Unpleasant body odor tied to essential physiological element

(HealthDay News) – Everyone needs to perspire. Sweating as the result of exercise, or emotional stress or being exposed to too much heat is an essential way to cool the body.

Unfortunately, for most humans, with perspiration comes body odor. However, there is a way to reduce the unpleasant, acrid smell that emanates from your armpits after a hard workout or a particularly tough day at the office.

Body odor becomes a problem when you toss in bacteria that thrive in the moist environment of the armpit. Research shows that you can greatly reduce the odor starving the bacteria found in an essential element in the body -- iron.

Researchers with the Unilever Research & Development Laboratory in Port Sunlight, Great Britain , made this discovery after measuring levels of underarm bacteria and odor in 50 subjects over the course of two weeks.

They devised a process of making iron unavailable to underarm bacteria by binding it with certain molecules. This resulted in substantial decreases in the amount of bacteria that cause body odor, the researchers said.

On average, the use of a traditional, ethanol-based deodorant reduced the number of bacteria per square centimeter by anywhere from 70 percent to 90 percent in the study subjects. The addition of the iron-binding substance to the spray deodorant cut the amount of bacteria another tenfold.

The researchers prevented the iron from uniting with the bacteria by using two specific molecules -- one, diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (or DTPA); the other, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT).

Binding the molecules with the iron doesn't kill the bacteria. It simply makes the iron inaccessible. Without the iron, the bacteria can't grow, the researchers said.

By blending the iron-depleting process with the deodorant, underarm bacteria gets a double-whammy -- first it's killed by the ethanol, and then it can't grow back because it's deprived of iron. This brings about a significant reduction in body odor, the scientists concluded.

The study was presented at the 2002 annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Salt Lake City .

There's also the old-fashioned way to cut down on unpleasant body odor. Dermatologists say the best way to reduce body odor is still through thorough washing -- both of your body and your clothes.

"I'll get many patients who are having trouble reducing body odor, and they'll say they wash under their arms every day," says Dr. Jerome Litt, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland . "And then I'll ask them how often they wash their clothes."

"Often, they'll consider themselves to be relatively clean, but perhaps they'll wear a shirt two or three times before washing it again," he says. "And I have to explain the garment can harbor bacteria, so no matter how well you wash, the shirt -- or even a sweater -- is going to hold onto underarm odor unless you wash that, too."

Antibacterial soaps also work well, Litt says. "The soaps reduce the bacteria enough to eliminate odor," he says. "So if you wash your armpits every morning and use clothes that have been well-cleaned, then you shouldn't have deodorant problems."

On the Web

This article from the consumer magazine from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration traces the history of body odor and methods used to combat it.

SOURCES: Jerome Litt, M.D., assistant clinical professor, dermatology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; May 20, 2002, presentation by researchers from the Unilever Research & Development Laboratory, Port Sunlight, Great Britain, to the American Society for Microbiology 2002 general meeting, Salt Lake City
Author: Nancy A. Melville, HealthDay Reporter
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