OTC’s may be cause of body odor

September 11, 2011 By

DEAR DR. GOTT: I’m a 63-year-old black female. I had a total abdominal hysterectomy at age 38 that left me with one ovary. At 51, I went through menopause and was prescribed the smallest dose of Premarin. After five years I slowly weaned myself off it. About 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with diabetes, for which I take generic metformin, 1,500 mg daily.

In 2008 I started applying alcohol (as recommended by a friend) to my underarms before applying deodorant to combat odor. At that time the odor was infrequent, but now it’s an almost daily battle. It doesn’t seem to be brought on by anything specific. I currently carry a small piece of soap that I apply dry whenever I detect the odor. It works well, but not all situations allow me to sneak off to apply it.
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Causes of body odor

February 25, 2011 By

DEAR DR. GOTT: I am 60 years old. I have noticed an increasingly foul body odor. Truly, it is embarrassing. My skin seems to have an almost rotting, sewer-like odor. This is not vaginal but a distressing internal and external odor. I smell like something is rotting inside me. Can you offer any ideas about this?

DEAR READER: Body odor and sweat stem primarily from our body’s sweat glands. The body has up to 4 million sweat glands, broken into two types — eccrine and apocrine. Eccrine glands open onto the surface of the skin. When body temperature rises, our autonomic nervous system stimulates eccrine glands located over most of the body. They secrete fluid onto the surface of the skin, where it cools and evaporates. Eccrine glands regulate our body temperature.
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Body odor in children often has unknown cause

December 10, 2010 By

DEAR DR. GOTT: My 4-1/2-year-old son is developmentally delayed and was diagnosed as having low muscle tone. With the help of therapy, he sat up at 1 year and walked at 2-1/2. He is also in speech therapy and isn’t completely potty trained. Emotionally and mentally, he is behind his pre-K peers and will be going into special education in kindergarten. He is extremely hyperactive and ADD, which contributes to his problems. My concern now is that he often has “oniony” breath and body odor, even when he hasn’t eaten any onions. Could this be a symptom of something that his doctors missed? Your feedback would be greatly welcomed. Thank you.

DEAR READER: The simple answer is yes, it could be a symptom of an underlying condition; however, I don’t know whether it is likely. Certain medications can cause changes in the smell of body odor, breath, urine and even stool. Most often other, more definitive symptoms are present, too.
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