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Top 10 Amazing Facts About Your Body Odor

Jun 24, 2009

Sweat Does Not Smell

Body odor does not come from sweat itself because sweat is odorless. Your body produces two types of sweat: the eccrine sweat and apocrine sweat. The eccrine sweat represents a clear sweat, consisting mostly of water that does not smell and plays an important role in regulating our body temperature. The apocrine sweat that is produced by the glands is thicker and is located mainly near hair follicles, on the groin area, in the armpits and on the scalp. When bacteria contacts with apocrine sweat on the surface of the skin, the release of chemicals produces your body odor.

Your Body Odor May Indicate a Health Problem

Everyone has its individual body odor, but some types of smell may reveal certain health problems. It is known that if your sweat smells like bleach, it may indicate a kidney or liver disease, while fruity body odor often points to diabetes. Also a rare genetic disorder, called trimethylaminuria, makes a person produce fish-like body odor.

Men's Body Odor is a Turn-on for Women

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, discovered that a compound found in male sweat can cause a number of emotional and physiological changes in women. The male chemical androstadienone in sweat was found to regulate menstrual cycle and increase the release of luteinizing hormone, which plays an important role in stimulating ovulation. The male underarm odor also activates certain brain areas, improving woman's mood and sexual arousal.

Men and Women Choose Partners by Odor

If you do not like your new partner's body odor, you may think twice before having long-term relationships with him or her. Scientists say that body odor is a significant factor in human sexual attraction. Men and women choose partners through their body odor and are attracted to partners with a different immune system to their own. This probably has an evolutionary benefit of maintaining diverse immune system for their children.

Your Body Odor Tells About Your Diet

Spicy foods like garlic, onion, curry and cumin contain compounds that can remain in sweat. If you ate large amount of these foods, the strong body odor they give can persist up to 24 hours after eating them.

Women Smell like Onions while Men Smell like Cheese

A curious study conducted by researchers at Firmenich, a company in Geneva revealed that women's body odor contained high levels of sulphur compound, which together with bacteria, feeding on sweat, produces chemical compound thiol that has a smell of onion. According to their findings, men's sweat was found to contain high levels of fatty acid, which when mixed with bacteria from the underarm, produces the smell, resembling cheese.

Asian People Produce Less Body Odor

Excessive sweating is a more common problem for Caucasians and Africans, who tend to have more hair follicles, where apocrine glands come from. East Asian people appear to have less and smaller apocrine glands, which explains why they might not need to use deodorants as often as populations of Africa and Europe.

Your Body Odor is Unique as Fingerprint

Your body produces one of its kind odor, irrespective of what you eat. Individual odortypes are genetically determined odors of each person, containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that give you an odor different from others, just like fingerprints or DNA sample. Scientists are working at creating special devices to identify individual odortypes to find criminals, terrorists or missing children.

Kids Do Not Stink

Smelly armpits are not a problem for kids. Normally children do not need to mask their body odor until puberty. The pungent body odor appears when a child enters adolescence between the ages 8 to 14 years. During puberty, the androgen hormones activate sweat glands, leading to production of body odor.

Women Detect Body Odors Better than Men

Women are better at recognizing body odors and appear to identify differences in odor quality. Scientists from the Monell Center say that it is easy for women to sniff out underarm odor even if it is masked with antiperspirants. Researchers claim that women's sensitivity to body odor is explained by its biological importance.

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Comments:

Jan 30, 2010 09:35 AM » posted by: Muffin man

Why do my under arms smell different from one another. Male 51

Sep 14, 2009 10:36 PM » posted by: Lynn

I complained to my dr. about my perspiration smelling of bleach for several months. He suggested it was my clothing. Since I have very sensitive skin I assured him it was not my clothes. (I wash my clothes in unscented Armor Hammer and rinse by washing a second time without soap.) Anyway, a few months later, I had acute kidney failure which caused me to go into a coma for several days and permanent memory loss for the period of two months before the failure.
So do not ignore the bleach smell, it can signal a serious condition. I had several symptoms in addition to this that my Dr. just missed. He really felt bad that he didn't connect these warning signs.

Aug 23, 2009 11:11 AM » posted by: Mark

The information given by you is very good about the body odor. If it is a disease than what is its cure?

Aug 19, 2009 11:11 AM » posted by: the nose knows

To the poster "Need Help": This might help you get rid of the BO. Buy a Povidone Iodine skin wash from the drug store. To use it, wet your whole body and head with water. Pour Povidone Iodine skin wash on hands and lather it on your body, hair and face (do include your armpits and groin area). Leave it on for about 2 mins. Rinse it off with water and then proceed with your normal shampoo and soap. Also, since BO bacteria sticks on clothes, I suggest you wash your clothes and underwear with hot water. Stop eating burgers and oily food. Go for salads and vegetables. Drink lots of water. Buy an ionizer for your room to destroy fungus that can build up on your clothes, shoes and skin. Fungus (just like bacteria) smells bad when mixed with perspiration. Do the Povidone Iodine wash at least 3 times a week for the first month.

Jul 15, 2009 11:23 PM » posted by: Need Help?

Try drinking more water and eat a clean diet for a few weeks. Clean means different things to different people, but if you are a junk food junkie cut out fast food. If you are generally a good eater maybe switch to fish a few times a week and only have plain salads. That way you can see if it is due to your food intake. If the smell goes away, then slowly reintroduce foods and note their affect on you.
I did this and realized that after 20 years of thinking I was lactose intolerant, I wasn't. I am allergic to bread. Now I drink a gallon of milk a week & am finally sweating when i work our (I wasn't able to break a sweat even after an hour of intense exercise.) Go figure.

Jul 12, 2009 11:11 AM » posted by: JosephDiego..

Everything makes sense, but the only thing is, when my wife works out it turns me on"Yeah Baby" But I don't think it's an onion that's doing it...If I smelled onions it would have an opposite affect.
Thanks for the great info. Good info for my site.

Jun 29, 2009 11:20 PM » posted by: Need Help

i need help!!!

i have a constant bad body odor that doesnt go away after a thorough shower or using deodorant. my personal doctor has not been much of a help.
any guys out there know what the hell is going on with my body releasing this constant BO?? im 20 and this started when i was about 14/15. reponses will be appreciated

thank you

Jun 29, 2009 11:11 AM » posted by: another fact

The metabolic disorder Maple Syrup Urine Disease produces body odor that smells like maple syrup.

Jun 28, 2009 11:08 PM » posted by: Joe Shmoe

If you have a sensitive nose you can smell salt water. Depends on the person. Also usually we include all contents of the sweat as part of the sweat. We know for example that it is the bacteria on our feet that make feet smell - not the feel themselves. But our bodies are mostly bacteria anyway so ... just semantics anyway.
I enjoyed your article : )

Jun 28, 2009 11:39 AM » posted by: uvidiu

interesting and...useful this top.