Hey guys,
So the thread title was "possible reasons you smell and what to do about it" but I'm just going to talk about the reasons i believe I had/have odour problems and what I did/am doing about it. I visit these forums on and off and i don't see much talk about these things but so many people are still suffering so i thought I would share. Sorry if a lot of this is common knowledge, im going to be writing it as kind of an introduction to the problems for new people, though I'm not explaining every detail you will have to look a lot of it up. Anyways here i go.
I wont go into too much detail about my situation i will just say that i have had problems with people complain about how I smell a lot and have been ostracized by my classmates when i went to school. This condition has caused me to lose good job opportunities and avoid my friends, even avoid and turn down women.
Gastroparesis
If you have chronic problems with digestion there is a chance you will sometimes experience "gastroparesis" this is where food will stay in your stomach longer than it should. There it can ferment causing bacterial problems. It can also smell extremely bad, like vomit mixed with whatever food you ate. It can seriously stink up your entire house, it's horrible. For some people with gastroparesis food gets stuck there most of the time but for me it only happens when i eat too much or eat processed foods that i am sensitive too. I had the barium test and it showed that everything was normal, but i know i suffer from this on occasion. There have been a few times over the years where i wake up 8 hours after eating and I have a horrible taste in my mouth with a strangely dirty feeling, not sure how to describe it (not very scientific, sorry haha). I have even vomited once 8 hours after my last meal and i was hardly even feeling nausea. friends have also confirmed that i smelled like vomit + the food i ate the night before. I dont smell it myself, wierd.
If you have gastroaresis where it happens all the time then get it diagnosed and talk to your doctor but if its something that only happens once in a while then you can probably avoid it all together if you try eating small frequent meals, and get more exercise, and avoiding problem foods. You need to figure out your food sensitivities, including "allergies" if you have any as well as your food "intolerances" because it might be causing this, or more.
Bowel problems, leaky bowel, leaky gas etc.
This can be caused by food sensitivities and stress or any other number of things, bacterial imbalance some specific structural failure, whatever. While you are waiting for your doctors to get their ###### together and figure out whats causing your distress you may as well focus on the big (BIG) things you can change that might be causing your problems, stress and food sensitivities.
The stress and sensitivities can build off of each other too, the more stressful you get the weaker your immune system gets, the weaker your digestion gets, the more food bothers you, the more stressful you get etc it goes on and on spiraling out of control.
The wetness around your butt may be caused by inflammation. I get it sometimes too, it sucks, apparently it can cause you to smell. I was recommended trying to rub some Gold Bond powder down there. Not as a cure obviously just for some relief. I haven't tried it yet but I will try later.
Food Sensitivities
The most common food intolerances are wheat, corn, caffeine,yeast, citrus fruits, eggs, strawberries, pork, tomatoes, peanuts, chocolate, potatoes, onions, dairy, and anything processed especialy heavily refined, food additives and preservatives.
Some health practitioners will recommend you avoid ALL of these at the same time for a while (like 6 months) then slowly add them back in and see how you tolerate them. That's pretty brutal but it might be necessary for you if you have chronic problems and are not sure where to turn.
Food sensitivities can be really hard to figure out though because their affects can be delayed. If you feel "brain fog" or headaches immediately after eating something then chances are you should be avoiding it though(at least for the time being).
Symptoms of food sensitivities can include chronic infections, inflammation, diarrhea, fatigue, anxiety, depression, joint pain, skin rashes, dark circles under your eyes, itchy nose and throat, etc etc. there are a lot of possible symptoms, i recommend you look up food "intolerances" and "sensitivities" and talk to your doctor about them and allergies. Keep in mind this isn't stuff a lot of doctors know that much about.
Stress, Anxiety
This is a pretty big one. It feeds and builds on your food sensitivities, weakens digestion and also causes your sweat to smell extra bad (guys sweat may smell more like cheese, woman more like onion). So stress literally causes you to smell extra bad whether you have health problems or not and can amplify many of the digestive problems that cause you to smell bad too. I have seen many people on the internet swear up and down that they had bad smells coming from them, leaky gas/gut, fecal body odour, etc ruining their life and they cured themselves by managing stress, anxiety.
things that help manage stress:
Physical Exercise, Breathing Exercises (lay down and breath deeply and slowly continuously for 45 mins to an hour and see how great you feel towards the end)
And that's all i can say is good for managing stress without going too specific and saying stuff like "walking in nature" etc.
Things that DO NOT HELP manage stress:
Comfort food, movies, reading, internet, video games, like 99.99% of music (honestly music has to be like ASMR tier if you want it to be truly relaxing. In my opinion; don't bother turning to music). You may feel better doing these things but this is more distracting yourself than helping yourself and many of these problems just feed your stress even if you enjoy doing them.
Im not saying never do these things, just dont rely on them to manage your stress.
Willpower, etc.
So thats a few different reasons you could smell, you could be suffering from all of them at the same time. Eating right and doing all that exercise is benificial but can be hard to commit to. Just remember that negative reinforcement does not help. Negative reinforcement stresses you out which makes you want to distract yourself with comfort foods or one of the other bad things people turn to to "help" themselves with their stress. Work on this stuff a little bit every day, it can be really hard but its worth it. It WILL help you feel better, it helps me immensely, i have had periods where i am smell free, (unfortunately i have recently being eating like an idiot so im back to being a little sick, not as bad as i used to feel though) even if you are one of those cases where you need surgery/special pills this stuff will help you feel good.
I recommend reading THE. WILLPOWER. INSTINCT. by Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D. I am pretty sure you can get it for free.
So the thread title was "possible reasons you smell and what to do about it" but I'm just going to talk about the reasons i believe I had/have odour problems and what I did/am doing about it. I visit these forums on and off and i don't see much talk about these things but so many people are still suffering so i thought I would share. Sorry if a lot of this is common knowledge, im going to be writing it as kind of an introduction to the problems for new people, though I'm not explaining every detail you will have to look a lot of it up. Anyways here i go.
I wont go into too much detail about my situation i will just say that i have had problems with people complain about how I smell a lot and have been ostracized by my classmates when i went to school. This condition has caused me to lose good job opportunities and avoid my friends, even avoid and turn down women.
Gastroparesis
If you have chronic problems with digestion there is a chance you will sometimes experience "gastroparesis" this is where food will stay in your stomach longer than it should. There it can ferment causing bacterial problems. It can also smell extremely bad, like vomit mixed with whatever food you ate. It can seriously stink up your entire house, it's horrible. For some people with gastroparesis food gets stuck there most of the time but for me it only happens when i eat too much or eat processed foods that i am sensitive too. I had the barium test and it showed that everything was normal, but i know i suffer from this on occasion. There have been a few times over the years where i wake up 8 hours after eating and I have a horrible taste in my mouth with a strangely dirty feeling, not sure how to describe it (not very scientific, sorry haha). I have even vomited once 8 hours after my last meal and i was hardly even feeling nausea. friends have also confirmed that i smelled like vomit + the food i ate the night before. I dont smell it myself, wierd.
If you have gastroaresis where it happens all the time then get it diagnosed and talk to your doctor but if its something that only happens once in a while then you can probably avoid it all together if you try eating small frequent meals, and get more exercise, and avoiding problem foods. You need to figure out your food sensitivities, including "allergies" if you have any as well as your food "intolerances" because it might be causing this, or more.
Bowel problems, leaky bowel, leaky gas etc.
This can be caused by food sensitivities and stress or any other number of things, bacterial imbalance some specific structural failure, whatever. While you are waiting for your doctors to get their ###### together and figure out whats causing your distress you may as well focus on the big (BIG) things you can change that might be causing your problems, stress and food sensitivities.
The stress and sensitivities can build off of each other too, the more stressful you get the weaker your immune system gets, the weaker your digestion gets, the more food bothers you, the more stressful you get etc it goes on and on spiraling out of control.
The wetness around your butt may be caused by inflammation. I get it sometimes too, it sucks, apparently it can cause you to smell. I was recommended trying to rub some Gold Bond powder down there. Not as a cure obviously just for some relief. I haven't tried it yet but I will try later.
Food Sensitivities
The most common food intolerances are wheat, corn, caffeine,yeast, citrus fruits, eggs, strawberries, pork, tomatoes, peanuts, chocolate, potatoes, onions, dairy, and anything processed especialy heavily refined, food additives and preservatives.
Some health practitioners will recommend you avoid ALL of these at the same time for a while (like 6 months) then slowly add them back in and see how you tolerate them. That's pretty brutal but it might be necessary for you if you have chronic problems and are not sure where to turn.
Food sensitivities can be really hard to figure out though because their affects can be delayed. If you feel "brain fog" or headaches immediately after eating something then chances are you should be avoiding it though(at least for the time being).
Symptoms of food sensitivities can include chronic infections, inflammation, diarrhea, fatigue, anxiety, depression, joint pain, skin rashes, dark circles under your eyes, itchy nose and throat, etc etc. there are a lot of possible symptoms, i recommend you look up food "intolerances" and "sensitivities" and talk to your doctor about them and allergies. Keep in mind this isn't stuff a lot of doctors know that much about.
Stress, Anxiety
This is a pretty big one. It feeds and builds on your food sensitivities, weakens digestion and also causes your sweat to smell extra bad (guys sweat may smell more like cheese, woman more like onion). So stress literally causes you to smell extra bad whether you have health problems or not and can amplify many of the digestive problems that cause you to smell bad too. I have seen many people on the internet swear up and down that they had bad smells coming from them, leaky gas/gut, fecal body odour, etc ruining their life and they cured themselves by managing stress, anxiety.
things that help manage stress:
Physical Exercise, Breathing Exercises (lay down and breath deeply and slowly continuously for 45 mins to an hour and see how great you feel towards the end)
And that's all i can say is good for managing stress without going too specific and saying stuff like "walking in nature" etc.
Things that DO NOT HELP manage stress:
Comfort food, movies, reading, internet, video games, like 99.99% of music (honestly music has to be like ASMR tier if you want it to be truly relaxing. In my opinion; don't bother turning to music). You may feel better doing these things but this is more distracting yourself than helping yourself and many of these problems just feed your stress even if you enjoy doing them.
Im not saying never do these things, just dont rely on them to manage your stress.
Willpower, etc.
So thats a few different reasons you could smell, you could be suffering from all of them at the same time. Eating right and doing all that exercise is benificial but can be hard to commit to. Just remember that negative reinforcement does not help. Negative reinforcement stresses you out which makes you want to distract yourself with comfort foods or one of the other bad things people turn to to "help" themselves with their stress. Work on this stuff a little bit every day, it can be really hard but its worth it. It WILL help you feel better, it helps me immensely, i have had periods where i am smell free, (unfortunately i have recently being eating like an idiot so im back to being a little sick, not as bad as i used to feel though) even if you are one of those cases where you need surgery/special pills this stuff will help you feel good.
I recommend reading THE. WILLPOWER. INSTINCT. by Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D. I am pretty sure you can get it for free.
