That's rude.

Not mine.

"Sweating is a good way to detox."

May I have that one?

Go for it.

Ooh, this is a good one.

"Smelly foods only affect your breath."

This is false.

Hi, I'm Dr. Michelle Henry.

I am a board-certified dermatologist

practicing in Manhattan, New York, and I'm the founder

of Skin & Aesthetic Surgery of Manhattan.

Hi, I'm Dr. Dhaval Bhanusali,

board-certified dermatologist here in New York City.

And today we'll be debunking myths about body odor.

Dermatologists are the skin experts.

So who knows more about sweat glands than us?

"Sweat is smelly."

So, this is not true.

So, we actually have two types of sweat.

We have sweat that comes from our eccrine glands,

and so those are the glands that are everywhere,

and it helps us with thermoregulation.

So it helps to cool us down when we're working out

when we're getting too hot.

And then we have apocrine glands.

So those are sweat glands that we see in areas

like the underarms, the groin, the chest,

all of the areas that we sometimes

associate with being smelly.

But the actual sweat from the apocrine glands

does not smell.

Why does that area smell?

It's the bacteria in those areas.

So the bacteria in those areas

will use what the gland produces as food.

And it's the byproduct of that

that actually smells stinky.

That was the most beautiful description

of sweat I've ever heard in my life.

Thank you, I try.

So, fun fact:

There are thousands of types of bacteria

and fungus and yeast

and things like that on your body.

It's completely normal. It's part of our microbiome.

So, some quick tips to remember

to help with the smelly odor.

So, No. 1, it's OK to shower every day, I promise you.

No. 2 is eat a healthy diet.

You know, if your body is not producing at an optimal level,

it will tell you, it will show you,

and you will smell it. If anything becomes excessive,

there are certain medical conditions that do cause it.

It's OK to go check out and make sure.

"Everyone's armpits stink."

That's rude.

Not mine.

That is a myth. There's actually 2% of the population

that has a special mutation.

I believe it's the ABCC11 gene.

They don't have smelly odors.

So not everybody's armpits stink.

There are a lot of different treatments

for treating "smelly armpits."

No. 1, showering.

Using antibacterial soap is probably

the easiest hack for all of it.

We have oral medications we can give,

we can have prescription antiperspirants,

and we even use Botox.

I know, I know, you're going to be thinking,

"Botox? That's for the other stuff."

You actually can use Botox

to minimize the sweating in the area.

It only lasts about three months or so,

so you have to kind of come in regularly,

but often our patients just do it

in the spring or summertime

and then kind of do their own thing during the wintertime,

and usually they're fine.

"Smelly feet mean bad hygiene."

No, this is incorrect.

Smelly feet means smelly feet.

It doesn't mean bad hygiene.

We know that we're producing sweat everywhere

and that sweat then becomes bacteria food.

Well, the feet are a really unique area.

It's one of the highest concentrations

of sweat glands on the body.

And although there are more eccrine glands

than the apocrine glands,

it's still creating a moist environment.

It's the perfect breeding ground for bacteria and yeast.

And because our feet are often enclosed in shoes,

in dark areas, that's literally yeast food.

So this is why we see a lot of fungus

and a lot of yeast on the feet.

And because of this, the feet are going to

be a little bit more prone to having a smell.

Agreed. And it's a very common thing.

We see a lot of our athletes, gym rats,

all those people in between.

The one thing I tell my patients:

Always make sure you wash your feet when you shower.

Using antibacterial soap is actually a great idea.

Just make sure everything is cleansed

and you pat dry as quick as possible

before you put on a pair of fresh socks.

Yes. Socks are important as well.

So wearing cotton socks that are absorptive

and they're going to kind of wick away

that moisture from the feet, that helps a ton.

"Your signature scent never changes."

This is incorrect.

And so, just like we are dynamic beings,

we're changing, our hormones are changing,

our microenvironment's changing,

our diets are changing,

and all of these things play a really critical role

in how we smell. You know?

As we get older and our hormones change,

you know, we all know that teenage boys smell

a little bit different than they smelled when they were 6.

I kind of wish they could put those, like,

new-baby smells in a bottle.

Oh, that would be amazing.

It's best smell ever.

That's my favorite smell.

Remember, a baby's covered in amniotic fluid

for months and months and months and months.

So you have this certain scent

that people equate to that new-baby smell.

Also, as we get older,

our skin barriers tend to deteriorate a little bit

and there's more oxidation

of certain things on our skin itself.

So that "old-person smell," hate to say that,

is actually due to changes in how our skin

is protected from the environment around us,

and the oxidation of these certain chemical compounds

can actually cause a specific scent.

So next time you go visit your grandparents

and things like that, just keep that in mind.

The more you've been around a certain smell,

the more you get used to it, right?

And so it's really when your body

kind of hits up the shock system,

where you smell something you're not used to smelling,

that's when you kind of form an opinion about it.

So just remember,

if there's something you don't necessarily agree with,

does not mean that it's incorrect.

It's just your perception of that odor

and everything kind of going around

that really forms your opinion of it.

"Sweating is a good way to detox."

May I have that one?

Go for it.

I don't like that.

So, this is a huge myth.

So, you know, our body is an amazing machine,

and 99% of how we detox

is through our liver and our kidneys.

And that's why it's really important

to keep those organs very safe.

That's how we get rid of all of the negative toxins

and byproducts in our bodies.

Your body's job is to kind of maintain this equilibrium,

keep this steady state.

And that's what the sweating does.

It helps you kind of keep this normalized temperature.

And so if you do go up too much,

it's its way of bringing it back down.

And while I love a great sauna,

it's amazing for my mental health,

it's amazing for my relaxation,

I know that when I go to a sauna,

I'm not going there to detox.

So it's really important that we understand that.

We have really effective ways to detox our body,

and sweating is not one of them.

How crazy are some of these,

like, the marketing around some of these things?

I mean, it's believable! Sometimes I have to ask myself,

like, "I have to revisit my medical-school books!"

"You won't sweat if you put on deodorant."

Hm.

This is a myth.

So, there is a big difference

between deodorant and antiperspirant.

Deodorant helps to mask the odor.

So it helps to reduce the smell.

Antiperspirants will actually help to reduce sweating.

They contain aluminum-based ingredients

that will clog those pores, those glands,

and help to reduce sweating.

One thing about natural deodorants is that sometimes

they can have a lot of salts and other ingredients

that can be a little bit harsh on the skin.

So sometimes it's a little bit of trial and error

to find the right natural deodorant for you.

Deodorants with ingredients like ceramides

to help to protect and fortify the skin barrier.

Deodorants with ingredients like vitamin B5,

which helps to soothe the skin and reduce inflammation.

Ingredients like coconut oil,

which also can help to kind of soothe the skin.

Use it for two weeks and decide if it's good for you or not.

The idea becomes, once you find a good deodorant,

stick to it. If you keep switching things up

and moving things, you're going to have

more of an inclination for having a reaction

or having some issue with tolerability.

And here's a fun hack for you.

If you're using an antiperspirant,

you can actually put it on at nighttime

to get a better overall result

and less sweating throughout the course of your day.

Henry: At nighttime, our sweat glands are not as active,

so that those aluminum-based ingredients

can actually clog the pores a little bit better.

Put it on during the day when you're already active,

then something's blocking them

and they can't really settle as well as they can at night.

"Antiperspirant is dangerous."

So, what do you do when you hear all these people

say that aluminum causes cancer

and it's dangerous and all that kind of stuff?

Yes. So I give them a little science lesson.

So, the presence of an ingredient

does not necessarily mean causation.

For instance, during the winter months,

I start drinking tea. It makes me feel warm.

I also tend to get colds in the winter months.

Does that mean the warm tea caused my cold?

So the presence of something or the correlation

does not always mean causation.

So, what we see is that when we biopsy breast tissue,

breast tissue that's in the area around the underarm,

which is a common area where we do see breast cancer,

we will see aluminum there in that tissue.

It's there because it's adjacent

to where we're using aluminum-containing ingredients.

However, currently we do not have data

showing that it causes cancer.

And while many feel that they're uncomfortable with that,

they can choose to use other options.

But right now we do not have data showing

that aluminum-containing ingredients

specifically contribute to breast cancer.

So, why aluminum?

Well, aluminum is currently the only FDA-approved

antiperspirant ingredient.

That's not to say that there aren't