by Gen Evera

Created on: August 19, 2008

Body odor is a combination of hygiene, diet, and infections of either bacteria or fungi acting in your system. A foul body odor can be a sign of not only hygiene problems, but also health issues that a person should choose to address. Though people suffering from chronic body odor may need to seek professional medical help, the average person can easily eliminate body odor by simply changing their lifestyle. Consider how the choices you make in your daily life can affect not only your health, but the people around you.

BASIC HYGIENE

1) It may seem blatantly apparent, but some people with body odor problems have simply made the choice not to bathe every day. These are the extreme cases, but if they are yours, you should seriously consider taking the initiative and taking either a bath or shower every morning. Even if you may feel that you aren't dirty, your simple action of being a living mammal means you have some key physical traits that make daily bathing a necessity. Bathing removes not only the dirt, but the dead skin cells and oils that bacteria consume. These same bacteria that live on your skin produce odorous waste that we can smell; the smell is that of body odor. This is why we have so much odor coming from our armpits and groin. The hair and sweat from those parts of our body are ideal for the development of bacteria that then produce a noticeable smell. Washing essentially resets this natural system to one of a clean, and natural body odor that is pleasant and not the result of bacterial waste.

2) Antiperspirant is another hygienic necessity. Working in conjunction with bathing, antiperspirant keeps the pores of the skin it is applied to from producing sweat and oils. This helps with body odor in much the same way as bathing because it keeps the development of bacteria to a minimum by reducing the amount of nutrients and moisture that they need to grow. Deodorant is different from antiperspirant because it uses perfume to try and mask body odor; if body odor is an issue for you, avoid deodorant and use antiperspirant instead. Perfume won't do you much good if it's only accompanying the wafting aroma of unpleasant body odor.

3) Breath can play a major role in body odor as well. We often associate body odor with your armpits, but your teeth can play as much a role in how comfortable people feel getting close to you as any bar of soap. Brushing every morning and then again after every meal not only keeps your teeth pearly white, but prevents the bacterial

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