BODY ODOR AFTER EXERCISING
Report #6250 7/24/94
You don't have to smell bad just because you don't take a shower after a workout.
Here are a few tricks to avoid body odor. Sweat doesn't smell when it first reaches your skin. The odor comes only after bacteria on the skin's surface break down the fat and ferment the sugar in sweat to form chemicals that smell. It takes at least an hour for bacteria to produce an odor, and bacteria do their job best when the skin is wet. Most of the glands in your skin secrete sweat that cannot smell because it does not contain sugar of fat. Only the sweat glands around the breasts, genitals and armpits produce sweat that contains fat and sugar.
You can prevent body odor by washing frequently to reduce the number of bacteria on the skin's surface and by keeping the skin dry. Most deodorants contain low levels of bacteria-killing metals, such as aluminum, zinc and zirconium. You can also kill bacteria by using special antibacterial soaps, such as Hibiclens, Betadine and pHisoHex and by applying antibiotic creams. Powders help to keep the skin dry and reduce the number of bacteria by removing sweat from the skin's surface into their own structures. If you are bothered by body odor after you finish exercising, take a shower whenver you can and wash your genitals, breasts and armpits with an antibacterial soap. Then thoroughly dry yourself and apply powder to these same areas.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News