As a Nigerian, one of the worse experience you can have is sitting in a Molue or BRT bus and having someone standing over you and stretching their arms to hold on to the pole of the bus only for you to get chocked with the person's body odor. At that point, you will dealing with two thing; the inconvenience of overcrowding in the bus, and the Bromhidrosis. People who live in Lagos will be able to relate to this experience. So, let's discuss Bromhidrosis or osmidrosis or ozochrotia (Body Odor), the cause, and how it can be treated.
To be able to understand Bromhidrosis or body odor as you know it to be, we need to first understand our sweat and sweat glands. Sweats are liquid waste that leaves the body through the skin, and there are two types of sweat glands with one that is found in almost every part of our body, and the other in specific regions of the body.
The sweat gland found in almost every part of our body including our face is the Eccrine Gland. When you are walking under the sun and you are sweating profusely like you just had your bath or experienced a downpour of rain, it is the Eccrine gland doing its job. The other sweat gland is the Apocrine Gland which are the glands found in the armpit, groin, areola, and the margins of the eyelids. At birth, the Apocrine glands is loud and present but with growth it becomes quiescent until during puberty when it becomes active again through hormone influence. This gland produces a more thicker sweat compared to the Eccrine gland.
In simple words, what causes body odor are bacteria that cleaves to the skin and not the sweat gland. The Apocrine gland produces odorless apocrine sweat but then, the bacteria living in the skin converts the sweat into malodorous substance. The bacteria includes Corynebacterium species, Staphylococcus hominis, S epidermidis, Cutibacterium avidum, and Acinetobacter schindleri, but people with mutation in the ABCC11 gene do not have body odor as they do not have the transporter that pushes the Apocrine sweat to the skin surface and so the bacteria cannot convert sweat to malodorous substance.
This said, other factors can make a person release sweat that would come with certain smell, such as when a person take foods like garlic. Asides from certain types of food, skin infections like erythrasma, pitted keratolysis, trichomycosis, and Sphingomonas paucimobilis can lead to body odor.
Now that we have established what we need to know about body odor, how do we treat or manage it comes to mind next. The first way to stop body odor is by cleaning the regions where the apocrine glands are located regularly. These areas includes the groins, armpit, breast region, and other regions. Using water, and cleansers with antimicrobial agents in them such as a 4% benzoyl peroxide cleaning agent will keep the area clean and keep the bacteria away from the region, preventing the odor. using Antiperspirants block the sweat gland therby preventing the sweat from getting to the surface, thereby preventing thr body odor. Another way to prevent body odor is by using deodorants which either kills the bacteria or mask the odor.
Navigating the intricacies of Bromhidrosis involves a proactive approach to personal hygiene, incorporating regular cleaning, antiperspirant use, and deodorant application. By understanding the dynamics of body odor, we can effectively manage and alleviate this common concern for a more pleasant daily experience.
Read More
https://dermnetnz.org/topics/bromhidrosis
https://asm.org/articles/2021/december/microbial-origins-of-body-odor
https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-discover-secret-behind-bad-body-odor
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/039463200902200332
https://www.msdmanuals.com/professional/
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/conditions/body-odour-bromhidrosis