Body odor

Body odor, Bromhidrosis or body odour is the smell of bacteria growing on the body. These bacteria multiply considerably in the presence of sweat, but sweat itself is almost totally odorless. Body odor is associated with the hair, skin, breasts, armpits and genitals.

Related Topics:
Smell - Bacteria - Sweat

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Body odor is specific to the individual (except for identical twins in the same environment) and can be used to identify people, though this is more often done by dogs than by humans. An individual's bodily odor is also influenced by diet, gender, genetics, health, medication, occupation, and mood. 17th century Japanese encountering Europeans for the first time found their odor particularly strong, and blamed it on the butter Europeans ate. The term bata-kusai (roughly meaning "butter reekers") was soon used to describe Europeans and still connotes anyone obviously Western. http://webexhibits.org/butter/countries-japan.html

Related Topics:
Identical twin - Dog - Human

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