"Eating well — lots of fresh food, including fruits and vegetables and clean protein — really keeps the body fresh and running smoothly, thus providing the perfect substrate for fragrance," she says. She adds that alcohol can have an adverse effect on body odor.
ODOR AFTER A SHOWER IS DUE TO LINGERING BACTERIA
Most people do not pay enough attention to their armpits in the shower, resulting in bacteria lingering in the armpits.
Certain food, drugs and medical conditions may also cause body odor. If you have severe body odor or a change in body odor, see your doctor. Your doctor can look for what's causing it and then talk to you about treatment options.
You'd smell
Unsurprisingly, a person would develop quite a funk after 365 showerless days. Rokhsar said your stench likely would come as a result of the bacteria and dead skin accumulating on you. After a year, he said, you'd have a build-up of skin stratum corneum, or dead skin on top of your skin.
If you're concerned about sweating and body odor, the solution may be simple: an antiperspirant or deodorant. Antiperspirant. Antiperspirants contain aluminium-based compounds that temporarily block sweat pores, thereby reducing the amount of sweat that reaches your skin. Deodorant.
One way is to take your shirt off and sniff that instead of your skin, recommends Lifehacker. Other ways to check your own scent is to rub your scalp, then smell your fingers; check your breath by licking your arm, waiting a second, then sniffing the spot. Or even quicker and easier—ask your parent to give you a whiff!
One study even showed that the genetic coding for a certain protein that helps to bind on to smells and help them reach the smell receptors in the nose, does vary in a population, so some people may naturally have a better sense of smell than others.
The answer has to do with hormones—specifically, pheromones. “Pheromones are chemicals that animals and humans produce, which change and influence the behavior of another animal or human of the same species,” says Erica Spiegelman, wellness specialist, recovery counselor, and author of The Rewired Life.
Your genes can also play a big role in how good or bad you smell. In fact some people, no matter how much they shower, still smell bad. Callewaert has found these individuals have a larger amount of “bad” bacteria. His approach is to replace the “bad” bacteria that produce the smell with “good” bacteria.
Many doctors say a daily shower is fine for most people. (More than that could start to cause skin problems.) But for many people, two to three times a week is enough and may be even better to maintain good health.
If you're worried you're one of these people, one trick is to lick your wrist, wait ten seconds, then sniff the patch you licked: If it smells, chances are, so does your breath. An even more reliable method, of course, is simply to ask someone.
It would be amazing if you could sniff yourself and immediately pick up on any emanating odors, but alas, life isn't so simple. According to Lifehacker, it can be quite difficult to detect your own body odors because the receptors in your nose shut down after smelling the same scent for too long.
Trimethylaminuria (TMAU) is an uncommon condition that causes an unpleasant, fishy smell. It's also called "fish odour syndrome". Sometimes it's caused by faulty genes that a person inherits from their parents, but this isn't always the case. There's currently no cure, but there are things that can help.
While there is no ideal frequency, experts suggest that showering several times per week is plenty for most people (unless you are grimy, sweaty, or have other reasons to shower more often). Short showers (lasting three or four minutes) with a focus on the armpits and groin may suffice.
"If your skin tends not to be dry, you could extend it to every other day or so." If you take it from a certified germ expert, though, you can skip showering for as long as you wish.
Groin sweat contains fatty acids and proteins which feed bacteria. As the bacteria break down the nutrients in groin sweat, foul-smelling acids are left behind.