6 reasons that make your body odour worse

6 reasons that make your body odour worse

Body odour can make us embarrassed and sometimes put us in weird situations. A recent news about a flight making emergency landing owing to a passenger’s severe body odour making others to vomit proved how smelly body can be highly awkward. The foremost cause of body odour is believed to be sweat, but there are a lot of other reasons that could be responsible for body odour. From genes to your eating habits, there are various other causes of body odour. These include:

• BACTERIA: There are two kinds of sweat glands in our body: Eccrine gland and Apocrine gland. Eccrine glands help to regulate body temperature and secretion from eccrine gland is found on the entire body. It is made of salt and water and is mostly odourless. Apocrine gland is located near hair follicles, gentiles, underarms and on scalp. It produces thick sweat which is the result of proteins and lipids. When bacteria come in contact with apocrine gland, they cause a chemical reaction and release a foul odour. This causes body odour and when exposed to higher temperatures, stressed or anxious, we tend to notice our body odour.

• YOUR BODY WEIGHT: Another reason that causes body odour is your body weight. Usually, people with heavy body weight have worse body odour. It is because of additional exertion required for doing tasks. Also, sweat may get stuck in thick skin layers, which in turn, gives bacteria a chance to thrive.

• STRESS: This reason may surprise you but stress can make your body sweat. When you’re stressed, it makes apocrine gland to sweat and develops body odour.

• FISH ODOUR SYNDROME: It is a rare medical condition which is characterized by an unpleasant fishy body odour. This smell can also affect your breath, urine and sweat and is believed to be caused by faulty genes. Adopting certain measures such as maintaining hygiene, avoiding stress, using antiperspirants can help you in reducing body odour.

• CERTAIN MEDICINES AND MEDICAL SITUATIONS: There are certain medical conditions that can be responsible for body odour. Medicines like antidepressants can make your body smell weird. Also, certain medical situations such as kidney or liver disease, diabetes, bacterial overgrowth on the skin can cause a strange body odour. You should try to keep your skin clean and should wear breathable clothes to get rid of sweat.

• CERTAIN FOODS: The foods that we eat could also impact our body odour. Vegetables such as onions, cabbage, cauliflower etc. contain sulphur compounds that affect eccrine glands. However, this smell doesn’t last long. Even alcohol and meat can cause body odour and by drinking a lot of water you could easily wash it off.