# Possible body odor?



## IcedOver (Feb 26, 2007)

I shower well every day. However, today I'm feeling that I might have a body odor, one that's just come on. 

On Thursday I was cleaning off a platter of uneaten sandwiches at work. I smelled an unpleasant odor that I attributed to the sandwiches; I thought it might be some kind of dressing that was on them. I didn't eat one, so I don't know what dressing or sauce was used. Whenever we have these plastic platters, I usually take them home to recycle them, as we don't have recycling at work. I put the cover on the platter and placed it under my desk. However, I still smelled the odor, faintly. I forgot to take the platter home on Thursday, but Friday evening I again got a few faint whiffs of the unpleasant aroma while at work. Assuming that it was the platter, I took it home.

I didn't smell the odor again until this morning when I woke up. It was very present and definitely not coming from the platter. Even when I put my nose down into my shirt and sniffed hard, I didn't smell it. And yet the odor is seeming to follow me around. I showered and am now sitting in the library and still can faintly sense the odor in the air. 

I know it must be coming from me somehow. Is it possible for someone to emanate an odor from their pores and yet not smell it if you sniff close up? I wonder if anything I've been eating/drinking lately is causing this odor or if, by chance, it's just in my imagination. I might be meeting my mom later today and could ask if she smells anything, as embarrassing as that would be. Does anyone know much about the chemistry of body odor? I'm angling to get a new job, and this is something I don't want to have to worry about!


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## bazinga (Jun 9, 2010)

There are some people that secrete a fishy, odorous smell. They watch their diet, but I really can't remember anything else about that.

Be careful though, it could be OCD. I've developed hyperhydrosis by being hypersensitive to my body. So now if I just think I am sweating I will start sweating. And if I think I stink, I will start sweating.

Your mind can really play tricks on you.

By the way I use Arrid Extra Dry. you could sweat nonstop for 2 days and not stink.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

bazinga said:


> There are some people that secrete a fishy, odorous smell. They watch their diet, but I really can't remember anything else about that.
> 
> Be careful though, it could be OCD. I've developed hyperhydrosis by being hypersensitive to my body. So now if I just think I am sweating I will start sweating. And if I think I stink, I will start sweating.
> 
> ...


I don't know if "fishy" is the word to describe it. People can emanate an ammonia odor in the sweat though. There is something additional in the sweat at that point - I read somewhere about "amino acids" doing that - they are the building blocks of protein.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimethylaminuria


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## IcedOver (Feb 26, 2007)

A few days later and I'm not smelling that odor anymore. I don't know if I was really smelling it or what. It wasn't a fishy odor; I don't know how to describe it. Of course it's possible that you could still have an odor because of your diet and not smell it yourself. That's pretty scary.

But thanks for the replies anyway.


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## toughcookie (Jul 21, 2010)

Sometimes I'm pretty sure I smell like hamburgers.


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## LALoner (Dec 3, 2008)

Soaps with anti-bacterial agents in them, usually triclosan, reduce BO. Much of BO is produced by bacteria eating your sweat, kill the bacteria and that eliminates the problem.


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## bobthebuilder (Jun 17, 2009)

toughcookie said:


> Sometimes I'm pretty sure I smell like hamburgers.


lol is it after eating mcdonalds? I hate mcdonalds food, and for the most part never eat there. On the rare occasion i get dragged into eating it, if i eat there burgers I swear i smell like it for days.


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## mind_games (Nov 30, 2008)

I think it's not so much an actual smell, but the smell 'memory' that sticks with us sometimes because I have the same issues as you. It's more long term with me though. If I come across something that smells unpleasant and then I walk off to another place, every now and again I'll still smell it. I just put it down to something OCD related and try to not think about it.


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## disk (Aug 25, 2010)

I know what that feeling is like, i sometimes wonder if ive become so used to a smell that i can't even smell it anymore. but i kinda overcame that fear when i hugged some girl and she told me i smelled good. but i still think that because of the clothes im wearing or my new diet that i may smell, lots of amino acids and protein in my diet.


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## bentanddisturbed (Jun 7, 2013)

*Body Odor, I found a solution!*

After years of trying everything, antibacterial soaps, swabbing straight alcohol (which made me dizzy like drunk from being absorbed into the skin) I would use wash clothes, exfoliate etc, it all only worked for about an hour or so then in a fluke I was having foot surgery and was told to cleanse from the neck down with Hibaclens the night before. It is sold at drug stores for less than $13.00 a bottle. Just put some on a wash cloth after your usual bathing method, wash under arms, rinse and trust me you will be amazed! I could never go sleeveless before and even at night I would wake up with odor in the morning. This stuff really works, it is what the surgeons scrub with, not orange but pink. Good Luck all!


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## Cletis (Oct 10, 2011)

How often do you change and/or wash your clothes? The odor could be trapped in your clothing.


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## probably offline (Oct 8, 2012)

mind_games said:


> I think it's not so much an actual smell, but the smell 'memory' that sticks with us sometimes because I have the same issues as you. It's more long term with me though. *If I come across something that smells unpleasant and then I walk off to another place, every now and again I'll still smell it. *I just put it down to something OCD related and try to not think about it.


Me too. Curse my ****ing nose.


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