Why do I smell bad even with good hygiene?

We get worried and think Why do I smell bad even with good hygiene? Something we try everything we hear about, some healthy while others can be detrimental to our health, yet no solution.

Let’s start from the causes of the smell down to why you smell even after taking your bath and using those expensive perfumes and all.

Those bad smells are generally referred to as body odour or BO for short. Body odor is what your body emits when your sweat comes in contact with the bacteria on your skin.

Sweat itself doesn’t smell, but when the bacteria on your skin mix with your sweat, it causes an odor. Body odor can smell sweet, sour, tangy or like onions.

You hear people say he sweats a lot, that’s why he is smelling, but that’s not necessarily true. The amount you sweat doesn’t necessarily impact your body odor.

That’s why a person can have an unpleasant body odor but not be sweaty. So a person can sweat a lot and still not have a body odor.

So we can say body odor is a result of the type of bacteria on your skin and how that bacteria interacts with sweat, not the sweat itself. What causes the unpleasant smell is the bacteria that build up on your sweaty skin and react with sweat and oils to grow and multiply when sweat reacts with bacteria on the skin.

Sweat as a primary source of bad smell

There are two types of sweat glands in the body:

The Apocrine and Eccrine glands.

The Eccrine glands open directly onto your skin and can be found all over your body. When your body temperature rises, they release fluids that evaporate and help your body cool down.

While the Apocrine glands is found in areas where you have hair, such as your armpit and groin area. These glands release a milky fluid when you are stressed and are odorless until they come into contact with bacteria.

Hair is particularly prone to trapping bacteria, which is why men are more likely to smell even after showering. In other words,  lingering underarm odor is caused by enduring bacteria.

As sweating occurs in the areas, bacteria that like warm, moist areas, break down the sweat to produce body odor.

Why do you smell bad?

There are many reasons why you’ll smell bad even with good hygiene and this could be as a result of hormonal changes, medication, food, illness such as Diabetes, Gout, Menopause, Overactive thyroid, Liver disease, Kidney disease, Infectious diseases.

Diabetes: High ketone levels cause your blood to become acidic and your body odor to be fruit. Internal health issues may result in unpleasant body odors (BO), as well, such as liver and kidney disease and hyperthyroidism, which can lead to excessive sweat and increased BO.

In the case of liver or kidney disease, your odor may give off a bleach-like smell due to toxin buildup in your body

Food: If you eat food rich in sulfur you may develop body odor. Sulfur smells like rotten eggs. When it’s secreted from your body in your sweat, it can put off an unpleasant smell.

Food rich in sulfur includes;

Onions
Garlic
Cabbage
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Red meat

Clothes: Most times you bath regularly and apply all the body perfume and deodorant and you still smell, you should consider the fabric of your dress, sometimes it’s still looking new but the fabric is dead and retains the smell.

Even after washing for hours immediately when you put the cloth on, it starts smelling so bad and makes you uncomfortable.

How to prevent this Body odor

Having done all you can do, bathing and all, let’s look at ways to prevent or curb this bad smell from running your day.

Food:

Check your diet, eat healthy, drink a lot of water so your body can clean from the inside. The saying what you eat is who you are becomes literal to you.

Find the meal that you react to or cause a strange smell around you and reduce it, if you can’t entirely stop it.

Keep tabs on your food and changes that come with them and if it works stick to the routine.

Clothes:

Wash your clothes regularly, dispose of dead fabrics( sometimes the garment still looks new and we have grown sentimental attachments to it) but if the fabric is dead, endeavor to dispose of it.

Anti-perspirant:

Before running to get a good spelling deodorant or body spray, endeavor to shave your pubic hair cos they can retain bacteria that will in turn smell.

Mixing deodorant with an existing body odor would only produce a stronger foul and offensive smell. So shave, then use your anti perspirant and also keep taking your bath

See your doctor:

If it is related to a health issue, you should see a doctor before taking any over-the-counter drug. Let your doctor look and assess you and tell you the way forward.

How do you know when to visit your doctor you will ask? If you have done everything hygienically possible and you still feel stinky, escalate it and see your doctor and get access. It would do you good.