What's Your Problem?

Please read our Golden Rules of self help before considering the information on this page.

Body Odour

Most ancient medical systems, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine for instance, pay a lot of attention to details that their patients do not provide. One of these is smell.

Of course, some patients actually volunteer that they suffer from offending fumes coming from their netherparts, but mostly it is rather rare that people volunteer information such as: “Ah, yes, and also I have dreadful bad breath”

A good practitioner though will pay a lot of attention to their patient’s personal fragrance. Of course this may be difficult in the days of super-deodorants and perfumes, but very often when a patient is lying down, ready to have acupuncture or a massage, this is when the real perfumes come out.

What Kind Of Pong?

All body odours are related to internal health: if all organs work well, you smell good; if they don’t, you don’t. It’s a bit like compost making: if everything breaks down well in a compost heap you get some wonderful smelling compost, but the process is faulty, you get a horrible muck. How do you know what the problem is though? Well, there are different kinds of problem odours: bad breath, smelly armpits, reproductive tract odours, smelly feet and …. well, general fetid-ness.

Halitosis:

Bad breath can be due to poor hygiene, but it can also be due to an under active stomach. We’ve treated this topic in detail in Week 26.

Intimate hygiene:

Is usually caused by an ecological imbalance in the vagina that allows micro-organisms such as Gardnerella or Trichomonas to flourish. We also looked at the causes and treatment for this problem in week 22.

Smelly armpits:

Are a double indicator. First they show what your lower digestive tract problem is up to. It seems that your underarms filter whatever you eat, so if it is not broken down properly: out comes the pong! Some foods seem to come straight out: garlic for instance and also fenugreek. I have smelt many a fanatical health freak who never put anything ‘bad’ in their mouth who made Billygoats smell like Diorissimo. The reason was that they drunk a lot of fenugreek tea. For treatment, see “General Pong’.

Bacteria is the other thing that smelly armpits alert one to. That’s because they are naturally warmer, moister and more protected than other parts of the body and therefore excellent ground for bacterial growth. If you have at least one shower a day –and use good old soap- it is very unlikely that this is the cause of the problem. My trick is: wash armpits with toothpaste: the deodorant type with mint flavour. It’s terrific!

Smelly feet:

Of course smelly feet can simply be the result of wearing running shoes, especially with artificial fibre socks, as many mothers of your teenage sons well know. And a particular ‘cheesy’ smell is due to fungal growth. In both cases it is important to wear pure cotton or pure wool sock, change them often and spend as much time bare foot as possible.

In Chinese Medicine a particular putrid smell coming from the feet is an indication that the kidneys are not doing their job properly. By ‘kidneys’ Chinese doctors and acupuncturists often mean ‘adrenal glands’ and this is often a marker that the patient is burning the candle at both end and is very low in energy and life force. In this case it is important to address the person’s lifestyle, making sure that they are not overdoing work and play and that they are both nourishing their body with good food and allowing it enough rest.

General pong:

Some people are smelly all over and that is not just dirty old men. Some clean and fresh looking people can be afflicted by general bad odour, no amount of soap or deodorant seems to mask it. This should be taken seriously as it is the sign of general toxicity. This is the body attempt to eliminate waster products because the gut and the kidneys are too overwhelmed to do their job properly.

What needs to be done is to make sure that the gut works well by eating a lot of fresh green vegetables, a lot of fibre, especially in the form of wholegrains, and at least three pieces of fruit a day. Yogurt is a fantastic food that will keep your plumbing healthy. Make sure your liver is spick and span by drinking Dandelion, Globe Artichoke or St Mary’s Thistle tea. Make sure you drink enough pure water or herbal teas but don’t flood your system to the point of water retention.

Avoid fatty foods because fats are very good at storing toxins. You may need to go to a naturopath to work out a cleansing programme.

Be honest with yourself and check out what it is that causes the pong: if you eat hamburgers and get smelly armpits, drink beer and become flatulent or take-aways that created the feet from hell, then you’ll know what your body does not like to break down.

Other nutrients that appear to help remove metabolic wastes that cause body odour are: Magnesium and Zinc; vitamins C and B6. Parsley, aniseed and mint are also great to add to all foods that have a high ‘pong factor’ such as garlic and cabbage.

Deodorants:

Don’t be too tempted to mask smells with deodorants. First of all they tend to just layer another bad smell on top of another, secondly they will stop you from realising that may be there is something wrong. Deodorant sprays are particular bad because a lot of people are allergic to them. Don’t use products that ‘keep you dry’ because they stop your skin from breathing and make the problem worse by preventing elimination through the skin. Also many deodorants contain aluminium which has been shown to cause many health problems. You can get crystal deodorants that are terrific: you just wet them and rub them in your armpits. Make sure they are aluminium free. The only problem is that they actually break if you drop them but they do last forever and they are quite cheap.

Did you know?

Some people smell like sweet apples. That sounds really nice but the problem is that this is often a symptom of diabetes. So if a member of your family persistently smells like apples it may be a good idea to have them checked out. Be careful though: only last week I had a major attack of neuroticism (yes, I am sorry to disappoint you, but even this fearless Granny gets neurotic), after having been away for a few days, I noticed that my husband smelled like sweet apples. My heart sank: “Oh! No! I thought, he’s diabetic!”. Fortunately, I did not mouth off my ‘diagnosis’ straight away: it turned out he had bought a new brand of soap!

Intimate Hygiene

Intimate smells can be due to several micro organisms, which cause vaginitis, such as Gardneralla, Chlamydia or Trichomonas. If you suffer from this problem don’t go for vaginal deodorants that are really irritating; instead cut out sugar from your diet and douche with acidophilus and bifidus.

Halitosis

Bad breath can of course be due to poor mouth hygiene, tooth decay or bleeding gums, But if attending to all those is putting a smile to your dentist’s face but the halitosis remains the same then poor digestion is usually at fault. Improve your diet as explained in General Pong below. (NO, General Pong is not a Chinese Revolution army commander!)

WHY DO MALE ANIMALS STINK?

Because they must! Tomcats, dogs, stallions, bulls all have very pungent body fluids with which to mark their territory. A way of telling other machos to push off and also to protect their females and their progeny. It is also a way to attract females. Whether or not the law of the male pong applies to human animals, I let you be the judge of that. Although it may explain the need some guys have to wear ultra pungent aftershave!

For a personalised treatment please contact me here.

The information on this website is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. None of the products mentioned on this website are intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
The information on this website is not intended to provide personal medical advice, which should be obtained from a medical professional.
This information is made available with the understanding that the author and publisher are not providing medical, psychological, or nutritional counseling services on this site. The information on this website does not cover all possible uses, actions, precautions, side effects, and interactions.
Liability for individual actions or omissions based upon the contents of this site is expressly disclaimed.