Sweaty armpits can suck, sure, but what if the smell is bad for cleaning the room?
You may be surprised to know that sweat itself usually has no odor. It's the bacterial breakdown of fatty acids and amino acids in sweat that gives it its telltale stench. If the odor seems to have increased lately, don't just put on extra deodorant and wait for it to fix; pay attention to possible causes.
Changes in hormonal balance , metabolic disorders , bacterial skin infections , and food eaten can have an impact on the amount and type of sweat we produce.
Smelly sweats have an official name: bromhidrosis , and it occurs mainly in the genital area, armpits and feet.
4 types of sweat odors and their causes
Ammonia or urine
The culprit may be a high-protein diet.
Low-carb, high-protein, or ketogenic diets may be popular, but a strange side effect is that you may notice that your sweat smells like ammonia. Urine may also have a strong ammonia odor.
Ammonia is a breakdown product of proteins. May help reduce protein intake to relieve ammonia-smelling sweat.
Onion
This may be due to dinner last night.
Have you recently sat down to eat a plate of garlic pasta? Or did you have a stir-fry with a lot of onions? These foods can affect the smell of your sweat. So if you think you smell like onion, that curry dish you ordered last night might be the answer.
Some people also have bacteria hanging in their armpits that could increase the smell of fresh onion, according to a January 2015 research in Microbiome. Odors tend to be worse if you have more bacteria on your skin or if you sweat more.
Sour smell
The cause is usually in the bacteria on the skin.
We all have our own microbiome or bacteria that reside on our skin, specifically in areas like the armpit and groin. These bacteria generate the odor after the sweat precursors are broken down.
If you're wondering why you smell sour or vinegar, you may have more than one specific bacteria, Corynebacterium , in your armpits that produce putrid fatty acids.
The armpits often have nastier compounds, including thiols , which smell like skunk. Many people equate skunk to marijuana, so if you think your sweat smells like weed, here's a hint.
Fish or rotten
The culprit may be a metabolic disease.
Bad body odors can also be indicative of a metabolic disease. These are rare, but one example is trimethylaminuria , also known as "fish smell syndrome," where the body cannot break down trimethylamine, a compound found in certain foods. If you have this disorder, your sweat will smell like rotten fish.
If you notice that your body odor is unpleasant and won't go away, talk to your doctor about it.
How to improve body odor?
Health experts recommend:
- Use an effective deodorant and antiperspirant (ask your doctor to recommend one if you haven't found one that works).
- Quickly change out of sweaty clothes.
- Wash the smelly area with antibacterial soap.
- Remove body hair (in places like the armpits) to control odor.
