Let me talk about a little-known fact: in fact, the presence of body odour is «normal», and the absence of body odour is «abnormal.»
1. Causes of body odour
There are two types of sweat glands in the human body: 90% are eccrine glands, which are spread all over the body, wicking sweat is relatively thin and generally tasteless. The other is apocrine glands (also known as apocrine glands), which are only concentrated in the armpits, crotch, areola, and external auditory canal. Sweat also contains various proteins and fatty acids, which is related to body odour.
The secretions of the apocrine glands are not smelly, but after the secretions are decomposed by bacteria on the body surface, various unsaturated fatty acids are produced, which gives it a smell.
The direct killer is bacteria, but how can there be no bacteria on the human body? So no matter how wrong you are with the apocrine glands, you still can’t escape the involvement. Who made you provide the murder weapon!
2. What kind of person has body odour?
Think about it: Everyone has apocrine glands, and everyone has bacteria. Why do only a few people have body odour?
Those with body odour are not «a few people» at all! In the beginning, our ancestors all had body odour. In animals, body odour plays a big role and is a pheromone for communication, so most animals have it. For people, body odour still plays a role in attracting the opposite sex, and men’s body odour can cure menstrual irregularities when women smell it. Of course, after a person has a language, it is not so important to communicate with each other, but everyone has the remains of their ancestors.
It is said that before 2000 generations, we once had… (Here, 1994 words omitted) Great grandfathers walked out of tropical Africa and entered temperate Asia. The 538th base of the ABCC11 gene in the middle of chromosome 16 has a genetic mutation, resulting in a genetic mutation. Apocrine glands reduce secretion. This mutant gene occurred in East Asia. Because sweating is reduced and it is more adapted to the cold temperate climate, it has a genetic advantage. Therefore, after 40,000 years of natural selection, the mutant gene that removes body odour has become the majority in East Asia, and body odour has become a very small number…
Therefore, people without body odour are all descendants of that genetic mutation, and they are all mutants. (Do you feel like you are hanging like an X-men?) 95% of Chinese people are X-men, and over 99% of the population in the Central Plains of North China are X-men. The Chinese have escaped the fate of living with body odour all day long. You don’t know what a small probability this is.
People in other regions are not as lucky as the Chinese. In East Asia, Koreans are similar to Chinese, and 99% have no body odour. But only 84% of Japanese people do not have body odour, and 16% have body odour! There is one out of six people. Think about it. This is not the worst, not in East Asia, it would be even worse! Only 30% of the natives in Oceania do not have body odour, and only 10% of the white people do not have body odour! Only 0.5% of blacks have no body odour! In other words, except for East Asians, almost everyone with crooked nuts has body odour! Take a look at the body odour gene distribution map below. The yellow one is the X-man type without body odour, and the blue one is the wild type with body odour. Except for the yellow land of East Asia, the rest of the world is full of body odour! There are far more people with body odour in the world than people without body odour!
Some people may say that it is body odour, not body odour. Boy, I am sorry to tell you that body odour is body odour, and body odour is body odour. Including the ancient Chinese poem saying that women «sweet sweat and thin clothes are cool, and cool clothes are fragrant in thin sweat», which is also body odour. One fragrance and one smell seem to be the opposite, but the mechanism is the same. When it’s weak, it smells good, and when it’s thick, it smells bad. Even when the skatole in the stool is diluted, it will turn into a floral scent, which can be used to make perfume. If you understand this truth, you will know that you can’t spray more perfume. If you spray too much, it will become poop!
The term «nobody odour» mentioned in this article just follows what everyone is used to say. Strictly speaking, it is just «fading of body odour». It is not different from having body odour, and no one is complete without body odour.
3. How to eliminate body odour? What is the mechanism?
Most people in the world have body odour, my goodness! How did we live to this day in a body odour?
It is not as hot as you think. For example, Americans and British people are not full of body odour. At least not in developed countries. Since body odour is so common, there must be a very popular and effective way to deal with it. Very simple, that is to use deodorant.
Since the cause of body odour is 1 sweating and 2 bacteria, the mechanism of body lotion inhibiting body odour starts from these two aspects.
Common ingredients and functions in deodorant are as follows:
1) Aluminum salt, which acts as an antiperspirant.
When aluminium salt encounters acidic sweat, it condenses into a gel to block the apocrine glands and prevent secretion. When you encounter alkaline soap when taking a bath, the gel will dissolve, dredge the sweat glands, discharge secretions, and prevent prickly heat from being blocked. Therefore, the antiperspirant should be reapplied after every shower. Someone mentioned that alum (potassium aluminium sulfate) applied to the underarms can deal with body odour because alum is also an aluminium salt, which can deodorize perspiration. The most common ingredient of the antiperspirant we use is Aluminium zirconium tetrachloro hydration glycin. Ouch, you see my name is so long, it is more than enough to block your apocrine glands.
2) Alcohol: The role is to kill bacteria.
Someone mentioned that the no-wash hand sanitiser can also remove body odour when applied to the underarms. The mechanism is the same because the main component of the hand sanitiser is alcohol. When there is no deodorant, you can use a hand sanitiser for emergencies.
3) Ammonium aluminium sulfate: Continuously inhibit the growth of bacteria.
One-time sterilization is not enough. If a day is so long, the bacteria will multiply again after a few hours, and it will still smell. It is too troublesome to apply underarms repeatedly all day long, so we need to have a continuous antibacterial agent. Ammonium aluminium sulfate is used for this purpose, and one rub can last a day.
Some people also mentioned that urotropine solution can eliminate body odour and is also a bacteriostatic agent. The principle is that urotropine slowly releases formaldehyde and ammonia in an acidic sweat environment to achieve the purpose of continuous sterilization. The disadvantage is that the side effects of formaldehyde and ammonia are compared. Big.
4) Essence: The role is to cover up the smell.
After the above three lines of defence, if there is still a little aftertaste, it is finally covered with fragrance. In the case of severe body odour, it is impossible to cover with the fragrance alone, and the taste is sourer when mixed, and the effect should be used in conjunction with the other methods above.
Most deodorants on the market are multi-pronged with the above ingredients, so they are very effective against body odour. Different brands of deodorant may have different ingredients. Some are pure antiperspirants, some may not have antiperspirants, and some may be pure fragrances. Please pay attention to the label to distinguish. The brand is not recommended here. Deodorant is not high-tech, it is ordinary daily necessities such as shampoos and skin creams. Most brands have similar effects. Just find one and try it.
The secretion of apocrine glands is also affected by hormones. People with body odour genes usually start to have body odour after puberty, which is not seen by children before puberty. In addition, diet, mood, aunt’s period, etc. will also affect the level of hormones in the body, thereby affecting the degree of body odour. But with a simple and effective deodorant, there is no need to mention those difficult-to-control diet methods.
Shaving the armpit hair can reduce the space for bacteria to multiply and reduce the degree of body odour, but the effect is very limited.
Finally, surgical removal of the apocrine glands in the armpits can be performed.
Deodorants in the U. S. are indeed very common. Any daily supermarket has at least one entire container of various brands of deodorants. There are sprays, coatings, pastes, powders, and crystals…
As for underdeveloped countries, that is not necessarily true. It is often said that Indians eat curry too much and they have the taste of curry. Hello! You wronged curry in this way, have you considered the feeling of curry? The original meaning of curry is to mix spices, it smells good, where is it so unpleasant?
The so-called «curry flavour» is the same body odour as whites and blacks. It is only due to various objective reasons that India does not have the habit of using deodorant, which gives people a different impression.
Having said that, do you think that East Asians are more evolved and better than us?
Not necessarily.
4. What other characteristics are there in people with body odour?
Those who are attentive may have noticed: As mentioned at the beginning of the article, apocrine glands are not only distributed in the underarm and crotch, but also the external auditory canal and areola. What are the consequences of the genetic mutation that removes body odour?
First of all, body odour and oily ears are controlled by the same gene. High secretion of apocrine glands in the armpits leads to body odour, and excessive secretion of apocrine glands in the ear canal leads to oily ears. Body odour and oily ears are good brothers, and body odour is often accompanied by oily ears.
Although it’s great to dig out your ears, doctors don’t recommend digging out your ears. It’s easy to accidentally pierce the eardrum. The most ironic thing is that the cotton swab packaging says «Don’t use cotton swabs to dig out your ears.» This is probably the same as the cigarette packaging saying «Smoking is harmful to your health.» It is the least existential warning in history.
A large number of deodorants and large packs of cotton swabs in the supermarket, the two seemingly inaccessible products, are caused by the same gene. What a miraculous thing.
Smart, you must have noticed the distribution of apocrine glands, there is still another place I haven’t said yet. Um! That is-the breast is also a variant of the apocrine glands!
Hey, do you suddenly have an ominous premonition?
Although the breasts of Asian women are generally small, it must be explained here that there is no inevitable relationship between breast size and lactation ability.
However, the breast is directly related to the ability of lactation. The incidence of insufficient milk in Asian women is significantly higher than that in Western women. This is also caused by the gene mutation that removes body odour!
Therefore, the gene mutation to remove body odour is not necessarily an advantage, it also has the disadvantage of insufficient milk. In the colder areas of East Asia, the advantage of less sweating outweighs the disadvantage, so it has become the mainstream in East Asia. However, people with the same mutant gene will go south to Southeast Asia, or cross the Bering Strait into the Americas and then go south to Central America. In the tropics, less sweating becomes a disadvantage.
Gene mutation itself does not matter evolution or degeneration. It is just a blind change. As for whether it can be inherited, it depends on good fortune. As for whether the inherited gene is more adapted to the environment or less adapted to the environment, it also changes with time and place. And changed.
5. Some common problems
- Will body odour recur after surgery? Are there any side effects?
The apocrine glands are not separate pieces of tissue but are mixed with other skin tissues. It is difficult to remove the apocrine glands alone without damaging the other tissues of the skin.
Whether it can be completely eliminated/recurrence/side effects depends on the technique used in the operation. Some techniques even cut the flesh of the belt and leave big scars, while some techniques are light-handed but not completely removed.
I personally think that with a simple and effective deodorant, why bother to go for surgery?
As for the relationship between body odour and breast cancer, there is currently no conclusion. Some surveys have shown that women with body odor have a higher risk of breast cancer than those without body odour, but there are other research studies that show no significant difference between the two. Scientists are still in the process of tearing. Onlookers please be patient and wait for the results of the tearing.
- How much is the relationship between body odour and armpit hair?
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- and BALA BALA…