Body Odor Research Blog

Everyone once in their lifetime encountered a homeless person which presented itself with a strong sweat like smell. Most people do relate this to poor hygiene, even if that smelly person does not show outer signs of poor hygiene. For some homeless people poor hygiene might be a reason, nevertheless from a metabolic point of view there might be an alternative major reason: higher alcohol consumption in combination with lower food intake If we look at the ethanol degrading pathway, we realize that it compromises the EC 6.2.1.1 in an overload situation pretty similar to the case when people having a primary enzyme deficiency in this enzyme. As a result it might be that the Clochard Smell Syndrom is caused by an metabolic impact on the EC 6.2.1.1 enzyme and the related butyrate and propionate enzymes.

The classical view of dermatology regarding the cause of a strong sweaty underarm odor is that a defect function of apocrine sweat glands is present. As a result dermatologists consider chirurgical removal of the apocrine sweat glands as the only way to treat such an odor. We made a chemical analysis of clothes of patients using GC-MS. On the outer limit of the GC was a peak in butyric acid shown. Butyric acid seem to build up in the clothes of patients over time. When we investigated into the human metabolism regarding butyric acid we found immediately the butyrate degrading enzyme  EC 6.2.1.2 This enzyme is mostly present in the liver, degrading butyrates (butyric acid salts) which are taken up as main energy source for the large intestinal tract sourced by the bacterial fermentation processes within the gut. The same pattern applies to propionates (propionic acid salts) which are degradated by the EC 6.2.1.17 enzyme. As a result it is very likely that a strong 'sweaty' s...