Your morning “hygiene” routine….is likely to include

Applying your underarm deodorant.

It is the kind of thing that you MUST DO.

You MUST protect your friends, colleagues and family from those unpleasant odours, that ARE MOST DEFINITELY emanating from you.

Smelling FOOF is not something you ever want to do.

Smelling FOOF is genetic

Now we have all been in close proximity with someone who FORGOT to apply the deodorant.

EISH !

It is nauseating. And a tricky situation to handle. Telling them they stink is difficult to do.

There are various approaches..

• Just moving away is the easiest, but sometimes you have to share the space with this smelly individual, they’re passengers on the bus or fellow classmates.
• You may draw attention to how hot it is and then reach into your handbag for your deodorant, hoping that the smelly individual catches the cue.
• If they fail to pick up on the subtle prompt, you can try spraying some deodorant in the room. This will bring momentary relief as it kills the awful smell.
• If your desperate, you can raise the issue with an authority figure i.e. make it their problem TO TELL the smelly individual to deoderize OR ELSE.

But just because some people produce noxious underarm odours, does not mean you will too.

To be smelly you must have a specific gene !

The under-arm odour problem

So how does under-arm odour arise.

It starts with your sweat glands producing sweat, in response to sweaty situations.

The bacteria in the vicinity move in – attracted by the moisture and the free food. Sweat is not just salty water.

The microbial get-together is a blast and the metabolic merry making creates the under-arm odour.

Who all is at the party, impacts the nature of the odour.

But you need a working version of ABCC11 gene to get the party started.

The smelly gene

Researchers from the University of Bristol sniffed under the arms of 6495 women. The women in their sample belonged to a cohort of people known as “Children of the 90s”.

Of the 6495 women, 117 carried a rather rare version of the ABCC11 gene. Recipients of the special version of the ABCC11 gene produce NO under-arm ODOUR.

NONE. NOT AN IOTA. ZERO. NADA.

They’re still deodorizing

Now a few of these very luck ladies had ditched the deodorant, the vast majority still deoderized daily.

Yup, because it is socially acceptable – they’re spritzing daily when they don’t need to.

The spritz is costing money and exposing them to chemicals unnecessarily.

The arm pit sniff test

The researchers envisage a genetic test, which will direct your personal hygiene routine.

Until then – you can do it manually.

Odds are, you already have a suspicion that you’re not producing under arm odour, but fear and social norms have prompted you to deoderize.

Celebrate your genetic heritage – ditch the deodorant.

PS. If you have an especially active variant of the ABCC11 gene then

PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE – USE THE STUFF.

Not just daily, multiple times a day. Your deodorizing makes the world a better place.

 Further reading

The fire behind a red head is metabolic	Could we all be zombies doing the bidding of our resident bacteria ?	Your smelly feet are making you a target for hungry mosquitoes

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