream was to become a teacher, but in the meantime, she had gotten a job as a bank teller. Eloise sprayed herself with the perfume she kept in her bottom drawer, then logged into her computer. She quickly got so absorbed in her bottom drawer, then logged into her computer. She quickly got so absorbed in her work that she didn't notice her supervisor walking

up to her desk. He tapped on her shoulder and told her to pack up her things and follow him. He had some new responsibilities for her. Eloise smiled, but she had a sinking feeling in her stomach. She followed her supervisor to the very back of the bank, to an isolated room with a big window. He told her she was going to be the drive-through bank teller from now on. Eloise knew the real reason she had been moved here. She felt defeated. This was like first

grade all over again when she got moved to the back of the class on day one. A moment later she could hear the soft hiss of a Lysol spray bottle down the hallway, and she knew that some of her colleagues must be spraying down her old workstation with air freshener. Eloise knew her fishy odor would eventually become a problem at work, even though she showered multiple times a day and constantly coated herself with perfume. The odor was just too overpowering. She couldn't blame her coworkers for not wanting to be around her.

Eloise's odor was the reason she didn't have any friends, and it made her feel like she was a burden to her family. She didn't let herself get close to anyone. She'd tried dating someone recently who promised he was okay with her smell, but she worried that he'd eventually get sick of it, so she actually ended things before he could. And now, she sat on the metal stool in front of the bank's drive-through window, and tried not to take it personally when her supervisor shut the door on his way out. She knew there was no escaping her odor, but she was beginning to realize what that truly meant for the rest of her life.

If she didn't find a way to mask it or control it, this would be her future. Complete isolation as she watched the world pass her by. In the early hours of December 4th, 2024, CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of Midtown Manhattan. This assailant pulls out a weapon and starts firing at him. We're talking about the CEO of the biggest private health

insurance corporation in the world. And the suspect has been identified as Luigi Nicholas Mangione became one of the most divisive figures in modern criminal history was targeted premeditated and meant to sow terror. I'm Jesse Weber host host of Luigi, produced by Law and Crime and Twist. This is more than a true crime investigation. We explore a uniquely American moment that could change the country forever. He's awoken the people to a true issue.

Finally, maybe this would lead rich and powerful people to acknowledge the barbaric nature of our healthcare system. Listen to Law and Crime's Luigi exclusively on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Spotify, or Apple podcasts. The ocean is vast, beautiful, and lawless. I'm Ian Urbina back with an all-new season of The Outlaw Ocean. The stories we bring you this season are literally life or death. We look into the shocking prevalence of forced labor, mine boggling over fishing, migrants hunted and captured.

The Outlaw Ocean takes you where others won't. Available on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. The following year, in the fall of 2004, Eloise moved through her new classroom, opening up windows and setting up a few strategically placed fans. A few months earlier, Eloise had finally finished her master's in education and got a job teaching middle school. She hoped that as a teacher, she could make life better for any kids who faced bullying like she had all through school. She was still nervous about her odor, but she had a plan.

If the windows stayed open and she could keep air blowing at her, nobody would notice the fish smell. This would work, she thought. It had to. Soon, her class filed in and she began with the day's lesson. She kept checking over her shoulder, but nobody was making a face or sniffing the air. Everyone was bent over their desks, hard at work. She couldn't help but feel excited. It was working. Nobody could smell her. The following morning, Eloise doused herself in perfume, then got to school early to spray the classroom with air freshener and turn on the fans.

And that day, once again, nobody mentioned a fish smell. By the time the lunch bell rang, she was overjoyed. Finally, after more than two decades of dealing with her odor, she'd found a way to mask it. Once Eloise's classroom had cleared out, she walked around with the Lysol can again and then headed over to the teacher's lounge. It was just across the hall from the cafeteria, so the teachers could usually hear their students talking while they waited in line for lunch.

Eloise sat down at a table near the door and began to unpack her lunch bag, and as she did, she heard a few students talking about their summer breaks and their new classmates. Then she heard a student say he had the new teacher, Miss Fishy. The students around him laughed and said they knew exactly what he was talking about. That afternoon, Eloise couldn't focus on her lesson. She kept stumbling over her words or forgetting what she was writing on the chalkboard. All she could think about was whether she was filling the classroom with that pungent, reeking smell. Every noise a student made felt like a stifled laugh at her expense. She was so stressed out that when she finally got into her car after school, she just broke

down and cried. Over the years, Eloise had seen countless specialists about her condition, and she'd continued to do her own research, even while she was studying all the time for her master's degree. But nothing helped. She felt trapped and utterly defeated. She'd spent most of her childhood crying on the way home from school, and now it appeared like she might spend the rest of her career the same way too. For the rest of the week, Eloise was so preoccupied by her smell that she could barely teach. Then it got even worse on Friday when her fish odor stank up the entire auditorium during a school assembly.

She was a laughingstock and was so discouraged that she just couldn't continue like this. Before she left school on Friday afternoon, she headed to the principal's office and resigned. A month later, Eloise sat on her couch feeling down. A random sitcom rerun was playing on her television, but she wasn't paying any attention to it. She was on her computer scrolling mindlessly through a website with comedy videos. Eloise hadn't used the internet very much until she started her master's program, since the internet was still a newer technology.

But now she was making up for lost time. Lately she would spend hours on different comedy sites, trying to distract herself from what a freak she felt like. For the past few weeks, Eloise had been thinking more and more about suicide. She had no friends, she didn't feel like she had a future, she couldn't even bring herself to look for another job. She was at rock bottom. She clicked on another comedy video, wishing she were tired enough to go to sleep. And that's when she saw an advertisement at the bottom of a webpage for a site called Ask Jeeves,

which was one of the leading search engines in the early days of the internet. You could ask a digital butler named Jeeves any question and he would comb the internet for answers. Eloise was intrigued. She clicked on the banner and then typed into the search bar, fishy body odor. After hitting return, she didn't expect much, but then a couple of links began popping up. Eloise bolted upright as she clicked on the top result. It brought her to a website that described an extremely rare condition called trimethylaminuria,

or TMAU for short, although apparently it was more commonly known as fish odor syndrome. It's a metabolic disorder where the body can't break down a smelly chemical called trimethylamine. The body produces the chemical when a person eats certain foods like bread, beans, eggs, and of course fish. And because people like Eloise can't break down this chemical, it builds up in their system and seeps into their lungs, saliva, sweat, and other bodily fluids, causing a pungent smell that comes from inside. When Eloise discovered this, there were only 600 documented cases of the syndrome in the

entire world, and so Eloise became number 601. After some more searching, Eloise found an online community of people living with this rare condition. They helped her learn how to manage her odor by changing her diet and taking daily supplements like chlorophyll, which may help reduce inflammation in the body. Eloise also met a doctor who understood fish odor syndrome and they helped her find the best perfumes and deodorants to help mask the smell. And surprisingly, these steps she was taking as a result of this community worked. People stopped making fun of Eloise, and slowly she became confident enough to have friends

and go out socially. After nearly 30 years of struggling with this putrid smell, Eloise found a way to lead a mostly normal life. She ultimately went back to teaching, determined to create a special curriculum for students who were different in any way, to make sure that nobody suffered the same kind of ridicule that she did. Now that you've finished this episode, I know you will love what Luke Lamanna is doing over at Redacted, Declassified Mysteries. Go ahead and start with the episode titled, The Secret of Churchill's Anthrax Island.

It's a chilling tale of biological weapons and government secrets that's perfect for medical mystery fans just like you. From Ballen Studios and Wondry, this is Mr. Ballen's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr. Ballen. A quick note about our stories. They're all inspired by true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. And a reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

This episode was written by Natalie Pritzovsky. Our editor is Heather Dundas. Sound design is by Andre Pleus. Our senior managing producer is Callum Plouce. And our coordinating producer is Sarah Mathis. Our senior producer is Alex Benedon. Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Vytak and Tasia Palacanda. Fact-checking was done by Sheila Patterson. For Ballin Studios, our head of production is Zach Levitt. Script editing by Scott Allen and Evan Allen. Our coordinating producer is Samantha Collins.

Production support by Avery Siegel. Executive producers are myself, Mr. Ballin, and Nick Witters. For Wondry, our head of sound is Marcelino Villapondo. Senior producers are Laura Donna Pallivota and Dave Schilling. Senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr. And our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Lewy, for Wondering. Medical Mysteries fans, I've got a story that's right up your alley. In a recent episode of redacted Declassified Mysteries, which was titled, The Secret of Churchill's Anthrax Island,

host Luke Lamanna reveals how Winston Churchill ordered a top secret biological weapons program on a remote Scottish island during World War II. What began as a classified experiment turned deadly, and decades later, a mysterious group called Dark Harvest forced the government to confront its toxic past. And this is just one of many declassified stories on this podcast called Redacted that will fascinate all you Medical Mysteries listeners. So go ahead and search for Redacted Declassified Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, you can listen to both Redacted and Medical Mysteries early and ad free with

a Wondery Plus subscription.