Why does sweat smell so bad?

Always sweating a lot and with bad smell will affect a person's life and work, so you can learn more about your body's sweating conditions. If you sweat a lot and it's abnormal, you should be alert to whether it is caused by a physical illness.

1. 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.

2. 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 that are 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.

3. 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.