do you not smell body odor or do you just get used to it?
Genuinely curious. I have met a few people of different walks of life that I could tell did not and I have always used it, so I’m just curious. I know there was a couple that stopped using it for around a year, and they said their body actually end up not perspiring as much as when they used antiperspirant, but I’d like to know other people’s experiences.
I use non-antiperspirant deodorant. I got tired of the aluminum in antiperspirant staining my shirts and clumping up, then I learned that the aluminum works by being an irritant that causes an allergic swelling that blocks your sweat glands. That all sounds pretty gross to me. I might re-apply deodorant during the day if I’ve been sweating, or put on some fresh clothes or even take a light shower.
aluminum works by being an irritant that causes an allergic swelling
That’s not how it works though
Thank you correcting my understanding! The part I find gross though is less the mechanism and more the result: that all the sweat my body is making is just stuck in the glands. If the anti-perspirant was simply absorbing the sweat as it comes out of the pores, then I would feel different about it.
This is an internet myth based off a single flawed study that hasn’t ever been able to be replicated that you’re shipping as a studied fact. I won’t engage in an argument with you but here are some sources for the lurkers.
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/risk-factors-and-prevention/metals-and-dementia
https://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/controversial-claims-risk-factors
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0161813X19300361 https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-alzheimers/myths
I said theoretically because I recall it not being proven, and it’s been a while since I read anything on the topic.
It’s mildly amusing that my statement suggested to you anything remotely close to “studied fact”. Are you getting enough fiber in your diet? Enough water? There’s empirical evidence out there that those can help with constipation. Now that’s a studied fact! Be well! 😇
This is the correct answer. Deodorant works just fine without cancer causing aluminum oxide.
You don’t have to use it, but aluminum salts are not really cancer-causing:
https://www.healthline.com/health/what-to-know-about-aluminum-in-deodorant
All calories are cancer causing, seriously. We need to stop using that term, because it’s nearly meaningless. We use it to describe something with a 100% cancer rate, and 0.01% rate.
Most people make the greatest risk of their lives, when they get in their car… and here we are all taking precautions against something insanely less likely to cause your death.
Regular deodorant works just as well as antiperspirant for stopping scent, and if you don’t sweat all that much, there is relatively little difference.
Neither. I just don’t smell. Confirmed by partners over the years. As it turns out, it’s genetic. One perk of being Korean I suppose.
The non-functional ABCC11 allele is predominant among East Asians (80–95%), but very low among European and African populations (0–3%).[6] Most of the world’s population has the gene that codes for the wet-type earwax and average body odor; however, East Asians are more likely to inherit the allele associated with the dry-type earwax and a reduction in body odor.[6][32][34] The reduction in body odor may be due to adaptation to colder climates by their ancient Northeast Asian ancestors.[32] Wiki: Body Odor (Genes affecting body odor section)
How do you know they all weren’t wearing it?
There are a lot of people who do wear it but continue to smell because of underlying medical conditions. For example, fruity smelling body odor can indicate diabetes. People with a rare genetic condition called Trimethylaminuria can smell strongly of fish. It all depends on what bacteria (which outnumber your own body cells by 10 to 1 even though they are only 2% of your body mass) and what balance of enzymes you may or may not have.
Reducing perspiration can and often does help, concealing the odor with different ones can help, but sometimes people’s bodies just aren’t right for whatever mass produced product they have bought. Sometimes that can be fixed with medication. Sometimes it can’t.
I knew a guy in university who absolutely reeked. He was a really nice person and I befriended him in a casual way (like sit together in a lecture, chat in the hall). It was clearly a medical thing but people ostracized him and talked behind his back about how he must never shower. I felt really bad for him.
It’s a legitimate disability, and certainly I don’t envy anyone with this issue. We’ve all been taught that people who have maybe acne or body odor or sweating issues or dandruff or whatever else are just people with “poor hygiene”, but the reality is that products and buildings are made to meet the needs of the most ‘average’ person (usually defined by a company selling something), and there is so much variation in how bodies function. When you’re trying to make a product that maximises usage and sales, it’s ironically easy to exclude a lot of people.
Thanks for being kind to that person, I’m glad you were able to see (and smell) past it.
For anyone else who does experience limitations because of their body odor, check out the Job Accessibility Network’s list of possible accomodations for this symptom of your disability. Because medical issues that cause you to be ostracised and limit your ability to function in society are a disability and you deserve an equal opportunity to thrive.
Preach. For a long time I was given shit for dandruff. No matter how clean my hair was, I’d always have dandruff. Wasn’t until I decided to let my hair grow out to donate it, and thus learnt about how to take care of it properly, that it was the shampoo and conditioner I was using that caused it in the first place.
Now it’s clean and healthy, with no dandruff. Bodies are hella weird.
I know people who don’t use antiperspirant because they tell people about it, and how aluminum causes breast cancer and Alzheimer’s. Neither claim is substantiated. Aluminum consumed in food from being cooked in/on aluminum can contribute to Alzheimer’s. The one claiming aluminum causes breast cancer said “Just think about it. It makes sense.”
I personally don’t wear antiperspirant but only when I’m planning on not leaving the house, because sweating feels good sometimes. Not in summer, and I’ll usually wear shirts that absorb snuggles help evaporate my sweat. It gets the salt out and feels better after a workout when I can sweat more.
So here is what I’ve noticed.
The acceptance of sweat BO is partly a cultural thing. At my workplace we have people from all over the world, and there are certain parts of the world where it is clearly uncommon to wear deoderant. Both men and women, although I have noticed it far more with men. I guess if everyone had natural BO, it wouldn’t seem so unusual.
This is not to be confused with uncleanliness, I’m sure these people shower, the scent is purely one of sweat from hard physical labor. It is never better or worse, but always the same and in fact, you can identify people by their particular unique scent.
The primary cultures that don’t use deodorant and smell like a wet ox, in order:
- Magic the Gathering tournament players.
- Board game café customers.
- Gamescom attendants.
