Here's What Your B.O. Says About You!

Body odor is treated as a negative term in our society, and I’m not sure why that is. Sure, bad body odor is a bad thing, but everyone has a body odor. Even if no one can smell it, you still have one. We're not talking about what you smell after you've run too far without antiperspirant, but how you smell on a day to day basis.

So what does that say about your health? As it turns out, it says a lot.

1. It could let people know about your personality. This is one of the most surprising things that’s been found about B.O. One study found that people could guess different character traits based on smelling a shirt that someone had worn. Participants in the study could correctly guess if a person was “extraverted, dominant, or neurotic” based on the smell of their clothes. So when you meet a new person, those are things they can tell about you right away!
2. It could attract your soul mate. More and more studies are showing that, like other animals, body odor plays a big part in who we’re attracted to. Both mammals and humans are more attracted to those with body odors that differed dramatically from their own. So if someone has a different smell than you, it could make you more attractive to them.
3. It could reveal your stress levels (to your pet). Though stress does make you sweat, it also changes your body odor ever so slightly. Animals with sophisticated senses of smell, like dogs, can smell stress that’s caused by fear or social problems. 

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4. It could be strongly linked to your health. Once you develop an illness, it becomes a part of your body odor. This is another case where animals with sensitive noses are helpful—one study showed that dogs could correctly identify cancer patients based on their urine. Even jumans can sometimes smell when something’s off with someone’s health. They could even tell the difference between someone who was actually sick and someone who had been given a placebo to create the same symptoms as sickness. But this isn’t really a useful diagnosis, more of a side effect.

Body odor is a crazy thing, and there's still a lot to learn about it. But don't worry! As long as you don't smell bad, you're doing fine.

What do you use to stave off bad B.O.?