No, you’re not imagining it.
Ever found yourself a bit stanky after an intense meeting at work? How about after speaking in front of a group of people? A first date? During a break up?
For some it smells… rubbery. Or musty. Or like bad food. Or sweet. It’s pungent and sometimes thick.
It’s what is most commonly referred to as body odour.
But have you ever noticed that you can go to the gym, sweat like you’ve never sweated before, and you smell just a lil’ salty? Or walk home on a hot day and be soaking wet, yet smell absolutely fine?
HOW BUT ALSO WHY?
Leigh Campbell discusses the difference between exercise sweat and stress sweat on Mamamia’s You Beauty podcast. Post continues…
There’s a simple explanation and it might just be the funnest fact we’ve learned this week.
Exercise sweat is mostly water
When you sweat during exercise or overheating, it’s coming from your eccrine glands. Eccrine glands release an odourless sweat that’s a mixture of water, salt and electrolytes, according to a paper published in Pheromones titled ‘Functional Neuronal Processing of Human Body Odors’.
Its purpose is to cool the body down, researchers have found, and once this type of sweat hits the air, it evaporates. You’ll often find that if you touch your armpit while it’s sweating during exercise, the skin is actually quite cool.
Top Comments
This stuff from CVS which is used to cleanse the hands before performing medical procedures (surgeons can scrub in with it) is great for an occasional armpit wash to keep the bio-stank in check. You don't generally need it every day, just a couple of times a week, unless you're in 90 degree/90% humidity weather a lot or unless you are having A LOT of difficult conversations. :) So... Got Funk? Want it gone? here's your answer. You can get by with less deodorant.
https://www.cvs.com/shop/cv...
Just FYI - those links don’t work outside the US, you may not have realised this is an Australian based website.