About 75 percent of people without the "smelly underarm" gene wear deodorant daily, a new study finds.
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For most, putting on deodorant is a necessary ritual on par with brushing teeth or washing hands. But for people who produce no armpit stench, it is totally unnecessary.
Despite that, nearly three-quarters of those people still use deodorant daily, a new study finds.
The findings, published January 17 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, show just how much a person's daily life is dictated by what's considered normal.
"They're spending their money, exposing their skin to what may in a few instances not be good for their skin. It sort of suggests to me that there are a lot of conformists around," said study co-author Ian Day, a genetic epidemiologist at the University of Bristol. [10 Odd Facts About the Female Body]
Smelly genes
Several years ago ago, scientists discovered that a gene called ABCC11 determined whether people produced wet or dry earwax. Interestingly, people who produce the "dry" version of earwax also lack a chemical in their armpits that bacteria feed on to cause underarm odor.
"This key gene is basically the single determinant of whether you do produce underarm odor or not," Day said.
While only 2 percent of Europeans lack the genes for smelly armpits, most East Asians and almost all Koreans lack this gene, Day told LiveScience.
No one knows exactly why gene prevalence varies so much between populations, but its absence in East Asia suggests that being stinky was evolutionarily selected against there over the last several thousand years, he said.
Unnecessary routine
The new findings came as a surprising twist on a larger study investigating chemical exposures in 6,495 women and their babies in Britain. Researchers took blood samples (which contain genetic material) from the women and asked them what types of hygiene products they used daily. As a result, the researchers could investigate how genes related to product usage.
About 98 percent of the women had the gene for smell-producing armpits. Of those, 95 percent used deodorant on a regular basis.
But of the the 117 non-odor producing women, over three-quarters still used deodorant daily. That suggests the majority of women are using a product every day, when they have no need to, Day said.
Though the team didn't look at men, they think the results should generalize. (Other studies have found that men in general are slightly less fastidious in their deodorant use, Day said.)
Because the study didn't intend to look at deodorant use, the researchers can't tease out why smell-free women continue to slather on the odor-reducing product. But one possibility is that social pressure or conformity plays a large part in some of our most common hygiene routines, Day said.
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23 Comments
Add CommentRegardless of whether one has this gene or doesn't regular bathing and personal cleanliness should prevent one's armpits from emitting offensive odors !
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSome might try checking their diet if they notice their body is constantly producing odors that they or others find offensive !
That means Bigfoot has that gene
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy dog smells like a dog and I smell like a human. If your offended by that it's your problem not mine. I do not coat my body with foul poisonous chemicals just to make others happy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"... also lack a chemical in their armpits that bacteria feed on to cause underarm odor."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't know anything about it, but isn't it more likely that bacteria feed on proteins rather than chemicals? I realize that tech.media produces this stuff, but SA is supposed to be a scientific publication, right?
Regarding chemicals, it seems that there may be some underarm odors directly produced by genetically variable fatty-acids, rather than by bacteria metabolism:
"... trans-3-Methyl-2-hexenoic acid (TMHA) is an unsaturated short-chain fatty acid that occurs in sweat secreted by the axillary apocrine glands of Caucasians and some Asians."
"Hexanoic acids such as TMHA have an hircine odor. Of the fatty acids contributing to Caucasian men's axillary (underarm) odor, TMHA has the most prominent odor."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-3-Methyl-2-hexenoic_acid
Do they use deodorants...or antiperspirants? A site with "science" in the name should make the distinction, since there is a good reason why someone who sweats, but doesn't have any odor might want to use an antiperspirant.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSome people actually get off their couch once in awhile. Do exercise.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA simple explanation occurs to me of why the non-odiferous women still use deodorant: since they all probably started using deodorant early in life, they never got a chance to realize that they don't need it. Conformity? Well yes, I guess, to a certain extent, but the fact that not everyone has body odor due to genetics is not exactly common knowledge. It does however explain why many orientals find westerners smelly.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMost deodorants are perfumed. Maybe people apply them because they like the smell of them. My wife is very particular abut what deodorant I am "allowed" to wear.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@ Unksoldr : you might be coming on strong, but believe me, odor is not everything. Would be embarrassing if a blind person mistook you for a Hamburger.
If you get hot and sweat then you will eventually smell under the armpits - sweat contains urea and the bacteria and fungi on your skin will start metabolising your sweat, oils and dead skin cells. Unless you are very blessed it will not smell nice so anything that stops you sweating there will help stop you smelling. I've never had any problem with plain alum ones but I do avoid scented deodorants. I did notice a much less offensive smell when I switched to a vegetarian diet though so BJ has a point.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Social pressure or conformity" my foot!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTry, a $zillion spent on advertising that brain-washes people into using all sorts of products they don't - and never did - need. I am fortunate to be one of those who need no deodorant - and has dry ear wax - but I do not find normal body odour offensive in the least, as a rule. There are exceptions, of course, but what the heck is wrong with basic "woman smell"? Or "man smell" either?
Unksoldr, I think the point you are ignoring in reaching your conclusions is that you live in a society. Societies don't work well when too many members are too selfish... they work when people in them are aware and considerate of those around them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust because your smell is natural to you, doesn't mean it isn't offensive to others in your society. When a relatively small amount of effort on your part can keep from making the days of everyone around you unpleasant, that effort perhaps isn't something to scoff at as you did in your comment.
If you want to live your life doing whatever you want with no consideration of how you affect those around you while at the same time not having to face disapproval from others for your actions, then I suggest you move away from all other people and live alone somewhere.
Demanding your "right" to do whatever you want regardless of its affect on others, and describing your negative impact on others as "their problem, not yours", is hardly a recipe for building or maintaining any type of workable society.
On a side note, I do think this article was too quick to make value judgements about people's choice to use the product even if they lack the gene for the smell. As others have pointed out, there are other good reasons to wear these products (like preventing too much sweat) which seem to have been totally ignored when reaching the assessments tossed out in this article.
There are several different compounds secreted by the human body that metabolized by several different types of skin bacteria to produce body odor. One of these is the amino acid leucine - which human's can't live without - which gets converted to isovaleric acid (smells like sweaty feet or stinky cheese) by Staphylococcus epidermidis (a bacterium found on nearly everyone's skin). Bacteria of the genus Corynebacterium convert lipids in sweat to butyric acid, making sweat smell acrid. Propionibacterium acnes metabolizes some amino acids into propionic acid, producing a vinegar-like smell. So no single gene could completely eliminate body odor.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_odor
Thanks for the clarification. It seems that it could be the genetic variability being discussed is actually directly attributable to the production of trans-3-Methyl-2-hexenoic acid (TMHA). Please see my comment #5;
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-3-Methyl-2-hexenoic_acid
" isn't it more likely that bacteria feed on proteins rather than chemicals"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo proteins aren't chemicals? Hmm, don't think it's SA that needs to do its science homework.
As to your other 'smellies', a strong odour is not necessarily an offensive one. Isn't 'musk' also a fatty acid?
The widespread use of both anti-perspirants and deodorants is simply a triumph of the advertising industry. There has never been a better technique for giving your products a rocketing send-off than to invent a problem, associate it with disgust, disapproval, or social stigma, then produce the magic formula to 'solve' it. The power of this technique lies in the fact that disgust is a learned behaviour . It only takes one generation to turn something to which the general population is completely indifferent into the great problem of our age. After that your product sells itself as we can quickly attest with everything from anti-bacterial washing-up to bottled water!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt matters not that our children are now so clean, so protected, and as a result have so little resistance to disease that the apocalyptic decimation by disease that is so popular a theme amongst science fiction writers becomes increasingly probable. Nor that our obsession with killing 99% of all known germs means that the remaining 1% has turned into a cocktail of drug-resistant pathogens. Just as long as someone (not you or I, obviously) is getting rich on the back of the never ending human appetite for new and improved snake oil!
Perhaps it would have been more fair if you had included the entire statement for context, curmudgeon, since I began my conceding ignorance on the matter.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"I don't know anything about it, but isn't it more likely that bacteria feed on proteins rather than chemicals?"
Did you get some perverse form of satisfaction by inferring my ignorance after I'd already admitted it? What was your point?
One of the principal points of this article was that underarm odor varies genetically. The reference provided by 'MadScientist72' states:
"East Asians (Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese) have fewer apocrine sweat glands compared to people of other descent, and the lack of these glands make East Asians less prone to body odor. The reduction in body odor and sweating may be due to adaptation to colder climates by their ancient Northeast Asian ancestors. Axillary odor is known to be determined by the ABCC11 gene that also codes the type of earwax one has. Most of the population secrete "wet" earwax, however, East Asians are genetically predisposed for the allele that codes the "dry" type earwax, associated with a reduction in axillary odor. The non-functional ABCC11 allele—predominant amongst East Asians by 80–95%—affects apocrine sweat glands by reducing production and secretion of odorant compounds commonly found in the perspiration of other ancestral groups. This is due to a 538G>A SNP in the ABCC11 gene, which causes a loss in body odor in people who are specifically homozygous for it."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_odor#Genetics
The reference I quoted in comment #5 states:
"Hexanoic acids such as TMHA have an hircine odor. Of the fatty acids contributing to Caucasian men's axillary (underarm) odor, TMHA has the most prominent odor."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-3-Methyl-2-hexenoic_acid
"People without Gene for Underarm Odor Still Wear Deodorant"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat's "intriguing", but are we any closer to finding a cure for cancer, AIDS/HIV, Alzheimer's disease etc? Is any meaningful science still being done these days?
The intriguing thing about research of any kind is that you do not know where you might find that exciting breakthrough until you find it. Maybe this gene will also be linked to the cause of interstitial cell cancer or Alzheimer's syndrome. So let's all study whatever we find interesting!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree with tonypisa. We really don't know if we have an odor offensive to others because we expect that we get used to our own. If we are using a deodorant or antiperspirant we just assume they are working if there is no problem. Most of us probably know that some have a serious problem that deodorants don't control. But how many people in the world are aware that the main source of body odor does not exist in some of us? Now I am intrigued. But what constitutes dry vs. wet earwax?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes, but it is far more likely that this 'fundamental research' will somehow benefit companies making and marketing deodorants than producing a cure for cancer, etc. The researchers formally declared that they had no conflicts of interest, but it seems likely there is commercial interest in these results... Perhaps future employment awaits?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.nature.com/jid/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/jid2012480a.html
"Maybe this gene will also be linked to the cause of interstitial cell cancer or Alzheimer's syndrome"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYeah right, and knowing if people with the gene are putting on deodorant will be essential for the research. Sorry, but I'm not buying this kind of argumentation.
What is "too much sweat?" Humans are SUPPOSED to sweat in hot weather. It's how we ran our dinner into heat exhaustion on the hot African savanna. Get out of your air conditioned office and do what we're meant to do - run, jump, lift, wrestle.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA world that was cool with the smells of the weak burning in Auschwitz can jolly well GET cool with the smells of the strong coming in from a fulfilling workout.
Pretty bold talk from a guy that can't even spell scientific. Now me personally, I don't see much benefit beyond learning that people buy a lot of junk they don't need just to conform to cultural expectations. As far as stinking goes, I never use deodorant even after a 500 calory cardio workout. I'm a techno geek and am rarely around others and like it that way.
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