The smell of sweat

Normally, sweat is odourless or low-odour. Especially in summer, at very high temperatures, it can happen that you are soaked with sweat, but do not smell of it at all. The smell of sweat only occurs when the sweat breaks down.

This also explains why fresh sweat is odorless and older sweat then starts to smell. The smell is caused by bacterial decomposition, which is carried out by bacteria living on the skin and which produces butyric acid, among other things. Nutrition also plays a not inconsiderable role in the formation of odor in sweat.

If more animal proteins are consumed, sweating can also lead to a stronger odour formation even with fresh sweat. Furthermore, a vegetative component is added to the odour formation. The sweat that is produced during sporting activities and is released onto the skin is often low-odor or completely odorless.

However, the sweat produced by excitement and fear is often very odorous. The exact cause of this is not clear. Another exception to the formation of odors are hormonal influences.

For example, the composition of sweat in puberty is different from that of adults, which can mean that fresh sweat also starts to smell very quickly in young people. There are also sex-dependent differences in the odour development of sweat. For example, the sweat of women is less odorous than that of men. Here too, different compositions of the sweat are seen as a cause.

The weld breakout

A sweat outbreak is a sudden sharp increase in sweat production, which can have various causes. On the one hand, sweating occurs at high temperatures and during intensive sport, which is important for the body as it helps to prevent overheating. Sweating outbreaks can also be of a psychological nature.

In this case, fear and stress are usually the triggers. Another reason is changes in the hormone balance, such as those that occur during menopause or pregnancy. Furthermore, frequent and heavy sweating can be caused by a disease.

Examples are diabetes mellitus, hyperthyroidism, obesity, cancer and various metabolic diseases. Acute events, such as heart attacks, pulmonary embolism or fainting fits are also triggers for sweating. In order to treat outbreaks of sweating, the reason should always be clarified first, as different treatments are preferable depending on the cause.