YORK, England — It’s happened to the best of us: it’s hot out, we sweat, and eventually, we stink. Even the best-smelling armpit sprays and sticks can’t completely prevent body odor from happening, but there may be new hope. Scientists have pinpointed a key cog in the development of BO, and the finding could lead to tougher deodorants down the road.
Researchers from the University of York say they’ve broken down the process that causes armpit bacteria to create the horrific stench we identify as body odor. They’d already recently discovered that a species of Staphylococcus bacteria is behind the worst-smelling scent emitted from our underarms — but how does that recognizable odor come to be?
Scientists had long struggled to show how the odorless compounds in our sweat manage to morph into pungent chemicals when we begin to sweat in our underarms.
“The skin of our underarms provides a unique niche for bacteria. Through the secretions of various glands that open onto the skin or into hair follicles, this environment is nutrient-rich and hosts its own microbial community, the armpit microbiome, of many species of different microbes,” explains study co-author Dr. Gavin Thomas in a university news release.
Thomas says that his research team discovered what’s known as a “transport protein” that allows bacteria to take hold of the odorless compounds in sweat. The team decoded the structure of the protein by crystallizing it, which allowed them to fully analyze it in the lab. By better understanding the breakdown of the molecule, the believe they can use deodorant to target it and stop the process that creates BO in its tracks.
“Modern deodorants work by inhibiting or killing many of the bacteria present our underarms in order to prevent BO,” says Thomas. “This study, along with our previous research revealing that only a small number of the bacteria in our armpits are actually responsible for bad smells, could result in the development of more targeted products that aim to inhibit the transport protein and block the production of BO.”
The full study was published July 3, 2018 in the journal eLife.
London… hopefully they can spray it on all of those foul immigrants overrunning the country who don’t shower, and the patchouli hippies who don’t believe in borders.
Better yet, grow some balls, close your borders and start defending your civilization.
Liberals would rather learn to become tolerant of body odor (in the morning) — it smells like diversity (to them).
Kill the bacteria – no stench.
Keep a bottle of 30/70 bleach water in the shower. Splash a handful into your arm pits once or twice a week. Let it set for a minute, rinse it off.
Would isopropyl alcohol not be a reasonable, more ‘skin friendly’ alternative? I mean we use alcohol for hand sanitizer…
Who’s “we?!”
Collectively, ‘people’.
Why not potable ethanol solution? One splash for the left, one splash for the right, one swig for a happy day…
In principle, it sounds reasonable, but I’d want to know what the bleach does to your lymph nodes before trying that.
“Flopsweatococcus”
This does NOT mean you can start to shower less.
I bet it’s associated with the same gene that causes liberalism.
Patchouli and kombucha sweat. XD
LOL! It’s called the Patriot Gene.
More likely to be an extra 21st chromosome.
They named it the Hillary Clinton protein.
It’s a crooked protein.
every time I smell a dead animal….I think of killary
The protein was given the scientific name ST1-NK………
It’s Gene Gene The Dancing Machine!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACpNVD5GMUw
Garlic please.
I’m 100% for stopping BO – the worst president the US ever had.
Hey, it’s natural. It keeps the lions away…
The “Sugars”.
It is fitting that the British study body odor.
I look forward to improved odor control. I have two in my family who have terrible armpit odor on their clothing and almost impossible to remove via numerous treatments by products and multiple washings. The ONLY product I’ve found that remotely does a good job is Arm and Hammer Plus OxiClean™ Odor Blasters, Fresh Burst. It is their ONLY product that works to remove odor from their clothes. Even then I have to put the product right on the armpit area and let it set. I’ve tried every “natural method” suggested on the internet from baking soda to vinegar. No other commercial product works for me either. Even plain Oxy pretreat doesn’t work. Biggest pain in the neck is this product is not carried in many stores or stores that carry many of the Arm and Hammer products, so i have to buy 3-4 big container bottles at a time to ensure supply.
Enviroloonies will “find” it destroys the climate and kills off vital life forms while anti-vaxer types will claim it causes cancer and the common cold.