Who's got the funk? Better sniff closer ? it might be you!
As you've gotten older, you might have noticed a few
changes going on with your body. But one of these only your
nose knows ? it's your personal scent. You smell
differently these days than you did a few years ago, and
sometimes you can be downright rank, right? What's to blame
for all this smelliness? It's your old pal, sweat.
Teenage sweat is different from kid sweat. For starters,
there's much more of it. During puberty, hormones that are
busy changing you into an adult also up the output of your
sweat glands. You sweat more all over, but the places
affected most are under your arms and around your genitals.
Teen sweat is also made up of different stuff than kid
sweat. Humans have two types of sweat glands ? eccrine
glands, which release a salty liquid good for cooling the
body, and apocrine glands, which put out a milky substance
that regulates sweating.Eccrine glands are all over your
body, but apocrine glands are found mostly ? you guessed it
? under your arms and around your genitals. When you go
through puberty, your apocrine glands become a lot more
active than they used to be.
How do these glands affect your smell? The answer literally
lies within your pores. Bacteria that hide out in your skin
love apocrine sweat. When they combine with it, they grow
and multiply, and they produce lots of waste products. It's
that waste that changes your scent to more like 'eau de
garbage-dump' than 'eau de pretty-flower'.
Good news, though ? there are measures you can take to stop
the funk before it starts. If your smell or sweat bothers
you, consider trying these tips to keep you smelling your
best:
* Wash daily with an antibacterial soap, like Dial� or
Lever 2000�. These soaps reduce the number of bacteria that
live on your skin, so there's not as much of their stinky
waste products.