There is a Genetic Basis to Body Odor
You can’t chose your parents, but you can take care of what they gave you.
Genetic Basis of Human Body Odor
Most of us black or white Americans don’t think about how bad we smell unless we we happen to go to Korea or China and a young child with the temerity to ask true questions says, “Mommy, why does she smell so bad?” Unless you hear it yourself, you will never know the child said that because Asian people are very polite. In fact they invented being civilized. In addition to being culturally advanced at a very early stage in human history, the Huáxià 華夏 got a mutation about 40,000 years ago that prevents them from having body odor. So they naturally know who stinks and who does not, but they will not tell you to your face.
In fact, if a Chinese, Korean, or even some Japanese have body odor, they consider it an illness and run to the doctor.
The gene responsible for stink/no-stink is called an ATP-binding cassette transporter and is found in all life on earth. Different animals have their own versions. Humans have at least 47 different kinds.
The one that makes people of African and European descent smell bad at the end of the day is found on chromosome 16. The responsible gene on chromosome 16, ABCC11, got changed in a lot of Asians. The rest of the world kept the ancestral form. For a closer look at Asians’ lucky gene, go to “The Great Wall of China – Built to keep the stink out.”
So a lot of Asians are mutants. The question that geneticists and anthologists keep asking is if the mutation gives them some evolutionary advantage. We think it does.
A lot of people with the mutation marry people like themselves who don’t have body odor and they end up passing it onto their kids.
Otherwise the gene would have disappeared a thousand years ago. So the evolutionary advantage of the mutation is to make a potential mate more desirable.
We cannot wait until everybody in the world has the mutation.
Six billion people still have body odor and de • odor • meTM was created for them!
Types of Body Odor
Food Odor:
Most body odor goes unnoticed in a group of similar people. When everybody at the party eats garlic laden spaghetti sauce, nobody really notices until somebody arrives late, and then it’s the aroma of the food that hits the senses, not the people.
Body odor from eating stinky food is not the same as armpit odor.
Armpit Odor:
The stench that catches everybody’s attention on the subway or in an elevator is the dreadful sulphurous thioalcohol, 3-methyl-3-sulfanylhexan-1-ol (3M3SH).
People don’t make 3M3SH in their armpits. Healthy bacteria in your armpits feed on the juice that oozes from your apocrine glands. As they eat, they change your odorless juice into stinky 3M3SH.
de • odor • meTM doesn’t kill bacteria but it curbs their appetite. When the concentration of 3M3SH drops below a certain threshold, most humans cannot smell it.
Of course there are some humans with sensitive noses. They can make a good living tasting wine.
Other Genetic Odors:
Trimethylaminuria (TMAU -stale fish syndrome ) is a rare metabolic problem cause by a change in the FMO3 gene on chromosome 1. There is also a form of TMAU that is not related to the gene; it may be related to not having healthy gut bacteria.
The condition is probably under-diagnosed. Mild cases are controlled by not eating foods rich in choline and lecithin such as eggs and refried beans. Sadly de • odor • meTM cannot help with the TMAU but it still stops the armpits from becoming a problem.
Foot Odor
Foot odor is similar to underarm odor in only one respect. Bacteria are eating stuff on your feet and their excrement is what stinks. The major difference is the type of food is different and the bacteria are different.
Why not just kill all the bacteria?
Killing bacteria is a bad idea unless they are trying to kill you.
The human immune system works in close balance with billions of bacteria all over our bodies, both inside and outside. Health conscious people are finally paying lot of attention to gut bacteria, now being called our second brain. They are important. Killing them with antibiotics should not be done capriciously.
Most people still haven’t come to realize that the bacteria on our skin, armpits, etc. are also important. Just as in the gut, our immune system interfaces with them and they have a peace treaty. You could start a war if you are not careful.
Puberty
What can we say about puberty? The cure for puberty is to stay alive long enough for it to go away.
You didn’t stink until you hit puberty. As an adult, you may remember how bad it was when you got pimples and started to have stinky armpits.
Girls start puberty early compared to boys, often as young as 8 years old. It can last for six years.
Boys start going through puberty between 10-14 years old and are pretty much done with it by age 16
The sudden influx of hormones in their rapidly growing bodies sends everything into 3rd gear, for those of you old enough to know what 3rd gear is.
For the underarms, just use de • odor • meTM
For the acne, we have just one suggestion. Teens should wash their hands frequently. We know they are going squeeze pimples. There is no point in killing off normal skin bacterial with harsh detergents and replace normal bacteria with bad bugs from hands and fingernails.
Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC)
The final genetic basis of body odor that we discuss comes from a large family of genes responsible for proteins on the surface of all cells. The genes reside on chromosome 6; about half deal with the immune system.
They are on every cell of the body. They are responsible how your immune system deals with bacteria, including the ones in your gut and under your arms.
The word “compatibility” in the name of MHC molecules is important. They help the body differentiate between self-proteins, compatible and incompatible bacteria, and what kind of chemicals you excrete in your sweat. That means another human may smell your skin and decide if you are personally compatible or incompatible. Compatibility as in looking for a mate has yet to be proved. Married couples are more different regarding MHC genes suggesting that nature has a built-in mechanism for discouraging inbreeding.
The human nose is not good enough to consciously be aware of many odors caused by MHC genes but they exist.
So the final question is this: If you cannot smell it, does it stink?
