Reasons for Body Odour
Body odour is a common problem that can become unpleasant. It can affect many people’s self-confidence, causing anxiety, low self-esteem, and social withdrawal. There are many common misconceptions about body odour and its causes. Most commonly, body odour presents as a scent coming from the armpits or other sweaty areas, but it is also noticeable as bad breath or as smells coming from other parts of the body. In this article, we’ll unpack what body odour is, what different types of body odour commonly affect people, and what causes it.
What is body odour?
Body odour, also known as ‘bromhidrosis’ or ‘BO’, is the often unpleasant smell caused by bacteria breaking down the proteins into acids in sweat on the skin. Many people incorrectly believe that their sweat smells bad, but in fact, human sweat itself is almost completely scentless. It’s the process of the bacteria reacting with the sweat on the skin that causes body odour.
Sweating is an essential bodily function that helps us regulate our body temperature, even if it leads to the unpleasant smell of body odour for some people. Sweat, or perspiration, is released from two different types of glands in our bodies - the eccrine glands and the apocrine glands. Eccrine glands are located all over the body and release sweat directly onto the skin’s surface, there is a higher concentration of them on the hands and feet. Apocrine glands are located in areas where pubic hair is present like the armpits and groin, and sweat is released through the hair follicles. Apocrine gland sweat is a thicker, milkier liquid than eccrine gland sweat and tends to produce the kind of sweat that can lead to body odour.
The amount you sweat doesn’t necessarily affect whether you will experience body odour. Many people who sweat a lot don’t produce noticeable body odour, and some people who barely sweat will produce an unpleasant body odour that’s very noticeable. This is because body odour is caused by the bacteria present on a person’s skin and how that bacteria reacts with a person's sweat, not the sweat itself or the amount of it.
Types of Body Odour
There are many different types of body odours that people experience, caused by a broad range of factors.
Some of the most common body odours are described as smelling:
- Sweet and tangy: Like sweet cakes or a vanilla aroma
- Cheesy: Like strong mature cheddar or stinky cheese
- Oniony or garlicky: Like the smell of savoury food being cooked
- Sour and acidic: Like off-milk or sour, sharp-tasting foods
- Fishy: Like raw or off seafood or fish products
- Musty: Like a stuffy room or motheaten or damp clothes
- Ammonia: Chemical-like, pungent and gassy
- Like curry or spices: Like cumin, coriander, fenugreek, etc.
- Like faeces or urine: Unclean and unsanitary aromas
In many cases, body odour doesn’t have a specific scent that can be described as smelling like anything else, just an unusual, bad, strong ‘BO’ scent that’s either strange or more noticeable and pungent as it increases. Many people excrete strong body odour without sweating heavily, too.
Reasons and Causes for Body Odour
There are multiple reasons and causes for body odour. It affects people due to their lifestyle choices, diet, health conditions, time of life, and much more. We’ll cover some of the most common and significant causes of body odour here.
Body odour usually becomes more noticeable once someone reaches puberty. This is because hormones, pubic hair and sweat glands like the apocrine glands become active at this time. Before puberty, in most cases, children won’t sweat heavily and experience body odour.
Many things can cause heavy sweating, from a lot of exercise to hot weather to obesity, but some people suffer from excessive sweating, which is a health condition referred to as ‘hyperhidrosis’. This is when someone sweats more than they need to regulate their body temperature, often for no apparent reason.
Hyperhidrosis can be caused by a wide range of factors, ranging from genetic disposition to mental health conditions and heightened stress to taking certain types of medications that bring on the condition. Someone with hyperhidrosis might sweat even when it’s really cold. It can be an embarrassing and uncomfortable condition, sometimes managed by healthcare professionals with medication and special antiperspirants. Excessive sweating, if not managed, can be a contributor to unpleasant body odour for those who experience it.
Our natural, built-in human stress response causes us to sweat, which in turn can affect our body odour. In fact, our ‘stress sweat’ can produce smells different to the sweat we release through exercise or simply being hot, and many people think it causes us to smell worse than regular sweat does. When our body is responding to stress, whether it’s a fight or flight response to danger, work pressure, or an argument, our apocrine glands respond immediately, producing ‘stress sweat’. In some people, ‘stress sweat’ can cause a stronger-smelling body odour than the sweat we release for other reasons.
Women and those assigned female at birth (AFAB) often report changes to their sweat levels and body odour in response to their hormones at different times in their cycles and lifetimes. Changes in hormone balances can definitely affect sweat and body odour.
The different stages in women’s and AFAB’s cycles and lives, when hormonal fluctuations can affect their sweat levels and body smells, include:
- When they’re on their period: Changes to body odour, increased sweating, and changes to hormone balances are commonly reported when people are on their period. Research also suggests that women and AFAB people naturally smell different when they’re ovulating to be more attractive to potential mates.
- Coming off the contraceptive pill: Many women and AFAB people report increased sweating as their hormone levels readjust to coming off contraceptive pills or having the implant removed, which can affect their body odour. However, some people don’t notice any changes.
- During pregnancy: The varying levels of hormones running through a mother’s body throughout pregnancy can significantly impact how much sweat and chemicals are released, often affecting their body odour.
- Postpartum (after giving birth): The stages after giving birth and adjusting to new sleep patterns, hormone balances, and parental responsibilities, such as breastfeeding, can significantly impact a mother's stress levels and, therefore, the amount of sweat she produces, affecting her body odour.
- Perimenopause and menopause: Weight gain or loss, night sweats, hot flashes, and significant hormonal fluctuations women and AFAB people experience during perimenopause and menopause can cause excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis), which can contribute to changes and increases in body odour.
It might seem obvious, but what we put into our bodies can significantly impact the smells they produce. What we eat and drink can affect how much body odour we emit or the way it smells.
Some foods are known to cause us to sweat more, which in turn can impact our body odour. While the following food types don’t directly cause body odour, the increased sweat levels they can cause could be a factor in an increase in body odour.
Food and drinks that can increase sweating include:
- Caffeinated drinks such as coffee
- Alcoholic drinks, including beer, wine, and spirits
- Spicy foods, anything containing chilli (the spicier the food, the sweatier you’ll be)
- Spices such as cumin, dried coriander, curry powder or fenugreek
- Food containing monosodium glutamate (MSG)
Alcohol, in addition to causing an increase in sweat levels that can increase the potential for body odour, can also impact the way we smell if consumed at high enough levels. Many people smell of the alcohol they drank the night before in the morning, and alcohol levels can be detected on the breath for several hours after consumption.
Foods that can directly affect the way you smell are often rich in sulfur, which has a smell similar to rotten eggs. If you eat a lot of sulfur-rich foods, sulfur levels can build up and may be secreted out through your sweat, which can affect your body odour, sometimes with an unpleasant stench.
Some sulphur-rich foods include:
- Garlic
- Onions
- Eggs
- Red meat
- Cruciferous vegetables (such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, rocket, turnip, kohlrabi, kale, and watercress)
- Legumes (particularly black beans, soybeans, white beans, kidney beans and split peas)
If you struggle with bad body odour or excessive sweating, it might be worth examining what you eat and drink and adjusting your diet to eliminate some of these triggers to see if it improves your issues.
Some people who follow the ketogenic (keto) diet for weight loss are likely to develop bad breath as a result of the diet. This is because, if the diet is successful, they are in ketosis, a state where their body is breaking down fats and releasing ketones through their urine and breath. People following the keto diet who are in a state of ketosis commonly have bad breath that smells fruity or acetone-like as a result of the diet.
Our physical health can significantly impact our body odour, including our breath, which can be a tell-tale sign that something is wrong. Several diseases and conditions can affect the way we smell, many of which we should pay close attention to in order to monitor changes to our well-being.
Some of the most common medical conditions that can affect body odour include:
- Diabetes
- Kidney disease
- Liver disease
- Gout
- Cancer
- An overactive thyroid
- Cancer and its various treatment types can cause various changes to body odour due to changes in chemicals and hormones in the body. Kidney and liver disease often cause a bleach-like body odour due to toxins building up in the body, and gout and an overactive thyroid commonly cause sufferers to gain weight and sweat excessively, which can increase the likelihood of body odour.
- The importance of monitoring body and breath odour for diabetes management
- People with diabetes, especially type 1 diabetes, and those living with or taking care of them should be on the lookout for changes in the way their body odour or breath smells. This is because these changes can be helpful indicators of increased ketone levels in the blood.
- For diabetic people, high ketone levels increase the acidity in their blood and can put them at risk of developing diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), which is a life-threatening condition where there is a severe lack of insulin in the body. Some tell-tale signs of DKA include changes to the way a diabetic person smells, including:
- A fruity body odour
- The smell of ketones on their breath (they smell similar to pear drops)
- A faeces-like body odour (this may be coupled with continuous vomiting or indicate an intestinal blockage)
According to Diabetes UK, other warning signs and symptoms of increased ketone levels and the possible risk of developing DKA include:
- High blood sugar levels
- Being very thirsty
- Needing to pee more often
- Feeling tired and sleepy
- Confusion
- Blurred vision
- Stomach pain
- Feeling or being sick
- Sweet or fruity-smelling breath (like nail polish remover or pear drop sweets)
- Passing out.
Diabetes UK advises that:
‘The early signs of DKA can often be treated with extra insulin and fluids if it is picked up quickly. But if it isn’t, DKA needs hospital treatment and can be life-threatening.’
Sweat Rashes and Fungal Yeast Infections
Sweat rash, called ‘intertrigo’, is a common skin condition caused by hot, sweaty skin rubbing together, commonly found under the armpits, underneath the breasts or around the groin area. People commonly develop a sweat rash in hot, humid climates, particularly during the summer when they’re sweating more often.
Areas where sweat rashes occur are prime locations for fungal yeast infections to set in, caused by a fungus called Candida. Candida is a yeast that lives all over our skin and, at normal levels, it doesn’t usually cause any problems. However, in areas where there is a build-up of heat, moisture and bacteria, like under a sweaty, rashy armpit, Candida can thrive and develop into an unpleasant yeast infection called Candidiasis. This is where the Candida has dug beneath the skin, causing a skin infection, with symptoms including itchiness, scaling, swelling, and small spots around the area. The build-up of yeast can also cause an unpleasant, foul-smelling or musty odour.
Candidiasis is commonly treated with anti-fungal creams or ointments. The best way to avoid developing a fungal yeast infection under your armpit or anywhere else on your body is to wash regularly, wear loose, breathable clothing, wear topical antiperspirants or use drying powders under your arms.
Unusual Body Odour
While some people might find all types of body odours strange and unusual, especially if they don’t experience them themselves, some are particularly unusual and should be looked out for, as they could indicate a health problem that should be looked at by a medical professional.
Everyone has their own personal, distinct body odours, even if they’re mild. Get familiar with yours and those of the people you live with and anyone you take care of, and be on the lookout for changes in yours and theirs, especially if there are any sudden changes or the body odour is getting worse.
Ketones on the breath
We’ve already mentioned the sweet, pear drops or acetone-like smell of ketones on the breath that is indicative of either a diabetic person who is at risk of developing diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), or someone who is on the keto diet being in ketosis.
In young children who may not yet have been diagnosed with diabetes, it’s important to look out for this smell on their breath and seek urgent medical attention if you notice the smell of ketones on their breath or in their urine, as they may be at risk of developing DKA which is a life-threatening condition if not treated quickly.
The smell of faeces
If someone’s body odour smells like excrement, often only subtly, it could indicate very severe constipation or an intestinal blockage. This is because the body can’t excrete the faecal matter in its regular way, so some of the waste starts to come out in their sweat. There are various remedies for constipation, but if someone is at the point where their sweat smells of faeces, it’s important to seek medical attention to check that there isn’t something more seriously wrong.
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Common Areas for Sudden Changes in Body Odour
Specific parts of our body can give off specific scents and these can change suddenly in response to changes to our health, environment, stress levels, hormones, and much more. Some of the most common areas where you are likely to notice sudden changes to body odour include:
- The mouth
- The feet
- The genitals
- The armpits
You may also notice distinct changes in the smells of your body's waste, including urine, faeces, genital discharge, and even earwax. Keep a close eye (or nose) on these smells, and if you notice severe changes and distinct, unpleasant smells, seek medical advice from a professional as sudden changes to body odour may indicate an infection or a reaction to changes in medication, diet, or something in your lifestyle.
Reasons for Body Odour in Children
Most people believe that children don’t experience bad body odour until puberty because they don’t release sweat in the same way that adults do until then. However, some children do present with body odour from a young age. Some of the reasons for this include:
- Their diet: If they eat unhealthily or eat a lot of meat and sulphur-rich foods, they could smell more strongly.
- Their activity levels: If they’re highly active, they’ll sweat more which can result in body odour.
- Their weight: Overweight children are prone to heavier sweating, which can cause body odour.
- Poor bathing habits and uncleanliness: A build-up of dirt, sweat and bacteria is a breeding ground for body odour.
Bad body odour is unpleasant for anyone at any age, but children are especially likely to experience bullying and exclusion, so it’s important to monitor their bathing and eating habits to ensure their body odour is managed as well as possible. If it’s still causing them issues, seek the advice of a medical professional.
Body Odour After Showering
One of the most commonly recommended ways to reduce bad body odour is to shower regularly and use antiperspirant, however, some people still experience bad body odour regardless of how often they shower. This could be due to their diet, the medication they take, their genetic make-up, or a range of other reasons. If you’re struggling to manage your body odour, seek the advice of a medical professional who may offer prescription medications and specialist antiperspirants as a solution.
Solutions for Body Odour
There are various solutions for people struggling to manage their body odour. We discuss a range of remedies on our blog, so if you’re looking for some helpful tips, check out this article: Remedies for Body Odour. One new and highly convenient solution that’s considered to be highly effective at managing severe body odour and maintaining personal hygiene is the PDI Hygea Chlorhexidine Wash Cloths that we stock. This is because they contain chlorhexidine, a highly effective antibacterial agent that helps prevent the growth of bacteria on the skin, thus reducing the prevalence of body odour.
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