SWEAT ISN'T SMELLY

Today we'll be debunking myths about body odor, we actually have two types of sweat. We have sweat that comes from our eccrine glands and so those are the glands that are everywhere and it helps us with thermoregulation, so it helps to cool us down when we're working out, when we're getting too hot. We have apocrine glands, those are sweat glands that we see in areas like the underarms, the groin, the chest all the areas that we sometimes associate with being smelly but the actual sweat from the apocrine glands does not smell.

Why does that area smell? It's the bacteria in those areas. The bacteria in those areas will use what the gland produces as food and it's the byproduct of that, that actually smells stinky. Fun fact, there are thousands of types of bacteria and fungus and yeast and things like that on your body, it's completely normal, it's part of our microbiome. Some quick tips to remember to help with the smelly odor.

1.It's okay to shower every day.

2. Eat a healthy diet.

3. Ask a medical professional.

Everyone's armpits stink. That is a myth, there's actually two percent of the population that has a special mutation, I believe it's the ABCC11 gene, they don't have smelly odors, so not everybody's armpits stink. There are a lot of different treatments for treating smelly armpits.

1. Using antibacterial soap is probably the easiest hack for all of it

2. Oral medications

3. Prescription antiperspirants

4. Botox

I know you're going to be thinking botox? like that's for the other stuff. You actually can use botox to minimize the sweating in the area.

Smelly feet mean bad hygiene

No, this is incorrect, smelly feet means smelly feet, doesn't mean bad hygiene, we know that we're producing sweat everywhere and that sweat then becomes bacteria food. Well, the feet are really a unique area, it's one of the highest concentrations of sweat glands on the body and although there are more kind of accrine glands in the apocrine glands, and still creating a moist environment is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria and yeast, and because our feet are often enclosed in shoes, in dark areas, that's literally yeast food. This is why we see a lot of fungus and a lot of yeast on the feet and because of this the feet are going to be a little bit more prone to having a smell. Socks are important as well. Wearing cotton socks that are absorptive and they're going to lick away that moisture from the feet.

Your signature scent never changes

This is incorrect. Just like we are dynamic beings, we're changing, our hormones are changing, our micro environments changing, our diets are changing and all these things play a really critical role in how we smell. As we get older and our hormones change, we all know that teenage boys smell a little bit different than they smelled when they were six. As we get older our skin barriers tend to deteriorate a little bit and there's more oxidation of certain things on our skin itself, so that old person smell, it's actually due to changes in how our skin is protected from the environment around us and the oxidation of these certain chemical compounds can actually cause a specific scent.