4 Reasons You Might Have Body Odour

Have you ever had to drive or ride past the Landfill at Ojota? The assault to the nose is quite remarkable. Now imagine having to endure a similarly deadly smell, every single day at the office or 1hour of your bus ride? yeah, doesn’t sound good to us either. And that’s why we need to prevent body odour.

Sometimes, we might smell due to external forces, like going through a muddy food market. Terrible personal hygiene and stinky clothes are another good source of the embarrassment called body odour.

What Is Body Odour

Body odour is the foul smell that comes off a human body, due to the break down of sweat by skin bacteria. Simply put, the micro-organisms on your skin act on the sweat to form the terrible-smelling acid. Popularly known as B.O, this phenomenon is known medically as Bromhidrosis, Ozochrotia and Osmidrosis.

Basically, any unpleasant smell from the body is body odor. This phenomenon often begins or becomes obvious at puberty.

Obese people, spicy-food lovers and those who suffer from certain health conditions are more susceptible to odours. Excessive sweating, whether naturally or from bodily imbalances, increase the likelihood of B.O.

While your sweat might not stink normally, all those tiny itty-bitty bacteria will rapidly multiply in the presence of your extra moist skin. And the more the merrier, the breakdown of sweat increases with the higher number of microbes.

ALSO READ: DEALING WITH BAD BREATH ONCE AND FOR ALL

Causes of Body Odour

The most likely sources of body odour from that person next to you in the bus are: Armpits, genitals, feet, anus and behind the ears. The belly button also stinks a bit, but might not be the source of that much offense.

To some people, their body odour actually smells pleasant and is unique to them.

Causes

1. As earlier mentioned, the action of bacteria on sweat is the main cause of body odor. Apparently, most body odor comes from break down of sweat linked to the Apocrine glands. The glands are in the eyelids, armpits, groin, breasts and ears.

The Apocrine glands are responsible for secreting fat droplets into breast milk. Earwax secretion in the ear are from apocrine glands. In skin and eyelids, they are simply sweat glands.

On the skin they are actually scent glands. This explains why the bearer perceives a nice scent. However, the apocrine glands produce high-protein sweat and this is easily broken down by the bacteria.

2. Foot Odor

   Is one of the most intense sources of body odour. The lack of air on covered feet gives the bacteria more sweat and more time to break it down into smelly components. Moist feet also allow growth of fungi, regardless of whether the moisture is from sweat or clean water. Fungi in the feet increase the possibility of stinks.

3. Spicy food

   

   Like garlic have the potential to make sweat much stinkier. A meat-rich diet is also suspected of having similar effects.

4. Medical factors: Certain medical conditions influence how we sweat and therefore how we smell. The difference might be in the quantity of sweat or the components. Some of these conditions include thyroid gland malfunctions and menopause which increase sweating. Kidney and liver diseases as well as diabetes influence the constituents of the sweat and can make a person smell differently.

Seek medical attention if you experience

• Night sweats
• Cold sweats
• Abnormally excessive sweating
• You smell differently; e.g a fruity smell could be a sign of diabetes while a chlorine-like smell can be liver or kidney disease.