BO: Body Odour, what’s the story?
The first thing to think about is sweat generally. The body has 3 main methods of excreting toxins: through urination, bowel movements and sweating. If any of these 3 processes are not happening optimally (eg if you are constipated, not urinating or not sweating enough) then there will be a build up of toxins in the body. There is a reason why someone sweats when they have a fever, are hungover or have something like food poisoning - this is your body’s attempt to not only cool you down, but excrete out those toxins through your pores.
So actually sweating (when appropriate eg on exertion) is a needed and good thing.
So why does some people’s sweat smell terrible and others have no odour? In TCM, the smell of someones sweat is said to be diagnostic;
if it is a rancid meat type smell it’s said to be a liver dysfunction,
a scorched smell (like burnt toast) is a heart dysfunction,
a fragrant or sweetish (like a sickly sweet perfume) smell, spleen,
a rotten or rank (like rotten eggs) smell re a lung dysfunction
and lastly a putrid smell (like stagnant water) is a kidney dysfunction - this is more common in the elderly.
In reality sometimes the type of smell is hard to distinguish and generally a strong offensive body odour often indicates damp heat. Other signs of damp heat include:
Loose watery or mucusy stools (and likely the stools themselves smell bad)
a feeling of fullness/bloating in the stomach,
a poor appetite
Cloudy urine (which also probably has a strong odour)
Halitosis (bad breath)
Excess weight,
A feeling of heaviness
Thrush/candida and PCOS
White heads / some types of acne
If you have bad BO, in order to get rid of damp heat, the first thing to look at is your diet. Cold, raw foods injure the spleen and promote dampness. Dairy in particular is extremely damp forming. I’ve written more about dampness + the diet here.
How much and when someone sweats is also an important diagnostic tool in TCM. If you get night sweats this is indicative of yin deficiency (common in menopause or before a women get’s her period). The lungs control the pores and the heart controls sweating and excess, spontaneous or no sweating may be indicative of a problem with either of these organ systems. Profuse sweating if it happens continuously will deplete a person generally (particularly their ‘yang’ and blood) in the same way overuse of sauna’s would.
