Your armpits and groin are typically the stinkiest areas on your body, says Massick. That's because these areas are full of apocrine glands, which produce odor-emitting sweat after mixing with the bacteria on your skin.
This happens mostly in the axillary (armpit) region, although the gland can also be found in the areola, anogenital region, and around the navel. In humans, the armpit regions seem more important than the genital region for body odor, which may be related to human bipedalism.
Apocrine glands open up into your hair follicles. Hair follicles are the tube-like structure that keeps your hair in your skin. You can find apocrine glands in your groin and armpits. These glands produce sweat that can smell when it comes in contact with bacteria on your skin.
Although there is some controversy on the subject of "racial" variation in body odor, it is determined that African blacks probably produce the greatest amount of apocrine sweat, which is the known substrate for axillary odor.
No sex differences. However, in both men and women, female axillary odors are judged weaker and less unpleasant than male axillary odors.
ABCC11: the “no body odor gene”
People with the ABCC11 non-functioning gene variant have dry earwax and little or no body odor.
ODOR AFTER A SHOWER IS DUE TO LINGERING BACTERIA
In addition to bacteria, oftentimes there is deodorant residue and other impurities that are trapped in the underarm pores and within the hair if you have armpit hair.
Being overweight: Skin folds can hold sweat and bacteria. This creates an ideal home for body odor. Eating spicy, pungent foods: Eating spicy, pungent foods: The scents of these foods can enter into the eccrine sweat glands and make body odor seem worse.
While only 2 percent of Europeans lack the genes for smelly armpits, most East Asians and almost all Koreans lack this gene, Day told LiveScience.
Trimethylaminuria (TMAU) is an uncommon condition that causes an unpleasant, fishy smell. It's also called "fish odour syndrome". Sometimes it's caused by faulty genes that a person inherits from their parents, but this isn't always the case. There's currently no cure, but there are things that can help.
The sweat under breasts is secreted by the apocrine glands, while sweat from the rest of the body is produced by eccrine glands. Apocrine glands in the skin are scent glands, and the sweat they produce is thicker and typically has odor.
Scents that humans are particularly attuned to include chemical components in bananas, flowers, blood and sometimes pee. In 2013, Laska and colleagues tested the abilities of humans, mice and spider monkeys to detect urine odors found in common mouse predators.
And according to the results, vanilla is the most pleasing smell around, followed by ethyl butyrate, which smells like peaches. Artin Arshamian, researcher at Karolinska and one of the study's authors, said humans may have similar olfactory preferences because it helped early humans survive.
Groin sweat contains fatty acids and proteins which feed bacteria. As the bacteria break down the nutrients in groin sweat, foul-smelling acids are left behind.
Many doctors say a daily shower is fine for most people. (More than that could start to cause skin problems.) But for many people, two to three times a week is enough and may be even better to maintain good health.
As gross as it may sound, sweat is the number one cause for the smell emitting from most office chairs. The moisture from sweat, coupled with the accumulation of dust and bacteria, create the perfect mixture for bad smells. Body odor can also transfer to the office chair material, making for an embarrassing situation.
At about age 40, the body subtly changes the way omega-7 unsaturated fatty acids on the skin are degraded. These acids get exposed to the air and create a compound called “nonenal.” Nonenal most likely gets produced due to hormone imbalances.
Two percent of people carry an unusual form of a specific gene (ABCC11) that means their armpits never smell. The finding came from new research involving 6,495 women who are enrolled in the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol, England, and was published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
According to a group of researchers from the University of Bristol in the UK, 2 percent of people (at least in their survey) carry a rare version of the gene ABCC11 that prevents their armpits from producing an offensive odor.