Why does sweating smell sour?

It is normal for sweat to smell sour. After the human body sweats, the sweat is mixed with secretions on the body surface or some particles around it. If mixed together, the sour smell will be more serious. This is also embarrassing in public places. So if you want to solve it effectively, you should understand the root cause. If the sweat glands are more developed, some people need surgical treatment.

1. The root cause of body odor

Many people mistakenly believe that excessive sweating will cause bad odor, but in fact there is no direct relationship between the two. In fact, sweating is good for your health because waste and water in the body can be excreted through sweat, thereby promoting metabolism and regulating body temperature. The sweat glands that secrete sweat in the human body can be roughly divided into two types: eccrine sweat glands and apocrine sweat glands. The eccrine sweat glands are distributed throughout the body, and the water they secrete contains only a small amount of salt, lactic acid, urea, etc.; while the apocrine sweat glands are sweat glands attached to the hair, and are distributed in the armpits, areola, and pubic area. The sweat they secrete is not only rich, but also contains a variety of components such as protein, lipids, fatty acids, cholesterol, and glucose. Sweat is a thin fluid secreted by sweat glands, of which water accounts for 99%, and the rest is sodium chloride, potassium, sulfur and urea. Sweat itself has no odor, but when sweat mixes with bacteria on the surface of the skin, it produces a bad smell. Certain parts of the body, such as the armpits, feet and groin, are prone to bacteria accumulation and have more sweat glands, so sweat is more difficult to evaporate and has a stronger odor.

2. Foul sweat comes from liver heat

From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, bad odor is often related to the liver. The liver is responsible for processing and breaking down toxic substances. Fried foods, tobacco and alcohol in our daily diet cause a lot of toxic substances to accumulate in the body, increasing the burden on the liver and causing liver heat. Sweating is a way to detoxify, so the sweat of people with liver heat often has an unpleasant odor. Moreover, people with liver heat have higher body temperature than normal people, so they sweat more easily, and their sweat is mostly reddish yellow.

3. TCM treatment prescriptions

There are many methods on the market to treat odorous sweat. Some people use antiperspirants or scented sprays to inhibit sweat secretion and eliminate sweat odor, but these are only temporary solutions and do not address the root cause. In order to completely eliminate the trouble of bad breath, some people choose to undergo surgery to remove the sweat glands, but if you are not careful, it will cause great harm to the body. Therefore, Chinese medicine believes that natural herbal treatments that can be used both internally and externally are the best way to deal with body odor. Commonly used herbs for treating liver heat and body odor include: Heat-clearing and detoxifying herbs: Chrysanthemum (can clear liver heat and detoxify) Damp-heat-clearing herbs: Artemisia capillaris (clears damp-heat in the spleen, stomach, liver and gallbladder) Spicy and warm herbs for relieving exterior symptoms: Peppermint (aromatic and can dispel odor, clear liver depression and qi stagnation)