What is it about sweat that makes it stink so bad?

Question

Another question is why some sweat more than others, and why some people smell worse then others when they sweat?

Answer 1

Your body works best when its temperature is about 98.6º Fahrenheit (37º Celsius). When your body gets hotter than that, your brain doesn't like it — it wants your body to stay cool and comfortable. So the part of your brain that controls temperature, called the hypothalamus (say: hy-po-thal-uh-mus), sends a message to your body, telling it to sweat.

Then special glands in your skin called — what else? — sweat glands start making sweat. Sweat is also known as perspiration (say: pur-spuh-ray-shun), and it is made almost completely of water, with tiny amounts of other chemicals like ammonia (say: uh-mown-yuh), urea (say: yoo-ree-uh), salts, and sugar. (Ammonia and urea are left over when your body breaks down protein.)

The sweat leaves your skin through tiny holes called pores. When the sweat hits the air, the air makes it evaporate (this means it turns from a liquid to a vapor). As the sweat evaporates off your skin, you cool down.

Sweat is a great cooling system, but if you're sweating a lot on a hot day or after playing hard you could be losing too much water through your skin. Then you need to put liquid back in your body by drinking plenty of water so you won't get dehydrated (say: dee-hi-drayt-ed).



Why Does Sweat Smell?
Sweat isn't just wet — it can be kind of stinky, too. But the next time you get a whiff of yourself after running around outside and want to blame your sweat glands, hold on! Sweat by itself doesn't smell at all. It's the bacteria that live on your skin that mix with the sweat and give it a stinky smell. And when you reach puberty, special hormones affect the glands in your armpits — these glands make sweat that can really smell.

Luckily, regular washing with soap and water can usually keep stinky sweat under control. Many teens and adults also find that wearing deodorant (say: dee-oh-der-ent) or antiperspirant (say: an-tee-pur-sper-ent) helps.

So don't worry about a little sweat — it's totally normal and everybody sweats. Sometimes too much sweating can be a sign that there is something wrong in the body, but this is rare in kids. If you notice more sweat, it's usually just a sign that it's time to start using a deodorant or antiperspirant. But if you think you have a sweat problem, talk to your parent or your doctor about it.

Answer 2

Why does sweat smell?
When it's fresh, sweat doesn't smell. Things only get smelly after a few hours, when bacteria begins to break it down. It's particularly noticeable under the armpits and around the groin and nipples where the sweat glands are most concentrated.

Why some sweat more than others?
Sweating is your body's way of cooling itself. People who sweat excessively may have a condition called hyperhidrosis. Hyperhidrosis is sweating in excess of what is necessary to maintain body temperature. Generally speaking, the condition has no cause, although certain diseases or disorders can contribute to having hyperhidrosis. People seek treatment, both non-surgical and surgical, for hyperhidrosis when it has a significant impact on their quality of life. Hyperhidrosis can affect the palms, underarms, feet, face, and/or scalp, or combinations of those areas. The severity of hyperhidrosis depends on the individual. Patients may have problems at work or school because of excessive sweating on the palms, which can make it difficult to function. The University of Minnesota soon will begin using a device that seeks to objectively measure sweating to evaluate how treatments are working. Generally, there is no cause for hyperhidrosis, although certain psychiatric or metabolic problems can lead to the condition.

Why some people smell worse than others?
Some people’s apocrine glands are bigger and more active than others. Similarly, some of us have more tenacious skin bacteria. Some people may find that they sweat much more than normal, a condition known as hyperhydrosis. Certain unusual-smelling body odours are symptoms of more serious complaints.

Answer 3

Bacteria in your skin begins to activate and multiply as your sweat feeds it. Body chemistry also has an impact on how bad someone smells. Some people stink after a game of 2 on 2 while other can run a marathon and not smell bad at all.

Answer 4

Sweat itself has no odor. The sweat under your arms contains fatty acids and proteins, when this mixes with the bacteria that rests on the skin that is what creates the smell. There are certain conditions that cause people to sweat more than the average person and that is why they appear to smell more, because they sweat more

Answer 5

Your body works best when its temperature is about 98.6º Fahrenheit (37º Celsius). When your body gets hotter than that, your brain doesn't like it — it wants your body to stay cool and comfortable. So the part of your brain that controls temperature, called the hypothalamus (say: hy-po-thal-uh-mus), sends a message to your body, telling it to sweat.

Then special glands in your skin called — what else? — sweat glands start making sweat. Sweat is also known as perspiration (say: pur-spuh-ray-shun), and it is made almost completely of water, with tiny amounts of other chemicals like ammonia (say: uh-mown-yuh), urea (say: yoo-ree-uh), salts, and sugar. (Ammonia and urea are left over when your body breaks down protein.)

The sweat leaves your skin through tiny holes called pores. When the sweat hits the air, the air makes it evaporate (this means it turns from a liquid to a vapor). As the sweat evaporates off your skin, you cool down.

Sweat is a great cooling system, but if you're sweating a lot on a hot day or after playing hard you could be losing too much water through your skin. Then you need to put liquid back in your body by drinking plenty of water so you won't get dehydrated (say: dee-hi-drayt-ed).
Why Does Sweat Smell?

Sweat isn't just wet — it can be kind of stinky, too. But the next time you get a whiff of yourself after running around outside and want to blame your sweat glands, hold on! Sweat by itself doesn't smell at all. It's the bacteria that live on your skin that mix with the sweat and give it a stinky smell. And when you reach puberty, special hormones affect the glands in your armpits — these glands make sweat that can really smell.

Luckily, regular washing with soap and water can usually keep stinky sweat under control. Many teens and adults also find that wearing deodorant (say: dee-oh-der-ent) or antiperspirant (say: an-tee-pur-sper-ent) helps.

So don't worry about a little sweat — it's totally normal and everybody sweats. Sometimes too much sweating can be a sign that there is something wrong in the body, but this is rare in kids. If you notice more sweat, it's usually just a sign that it's time to start using a deodorant or antiperspirant.

Answer 6

When you sweat, it's not the sweat itself that actually produces what some like to call B.O. Sweat is your body's way of excreting waste from your body which contains salt, urea, and ammonia. It's the bacteria that is present on your skin and under your arms that actually causes it to smell and some people smell worse than others depending on how much bacteria is present.

Answer 7

It works like this: Your sweat has no smell. You secrete oils from you hair follicles, the sweat is salty, the salt dissolves the oil which creates a smell. This is the different between an Antiperspirant, and a Deodorant. A Deodorant gets into the hair follicles and stops the oil from coming out. An Antiperspirant stop you from sweating but still allows your hair to secrete oil.

Answer 8

Sweat is basically just salt and water, though, so it doesn't have a distinctive smell of its own. The smell is actually caused by bacteria on our skin that eats the sweat and excretes waste that has a strong odor.

Issues which affect the intensity of the odor: diet--Alcohol, spicy foods, garlic, cumin, caffeine and hot drinks can all cause us to sweat more. Medical conditions disease and fever affect odor. Drugs can affect quantity and intensity of odor. Anxiety and heredity are also factors.

Answer 9

Its the bacteria rather than the sweat. Sweat on a clean body doesnt smell.

Answer 10

Okay!It's bacterias that make it smell bad.The answer to the second question would be the different metabolisms we have,the diets we have among other things and they smell worse because they probably don't use any protection against it(which would be a very effective anti-perspirant to protect you at least 12 hours a day) cause in such a polluted environment like ours just washing it's not enough anymore.