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Body odor is caused by bacteria on our skin, and a hormone called DHT, which causes extra-stinky sweat. Watch as sexual health expert Jen Landa, MD, discusses how washing with soap, using an antiperspirant with zinc and avoiding some foods can help.
Another embarrassing problem that I hear from a lot of people is what about body odor? How do I get rid of this thing? All right, so first of all what causes this thing? It's bacteria that live on the skin and when those bacteria digest our sweat, I know it sounds kind of gross but that's really what causes the body odor.
So in addition to that though is a hormone called DHT or Dydrogesterone. So that hormone is like a testosterone but it's even more powerful. So it's in very high levels in men, but even in some women too, so it can cause stinky sweat. So what can you do about this? What I would recommend if you tend to have really stinky sweat after a workout I would recommend washing with soap before the workout, and then I would recommend using an antiperspirant that's made with Zinc.
Most antiperspirants made with lemenium but the Zinc happens to be antibacterial so it helps to decrease that bacterial count that we talked about that causes the stinky sweat in the first place, the other thing it does is it decreases the DHT, that hormone that we talked about, so the Zinc can be very, very useful and it's not what you see in most deodorants but it's very readily available if you look for it.
The other thing to keep in mind that can cause stinky sweat is your diet, strong smelling foods like onions, garlic, curry powder. They're very healthy foods, but they certainly can cause a stinky smell in the sweat. So you may want to look if that is another cause of stinky smelling sweat.
Jen Landa, MD specializes in functional medicine and bioidentical hormone therapy. She is the Chief Medical Officer of BodyLogicMD and author of The Sex Drive Solution for Women. She currently practices medicine in Orlando, Florida.
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