Selects: Body Odor: You Stink - podcast episode cover

Selects: Body Odor: You Stink

Sep 02, 202347 min
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Episode description

Chuck and Josh end up making reduxes of past episodes on things like sweating and deodorant in this all-new episode on the science beneath what makes people smell. Learn all about your odor in this classic episode.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

Hi, everybody. I smell right now. I have body odor because I have not showered in several days. I do that occasionally in the wintertime, which it is right now. I'm not sure when this is going to air, probably more like spring, but this one really did air in the spring, in fact, on April eleventh, twenty twelve. Body odor colon. You stink, but you know I don't want to yx someone's gum. Some people like their natural musk. Let it fly if that's your deal. I don't care.

Smell how you want to smell, but don't be offended if someone thinks you smell bad. Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, Charles W. Chuck'brian is with me. If my nose doesn't deceive me.

Speaker 1

I didn't do my cheeks today. That's bad luck.

Speaker 2

No, thank you. I don't think that that's gonna save this episode, but it will make it from being the worst, probably like the one, the unreleased one.

Speaker 1

Yeah, in case of break, we'll make that. When we retire, that'll be our final episode. We'll go out with a whimper.

Speaker 2

That's not bad idea. Yeah, there's a lost episode everyone that only Jerry, Chuck and I know about.

Speaker 1

Yeah, in case of emergency break glass episode.

Speaker 2

It is so bad that if something happens, yeah, we we release the emergency episode.

Speaker 1

That's right.

Speaker 2

Yeah. It feels good to have, does it. Yeah?

Speaker 1

Yeah, I guess so.

Speaker 2

I feel like we have a margin of error, yeah, but of one. Yeah, all right, Chuck, let's get this started, all right. You stink?

Speaker 1

Thank you?

Speaker 2

I stink? Yes, we all stink.

Speaker 1

Jerry doesn't stink. Jerry smells like lilac.

Speaker 2

She does. But the wow, you just threw me off with that one. Sorry, But your stink and my stink are unique. It's like, uh, it's called an odor type, right, So an odor type is, as I said, very unique. It's so unique that there is research into figuring out how to identify somebody through their odor.

Speaker 1

Yeah. I thought that was interesting.

Speaker 2

It's like a smelly fingerprint. Yeah. And no matter what you do, it can't be masked, like, you can't alter it to where a machine that's designed to molecularly analyze odors, yeah, can't say oh it's Josh, oh and there's Chuck. And they're also they're really laying on the Polo cologne today for some.

Speaker 1

Reason, because it's nineteen eighty five.

Speaker 2

That's my man. I remember the day I could you wear that's the bottle of Polo. It's like the size of my torso. And I was so excited.

Speaker 1

I only wore one cologne in my life for like two years in high school. Oh yeah, yeah, Benetton Colors.

Speaker 2

It was fancy pants.

Speaker 1

But I haven't wor cologne since literally I was seventeen.

Speaker 2

Yeah. I went through maybe like three periods in my life where I wore Colone for a little while, and finally I'm like, I don't wear cologne? What am I doing?

Speaker 1

Not many guys do anymore, do they?

Speaker 2

Yeah?

Speaker 1

Really?

Speaker 2

At the gym I go to, it's like get out of the sauna. Now, wow, it's bad.

Speaker 1

Yeah, when I told you, I think one time when I lived in Arizona for a year. It may be cultural, but those dudes wore Colone like a lot.

Speaker 2

And hair jail, don't they.

Speaker 1

I seem to remember a fair amount of dipity doo.

Speaker 2

Yeah, Arizona is like New Jersey West, So anyway, we all have very distinct odor types, is what it's called. Oh and not only can you not alter it with a machine, but if you're a mouse and you try to mask your sense, other mice can still see who you are through their nose.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I saw that study. Should we tell them that the technique they use, even though I don't underst in it, it involves tickling, uh, volatile VOCs like you get in paint, volatile organic compounds. Yeah, also in your.

Speaker 2

Body, which is just something that turns to gas at what we consider room temperature exactly.

Speaker 1

They use They can analyze these sense in your sweats, a lot of it in urine using gas chromatography, mass spectrauma spectrometry.

Speaker 2

That's good stuff. I'm glad you got hung up on that one.

Speaker 1

Yeah. I don't know how that works, so I didn't have enough time to look into that. But that's what the Pentagon and the Homeland Security are using to try and snip out terrorists.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and I also apparently to figure out if someone's lying because there's different kinds of sweat. There's different kinds of sweat glands. As you know, we've actually kind of covered some of this. Remember we did what's the difference between any perse brant indio drank? Which again, yes, Okay, I didn't think that was me. I mean you were wildly impressed with Like I had a theory about deodorant stocks going up.

Speaker 1

Oh that's right.

Speaker 2

Remember hormones and milk are making kids hit puberty younger.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

Yeah, in my opinion, and then with global warming, people are going to need more deodorant, so deodorant stocks were the way to go.

Speaker 1

That's not as good as my early man theory. What happened?

Speaker 2

They melted? Yeah, that's what happened the Neanderthals.

Speaker 1

These are the old days. Yeah. I think that Deodorante was like one of the ten minute shows, wasn't it. It was pretty quick, like really early.

Speaker 2

Yeah. Yeah, but we're going to revisit it because even you don't remember it, and you were in it.

Speaker 1

I remember now.

Speaker 2

So we're going to talk about the different kinds of sweat clans because we've also talked about this before. And what can you sweat colors?

Speaker 1

Yeah?

Speaker 2

Okay, but let's let's do it again. You want to sure that was the intro duck.

Speaker 1

That's great, I love it. You know. They also have studies that say that little babies are more attracted to their mothers, obviously because of their scent and like early on, right, humans can sniff out their parents, which is and I don't think it's a theory of mine. I think it's pretty well established that if you're like a smoker, even if you like, oh I don't smoke around my kids, they still sniff that stuff out and they are more likely to smoke later on because of that.

Speaker 2

Is that true?

Speaker 1

Yeah? Oh yeah, children of smokers are way more likely to smoke.

Speaker 2

I know in studies of babies born eyelists and as worms, they will like they'll sniff their parents out and like just wiggle over toward them even though they can't see, usually can't hear.

Speaker 1

It's a neat study.

Speaker 2

There's a lot of stuff in here like that. Yeah, so let's talk about the different kinds of sweat glands. Okay, you got ecering lands.

Speaker 1

Yeah, those are my favorite, same here because they cool me off.

Speaker 2

Yeah, they're innocuous. Yeah, they basically just secrete water and electrolytes. Yeah, which if you've seen idiocracy, you know how important electrolytes are. That's right, And yeah, it's used to regulate body temperature. Hypothalamus says, hey, you're getting a little warm here. Let's get rid of this perspiration. The water, the Yeah, the water and electrolytes on your skin. Yeah, when they evaporate, it's going to cool you down. Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 1

And sweat doesn't stink. I think we've pointed that out before, but it bears repeating. The sweat itself is not smelly. No, And I like saying that because for obvious reasons, it's well established that I'm a sweaty guy. But I'm not a smelly guy.

Speaker 2

No, you really aren't. I was thinking about this. I'm like, I was thinking about you as I was researching this, sure, and I was like, you know, chuck doesn't smell. I've never smelled chuck. And I've been around you when you're sweating. Yeah, I've been around you when you were wearing nothing but like shorts in a hawk's jersey sweating sweating. Yeah, well you better be sweating if you were in that.

Speaker 1

Yeah. That's because I take exactly, That's because I take care of myself and do all the things that we're going to talk about, like bathing.

Speaker 2

Yes, So in ekron sweat, there's nothing to smell. Electrolytes don't in the other sweat gland and acron sweat glands are found all over your body. The other sweat glands apacrin sweat glands.

Speaker 1

Yeah, gross.

Speaker 2

They don't smell either. I know what you're saying, Like that, you produce sweat, but it has a lot more than just water and electrolytes.

Speaker 1

Yeah, chuck.

Speaker 2

Anytime a cell excretes waste, poops something out, or is destroyed through maybe autolysis or whatever, there's a lot of little cellular detrious and that stuff has to leave the body because you don't want it to build up. You want to get rid of your broken up dead cells, and they enter secretory cells in the skin and hike along with your sweat.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

So the apacrine sweat is a means of disposal, cellular detrious disposal in your body. But even that doesn't smell. Yeah, what produces the smell?

Speaker 1

Uh well, And we did cover this before, but it is back to area that basically eats those proteins that we sweat out and then they poop them out.

Speaker 2

Essentially, they poop out fatty acids that stink. That's great, that's the smell. It's not us, it's the local flora. Yeah, the bacteria.

Speaker 1

I don't even like the word flora, I.

Speaker 2

Know, and it doesn't even make sense because bacteria aren't plants, right, and even if they were plants, flora apparently refers to multicellular plants. Oh really Yeah, but they call local flora bacteria's local flora huh? And little protozoa yeah, on your body, those are called fauna local fauna, And I can't figure out why.

Speaker 1

Well, I bet the answers out there.

Speaker 2

I looked, man, really yeah, if anybody knows, this is the one I'd really like to know from this episode.

Speaker 1

Well, what we do know is that these nasty apocrine glands are found in some pretty unfortunate places, like you're growing, you're growing, and your armpits your arm what is it? The accelate excellent? And your hands and your feet so ROAs that's where you're gonna smell in your feet. Interestingly, the reason they don't smell quite like your armpits is because they also produce fungus in addition to the bacteria

pooping out fatty acids. Yeah, so that's why your footout is going to be a little different.

Speaker 2

It's not really coincidence that like all of these places are hairy, well except for your hands. Yeah, and I guess the soles are your feet, but your armpits and you're groin are hairy.

Speaker 1

I'm five years old. I'm sorry.

Speaker 2

Naturally they're hairy. Yes, And when we wear shoes, socks, whatever, we are providing like these great places for bacteria to thrive and eat the stuff to their hearts content. But it takes about an hour apparently.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that's a good news.

Speaker 2

So when you start sweating apricrine cell detrius through your armpits, you it takes about an hour for the local bacteria to digest. I mean they'll eat it immediately, but then they lay around, have a siesta. Ye watch a little tit and they wake up and they're like, I got a poop, and they poop, and then you start smelling.

Speaker 1

The other gross thing. And there will be many gross things, but to me, one of the gross things is the the ekren glands secrete kind of you know, a clear liquid, but the apacrine glands excrete liquid that can be thicker and milky and yellow, which is why if you've ever had the old mustard stains on the undershirt, which are really unsightly, that means it's time to get rid of that undershirt. Yes it is, or if you're like me, then it's time to keep wearing it until it's crunchy.

Speaker 2

Yes, and I know the crunch you're talking about.

Speaker 1

Yeah. I think that's the deodorant as well, I hope though in combination with the milky yellowish secretions.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

Odd uh yeah, so that that's the gross stuff.

Speaker 2

That's where your pit stains come from. Yeah, and the smell also. One of the big guys of the smell world as far as the waste products that the local flora are producing is E three methyl two hexenoic acid. That's what's making you smell. Friends, that's the one. It's one of And the bacteria that's producing this are called microcoxie or staphylocoxi. And like I said, this is where they love living in your armpits. And I don't know

if like they live in our armpits. Like over time they've become attracted to human armpits the revolution, like they're like, oh, well this is where we eat, so we live here, right, And they never learned you should never poop where you eat. They do the whole gambit, you know, or poop where you live.

Speaker 1

But no, it's poop where you eat.

Speaker 2

I think it's both, is it? Yeah? Okay? I wonder if like they were attracted to humans over time, because I mean, are we born with these things in our underarms?

Speaker 1

I don't know how do we pick them up?

Speaker 2

How? How soon after birth do we pick them up?

Speaker 1

Well, I don't think we're born because newborn babies don't have the apican apricant sweat, right, So that's why little babies smell delicious. And unless they're pooping, which is like an ungodly thing for such a small child.

Speaker 2

What is wrong with babies?

Speaker 1

I know, so weird.

Speaker 2

So, yes, you're right. We aren't born with apocrine glands. We develop them around puberty. The outside of puberty.

Speaker 1

You probably won't start the body odor the bo as my mom always called it, till till puberty, till your teen years, and that's when you start getting stinky.

Speaker 2

And so it's not just there's not just a difference between little kids, between teens and tweens. Yeah, right, tweens down stink. Teens stink, that's right. Supposedly there's a distinction among races. This is highly controversial, is it. Yes, it's not nearly as cavalier as it might seem in this article. You can't just say like, oh, well, Asians are the least stinky there is there is a few supposedly. Here's the problem, Okay, here's the problem that the field of

anthropology has with this. It's possible that there are differences among among races, sure, but you could break it down even further. Is it is it? Is it food based? Is it diet based?

Speaker 1

Like?

Speaker 2

Is it so if you are in northern India and you're eating less curry than southern India India or vice versa, I can't whatever, So are all Indians? Do all Indians share a similar smell that's more pungent than say, Europeans? It You can't. And even within that, it's like, how many vegetarians are there that hate curry that live in India?

Speaker 1

Well, the reason you point out curry we should point out is because that's mentioned specifically in the article as one of the more highly pungent foods that will eventually come out in your sweat, exactly like garlic.

Speaker 2

Right, But I guess the point is is when you differentiate among people, whether it's smell, especially something as unpleasant as body odor, Yeah, then you are you're creating in disparity, You're propagating the possibility of racist attitudes because if this person's different from me and how we smell, how else is that person different? And sure, you know, maybe I don't really like that person.

Speaker 1

Well it's not even endorse it that well, you just well you have.

Speaker 2

To be careful with Yeah. Plus, the other problem is is most of the research that is cited these days for difference among races and body odor, yeah, was last compiled in like the nineteen thirties.

Speaker 1

Wow.

Speaker 2

And then also for example, like agents have fewer axillary glands, do they? I don't know, when's the last time anyone checked. And then some of the other old data suggests that half an estimated half of Koreans don't even have acxillary glance, so they couldn't even sweat if they tried, you know, right, you see the point. So you're saying it's just hinky data, it's hanky old data. Yeah, I mean, you're not supposed to cite data over ten years old.

Speaker 1

Well, why don't we just as a as a show, as a part of the public specter, say, some people stink some and some people don't.

Speaker 2

Yeah, people are people. Some stink some don't.

Speaker 1

So why should it be Jerry like that saw that was headed. Yeah, men definitely are stinkier than women.

Speaker 2

No, that is true.

Speaker 1

In general, we don't mind a little sexism, especially when we're throwing it on ourselves as stinky men.

Speaker 2

But it's not sexism because it's true and it's not I mean, there's no, there's no disparaging that comes along with that.

Speaker 1

That's true, and this is actually backed up by some science. We have more testosterone, which is gonna up your production of the apercream sweat. It's just gonna lead to stinkiness. Another theory is that women are more efficient regulators of their body temperature because they have less core heat going on because less muscle and fat than us dudes.

Speaker 2

And conversely, you can make the case that men are more efficient at cooling their themselves.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yes, sweat true because women don't just tell sweat as much. And I thought this was really interesting, and so did Emily because I was throwing some stuff at her today while I was researching. Women actually need one degree higher body temperature in order to start sweating to begin with. Yeah, I thought that was interesting and must be significant.

Speaker 2

I found its sounding hypothesis that that s base owner is attached to that and that's that women have less body fluid than men and so have evolved to sweat less. Okay, that makes sense, So that would be the mechanism that evolution is taking the form of.

Speaker 1

Well, lucky ladies, is what I say.

Speaker 2

But what's interesting is because if you are working out and your lady you suffer, you stay hotter longer. Yeah, yeah, you get hotter. And there's a study in Japan, of all places, because they can't even sweat, you know where, they found that women could train themselves just by working out a bunch, like forming a workout routine over time to start sweating earlier, right than women who were just like working out for the first time.

Speaker 1

Gotcha? Yeah, Well, since you brought up Japan, this is a sidebar, but we'll throw it in there, okay. And I thought this is interesting. Apparently they take their their sweating and their stink pretty seriously over there, because they

have a couple of interesting products. One company, Aoki, has developed a deodorant suit that uses fabric with silver ions impregnated in it to fight off this bacteria just by wearing it, right, and then they think they have determined A cosmetic company thinks they have found the fatty acid responsible for old people smell, which I thought was really mean to say. Yeah, and no, Neil is the fatty acid. And in Japan they call old people smell Carrie issue

and they are trying to combat that. And I guess, yeah, shesato is, grandkids all over the world are just going to be like spraying their grandparents stuff when they walk.

Speaker 2

In or when you inherit the house, you just walk around and spray carry issue. Yeah.

Speaker 1

True. It's interesting though. I went over to my mom's last night and I realized that her home that it's not the house I grew up in. This is she's been there for a while though, probably fifteen years. It smells like my grandparents' house that I went to growing up in Tennessee.

Speaker 2

Huh.

Speaker 1

That's interesting, like a lot like it. Yeah, And I don't know. I mean that's got to have something to do with heredity or maybe products or furniture. She has some of their stuff to it.

Speaker 2

Oder types are genetically base, Yeah, so I mean it would make sense that your mom inherited some of her older type from our parents. Now it's what.

Speaker 1

It was very comforting though. I was like, wow, oh yeah, man, I'll bet granddaddy's house you unless your grandparents stunk like Oxen, I'm sure is very comforting. Yeah, abusive and hated my guts.

Speaker 2

Yes, which another you're like, the sin of Guardina makes you like drop into the fetal position.

Speaker 1

You never hear that of like abusive grandparents. That's like that would be the worst thing ever. Yeah, I'm sure there are some They gotta be out there, yeah, yeah, but you don't hear about it much.

Speaker 2

Yeah, thank god, thank god. Everybody keeps that secret.

Speaker 1

I've been around some mean old people though, so yeah, well everyone has that capacity.

Speaker 2

It's true, and that's why I quit boy Scouts and protest.

Speaker 1

No.

Speaker 2

I just didn't like the idea of respecting your elders no matter what. I was like, no, I has to earn respect. Agreed, Thank you? All right, I finally vindicated after all these years.

Speaker 1

We did talk about this in another podcast about women able to pick up I think when we talked about it before. It is a study about women able to pick up clues through scent about whether or not someone's a good reproductive partner. Yeah, like there.

Speaker 2

They would have a different immune system than you, So yeah, putting together and form a super baby definitely one that wasn't born without eyes with a worm like body. We also kind of debunked that, oh did we? Yeah we The research we found was that, like we don't even have the capacity to detect pheromones any longer, most most humans don't. So like that whole idea is a little there was there was. It's it's hit or miss, like there's some studies that suggested, yes, this is true, others

that didn't. If you read the the release though on this study that this guy's talking.

Speaker 1

About, Yeah, the mo Neel Center study.

Speaker 2

Yeah, the guy just like the researchers just totally leapt to a conclusion. They were like, women can differentiate eight Like it's tougher to mask a man's odor to a woman. And he basically said, ergo, women can detect body odor better, which means that they must be detecting like something like immune system robustness or something. It was like, where did you get this extra stuff?

Speaker 1

You know, it's driven me crazy. I'm on a tirade today with bad research.

Speaker 2

I'm sorry everyone, I'm very sorry.

Speaker 1

Well, speaking of that leads us right into this article. Actually we like to point out when our own articles aren't quite up to snuff. And there were a few interesting things, and it's a shame that we can't find verification on these, because I thought it very interesting, really interesting. A tribe in New Guinea says goodbye to each other by rubbing each other's armpits before they.

Speaker 2

Leave, and so you can keep a little piece of the other person to sniff.

Speaker 1

I thought that was really sweet. It is not a bit gross. And you said that it might be bunk. Like.

Speaker 2

I found virtually no support for this, and everything I found was like not a reliable son.

Speaker 1

Right.

Speaker 2

And then Austrian tyrol, which is a very specific place to bs about. But they supposedly men would dance with handkerchiefs in they're tucked under their arms in their armpits, and I guess, work up a real sweat and then be like you and point to the girl he was going for and wave the handkerchief under her nose. She would swoon, and they'd get married and have babies in that order.

Speaker 1

Wow. So you couldn't find verification for that either.

Speaker 2

Right, No same thing, But I found even less for that.

Speaker 1

What about the last one.

Speaker 2

This one appears to be true, all right.

Speaker 1

I misinterpreted this because I told Emily this one this morning that in Elizabethan times they would soak peeled apples in their armpit sweat and give them to their lover when they parted, and I, for some reason, took the leap to mean that they would eat them, and I thought it was the grossest thing I'd ever heard. And Emily was like, no, I don't think they eat them. I think they just keep them.

Speaker 2

But they're called love apples, by the way.

Speaker 1

Well that's not what I call love apples.

Speaker 2

What do you call love apples?

Speaker 1

Apples that you know you give to the teacher on their desk because.

Speaker 2

It seems odd. That's an apple for the teacher.

Speaker 1

That's not a love I love apples because you love your teacher.

Speaker 2

Huh. Were you homeschooled by your mom? No? Was it?

Speaker 1

But my dad was my principal.

Speaker 2

I know that.

Speaker 1

I don't know did they eat them? They just kept them.

Speaker 2

I'm sure some sicko ate them. And how did they oscar wild eate them?

Speaker 1

How do they collect enough? How did they collect enough underarm sweat to soak them? Is what I want to know.

Speaker 2

Oh, he's a Victorian. This is Elizabethan.

Speaker 1

Soak it up in a hanky and ring it out.

Speaker 2

Maybe I think they just sat there for a while and like.

Speaker 1

But it doesn't like drip out if you're dripping.

Speaker 2

Rub it around, all right, who knows, we'll try it. We'll try and make a video of it.

Speaker 1

Oh so maybe they would rub the apple on their underarm. That would make sense. Yeah, I imagine they collected and just like.

Speaker 2

Hover over a table with an apple on it.

Speaker 1

Well no, I imagine they collected the under arm sweat in a dish and then soaked it in that. But that's why I was thinking, just ignore me for the rest of the show.

Speaker 2

What was it? Was it a Kids in the Hall where they had like some guy's body odor was so beautiful that like they had this guy like some perfume company bought him basically and they had him running on a treadmill. And really it was either Mister Show or Kids in the Hall. It was heilarious, not cabbage Head, clearly no. And it was like a segment, like an additional segment you know that you can tell where they're like they put some money into it.

Speaker 1

Oh yeah, yeah, we have those all right, where are we? Oh? I did think this was interesting. The term bo, of course, comes from an advertising agency. Oh yeah, it didn't surprise me at all. Nineteen nineteen Odo Rono deodorant. They and I love how this ad goes. Remember that wonderful man you met, the way he danced, and the telephone number he asked for and never used. You should take the armhole ODO test. Stinky Yeah, like you, stinky woman. That's why the man didn't call you back.

Speaker 2

That's why you're a eighteen year old spinster.

Speaker 1

Wow. So yeah, products in nineteen nineteen were not afraid to be sexist jerks.

Speaker 2

No, and I went back. I remember this back in eighteen eighty eight they released a product, Mum, and think back with me to the anti per sprint deodorant one. You had to apply it with like a swab on a stick and it worked, but it also would like burn a hole through your clothes.

Speaker 1

And that was the first deodorant right, yes, wow.

Speaker 2

Mum, I think it was still around for a while.

Speaker 1

Well in Tussy what was that? I don't know?

Speaker 2

Or what was the sprinkle a day one?

Speaker 1

Uh, just a sprinkle a day for feet?

Speaker 2

Have you had your sprinkle today, it was like a general body deodorant. I don't think sprinkle your body like gold bonde. I like the gold bond though. Oh yeah, that's a lifesaver with certain things. So so Chuck, Yes, have you ever seen that one Simpsons where the Homer and March have their kids taken away from them? Yes, and they have to go to the government parenting class. That's what this next segment is going to feel. Like, what do you do if you find that you have body odor?

Speaker 1

Well, one thing you can do, Josh, because interestingly, animals would use their scent to broadcast and it would scent would get tangled up in the hair, so we stick around a little longer.

Speaker 2

Sure.

Speaker 1

So obviously if you have hair and like you're growing what you do and you're under arms, I could point it out, the smell is going to stick around longer. So if you keep that area trim, then you're less likely to have odor in those places.

Speaker 2

Yes, that's good advice.

Speaker 1

And I'm a believer in keeping your body neat as a general rule, regardless of the scent factor. Right, you know, take care of yourself. Well, yeah, manage your hair, your ear hair, your nose hair.

Speaker 2

And there is nothing shameful about a man getting a manicure and or petticure. Yeah, okay, that was supportive.

Speaker 1

Well, I mean it has nothing to do with bodyodor, sure, nothing.

Speaker 2

Taking care of yourself.

Speaker 1

Well, I don't have I bite my fingernails, so there's really kind of no point for me.

Speaker 2

You know. Remember Carry Grant took a bunch of acid. Yeah, Well, the Uncle John's Bathroom Reader published like a list of like some of his best quotes while he was tripping, and the psychiatrists like wrote him down. Yeah, and one of them was, if I have to look at a man, shouldn't he have to comb his hair and brush his teeth? So Carry Grant was big time into taking care of yourself.

Speaker 1

Too well, and look what happened to him. He had a long, successful life exactly. He's an acting legend. Bathing Josh, we said, it takes an hour for the bacteria to do its thing, and so if you've got, you know, to get a big interview or something, you a little nervous, take that shower less than an hour.

Speaker 2

Yeah, because I don't know if we mentioned this. Ecrin sweat is triggered by body temperature. Epacrine sweat gland is triggered by emotion.

Speaker 1

Yeah, we didn't. We didn't.

Speaker 2

Actually, anxiety, yeah, specifically is a big one that makes you start sweating.

Speaker 1

Yeah, boy, I sweated a lot when I interviewed here.

Speaker 2

Oh my god. It was July. Yeah, me too, and it was so August and I couldn't figure out where this building was. Connley just said, like, park it. It's like by Lenox. I parked at Lennox Mall and walked in like one hundred degree heat like half mile and was like, my shirt was like a dark blue, even though it's supposed to be light blue, and I'm like, hey, I'm here to be interviewed by.

Speaker 1

I remember the shirt I wore too, and it was light blue, which was a big mistake. I don't know what I was thinking. And I have not dressed that nice at this job since that day, which is I think I should go at every job.

Speaker 2

Wait a minute, are you wearing a suit? Brown? No?

Speaker 1

No, I should punch you for saying that I didn't wear a tie or anything. And you know, it's like a nice shirt and pants. But look at me now.

Speaker 2

I'm glad you didn't punch me. By the way, what.

Speaker 1

Are some natural remedies, Josh to avoiding this kind of thing, into the chemicals boric acid.

Speaker 2

Twenty Mule Team are good friends a twenty Mule team.

Speaker 1

Yeah, sprinkle a little powder under the arms.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it's actually a low level acid. Yeah, and I think probably what it does is just makes your armpits inhospitable local flora.

Speaker 1

There you go.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

Vinegar, which is just like the most amazing thing in the history of the world.

Speaker 2

Do you drink that stuff?

Speaker 1

I mean we use vinegar for like everything you and me.

Speaker 2

Has gotten me into, like drinking diluted vinegar, drinking it today?

Speaker 1

Weed killer can kill weeds, yeah, like big time. Yeah, like any not any, but many many chemical remedies. I bet you if you look up on these homespun websites, some kind of vinegar might help you help you out as well.

Speaker 2

Well, it's changing the pH time you change the pH. Yeah, that something's accustomed to. It's sure probably going to just die which hazel. Yeah.

Speaker 1

I like that smell, do you?

Speaker 2

I can't stand it.

Speaker 1

I like it baking soda. As you Oricle points out, it works in your fridge, so it'll work on your armpits. Yeah, I've never done that. Ideally theoretically rosemary oil. Yeah, dilute that in some water, little sprinkle on your underarms.

Speaker 2

Have you done that one? Now? You know it does work those t tree oil because it's an anti microbial, right, so it's just going to go in there and destroy everything at seas.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that'll dry out pimples too, big time.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

Well, since we're on deodorant, we might as well talk about some of the controversies with any persprint.

Speaker 2

Well, let's just give a brief overview of the difference between the two. What's the difference between deodorant and anti persponant.

Speaker 1

Well, any perspirant contains things like aluminum, and what's the other one.

Speaker 2

Aluminum is the big one. Hydro hydroxy bromide.

Speaker 1

Hydroxy bromide, and they will essentially close up your sweat glands so they don't work.

Speaker 2

It plugs them for a little while, and not only no eventually, like I mean, they it is overall temporary, but the length of time between the application and the time you would start sweating again becomes longer and longer with repeated use because it actually shuts down your apocrine gland. Like it plugs, it swells it and basically says, all right, I'm done trying.

Speaker 1

I worry about it some. To be honest, a lot of people do a lot of mind yeah, which is a lot.

Speaker 2

Oh really yeah, yeah, that's a lot, dude, I know. And yeah, there's there's been plenty of studies that have linked aluminum to breast cancer. Yeah, and aluminum has been shown to mutate cells into cancer cells, but there's never been like the smoking gun, like, oh, yes, this person has breast cancer because they use deodorant.

Speaker 1

Well, yeah, and the cancers are hard to nail that too, because there are so many things that could be contributing.

Speaker 2

Sure, and there's so many different types of cancer exactly.

Speaker 1

Yeah. And then also with what Alzheimer's.

Speaker 2

Yeah, but I think that's just a general link, a general tenuous link between Alzheimer's and aluminum.

Speaker 1

I'm surprised that the studies are from the nineteen sixties. Surely they've done something since then.

Speaker 2

I don't know. I think everybody's been focused on BPAs. Really well, all the breast cancer links are, they're newer than that, But there's just no one's been able to produce a study that's definitively linked deodorance or any perspirants I should say to breast cancer, right, but there's a strong correlation.

Speaker 1

There are chalky deodorants, there are the liquid jelly types. Yeah, you don't see the aerosols anymore, thank god. Right, and then there's the disgusting roll on that I'm not sure who uses still, I.

Speaker 2

Don't know either. Didn't Tussy make a roll on? I think so ban Ban was big. I think they innovated the roll on stick, do they sure? And then also we should say deodorance are they're different from any purspurts and that they don't stop you from wedding, but they make it so that when all your cell detrius reaches the skin surface in your under arms, there's no local floria to eat it and then produce terrible smells as a.

Speaker 1

Waste Toms of Maine. Yeah, it's very popular natural deodorant. I love that apricount one that my under arms laugh at.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

And then the crystal stuff that makes your owner arms too salty for the bacteria to live.

Speaker 2

Right, Yeah, it's like a mineral crystal deodorant. I've never used this, So do you want to talk about any of that that's not necessarily body odor from sweating, but there are some other smells that one can produce, like asparagus pee. If you are interested in learning about why asparagus can make your pea smell, you should check out our video podcast because we explained it.

Speaker 1

That's right, you specifically explained it. We did it together, and I think it was it. Only a percentage of people believe that their pea smells don't.

Speaker 2

Don't. Don't give it away, Okay, but if you want to find that, you can find it on iTunes just look for stuff you should know is video podcast. That's right. You could also find it on a RSS feed on how Stuff Works.

Speaker 1

It's short and kind of fun, like we're having a good time doing them. Yeah, and they're really loose and like.

Speaker 2

Man, they're so loose.

Speaker 1

Yeah, the things we're getting away with saying, I don't think people understand.

Speaker 2

Yeah, so okay. Else, Oh, so you've got asparagus p you have maple syrup urine disorder.

Speaker 1

We've talked about that too.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it's a real thing and there's no other clinical term for it, like that is the name of it. And it's actually kind of a big deal. Like you have problems with your metabolism it's a metabolic disease, and these amino acids can build up and kill you if you're not careful.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and it's in kids, and I think adults have a similar condition.

Speaker 2

You can make it to adulthoods okay, but.

Speaker 1

It won't smell like maple syrup anymore. It'll smell like say it, you say, burnt sugar. I'm not sure what that smells like.

Speaker 2

Oh you've never it's sure like, oh, what's that wonderful dessert crimbrule.

Speaker 1

Oh well that's lovely.

Speaker 2

Yeah, okay, yeah, no, it's complaining about the smell of their pea, but it's very worrisome. Gotcha, you know. Okay, if you are around a diabetic a person with diabetes who suffers from keto acidosis, you might say that they smell a bit like nail polish remover, and that their breath smells kind of fruity and like juicy fruit.

Speaker 1

Kind of gotcha.

Speaker 2

And then what else, chuck fishoder syndrome.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that means you lack the ability to metabolize something called TMA, and that apparently you smell like fish. I don't know what kind of fish, but it's fishy. Yeah, and that's pretty. What do they call that? I'm daring you to try and say that word.

Speaker 2

Trimethyl amminuria. Nice, thank you.

Speaker 1

That is the word.

Speaker 2

That's that's the name primary trimethyl ammenuria.

Speaker 1

And that is the condition which means you can't metabolize the TMA and that means you will smell like fish.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and then if you have fennel canterneria, you might have a barn like smell, musty barn like smell.

Speaker 1

Can you imagine if you had the fish odor disease, you sweat blue, and you had that condition that makes your face silver, what kind of life would that be?

Speaker 2

That'd be a heck of a ride.

Speaker 1

I'm praying that none of those things are compatible.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean it's possible. The blue skin thing, that's just from too much copper.

Speaker 1

Right, Yeah, so there could be some comorbidity or silver silver silver, yeah, sweat blue.

Speaker 2

I got nothing else.

Speaker 1

Well, hyperhydrosis. Just for my friends out there who suffer from hyperhydrosis, I don't think I have hyperhydrosis. That's like I'm just extra sweaty. Hyperhydrosis is really really abnormally high, like these sad cases you hear about, and it can be men and women where your palms literally sweat all the time, just like leaking water, and you can there's a variety of things you can do to treat that, from surgery to ion topheresis, which is using an electrical current to disable your sweat.

Speaker 2

Cland right, you can also have them surgically removed.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I wouldn't mind that very the neck up really, yeah, because that's where my sweat bothers me. I don't mind, like sweaty body. But when you're like, oh, you know you can get botox to fix that, nothing's well, it works.

Speaker 2

There's a thing I do have one more thing, brome hydrophobia.

Speaker 1

I thought that was interesting.

Speaker 2

So it's the fear of sweating.

Speaker 1

I thought it was a fear of stink.

Speaker 2

Oh, yeah, you're right.

Speaker 1

It's a fear of stinking from sweating, as rome hydrosis is.

Speaker 2

Yeah your body owder. Yeah, yeah, you're right, Chuck. And somebody who suffers from rome hydrophobia will take a lot of showers every day, to the point where it's been linked akin to OCD. But there's no other behavior except for you know, taking showers or trying to or your fear of smelling. It's not you're not You're not messing with light switches or anything else too. It's just the spear of.

Speaker 1

I have that with poop smell specifically, do you. Oh man, if I walk in the bathroom and someone's taking care of things, I like leave immediately. Or I will often put my shirt over my nose, and I do that when I clean out the litter box, and when I do the dog poop on the walks, I put my shirt. I can't stand that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, because anybody who's seen the Ice Storm knows that, like, those are the volatile organic compounds of your poop that you're smelling. That's what the odor is. It's your poop.

Speaker 1

What was that about Ice Storm? I've seen that movie ten times.

Speaker 2

Some kid says it like in like a school report.

Speaker 1

Oh really like that? Yeah, I don remember that part.

Speaker 2

I've never seen the movie. I know that.

Speaker 1

Oh man, it's great.

Speaker 2

I've heard yeah, Angley great director of the Hulk. Yeah yeah, So what else?

Speaker 1

I got nothing else?

Speaker 2

Let's stop talking about this then, yes, please if you like this one. There's a surprising amount of stuff about sweating on How stuff works dot com. Sweating colors, the difference between any person and deodorant. You cand of listening to the old podcasts. They're good too, and there's just a lot of sweating stuff if you have sweating problems. I personally wrote a lot of sweating things too, didn't you. No. Oh, Ironically there's a push about Yeah, I remember that stuff.

But just type sweating s W E A T I n G in the search bar at how stuff works dot com. That'll bring up some cool stuff, I said, search bar, which means it's time for listener mail.

Speaker 1

Josh, I'm gonna call this one on guard.

Speaker 2

I think that's a fine one.

Speaker 1

Hey, guys. Through college, I was really active in fencing, the sport generated by the ancient duels and honor code. You guys mentioned. One interesting symptom from engaging in fencing through though, was an ultra critical eye on sword play shown in films. Oh all bet Movies like Star Wars, Corse, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Highlander are examples of what is called quote show fencing, the art of making the largest,

flashiest attacks without ever threatening either actor. Show fencing is sometimes slanged as Flynning, after Errol.

Speaker 2

Flynn or Mark Hammeling.

Speaker 1

Hammeling he says that Errol Flynn pioneered this technique.

Speaker 2

Yeah, he was a swashbuckler.

Speaker 1

He was, it still is.

Speaker 2

I think, well he's dead.

Speaker 1

He lives on though as a swashbuckler.

Speaker 2

Sure.

Speaker 1

If you or your listeners want to see excellent representations of Hollywood showing true fencing, I have two recommendations. First is the black and white version of The Three Musketeers. I think it's from nineteen forty eight.

Speaker 2

I can guess the other one riding in cars with boys, How to Lose a Guy in ten Days.

Speaker 1

The rapier duel on the staircase at the tail end of the film is still admired to some of the best fencing on film nice to this day. The other film I'd recommend, and we got a few people tell us about this one is Ridley Scott's directorial premiere nineteen seventy Seven's The Duellists, based on the true story of two Napoleon Area Area Napoleon era French officers with a

feud lasting for decades. The film accurately shows multiple types of duels and weapons, including foil cavalry, saber pistols, just an interview.

Speaker 2

Foils, the really thin, long thin fencing sword. Yeah, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that without looking it up.

Speaker 1

Well, we got some corrections coming too. Really, the film is simply a must for those who want to see great fencing inaccurate dueling. And that is from Josh.

Speaker 2

That's from me. Yeah, thanks me, Thanks Josh. And while we're on this, that jog my memory. The dueling reminded me of a movie that we well, not just a movie, wow, I'm a hic. A movie and a book that we left out of the Revenge podcast, the Count of Monte Cristo. Oh sure, I don't know how we did that, because that is like the quintessential Revenge plots.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 2

And also I want to say in the beer episode, I wrongly attributed the Superhuman Happiness to one of the guys in the band Superhuman Happiness, when really it was a super fan named Kurt Schlackter. So sorry, Kirk.

Speaker 1

Well instance we're on that. You also called New Belgium new Amsterdam.

Speaker 2

Oh yeah, that was a big one. I'm really sorry. Guys, they've even sent us beer. Now I know New Belgium makers of fine Fat tire sixteen sixty four. Now that's Cronenberg. Let's just stop right here, sorry, guys.

Speaker 1

And you do have to pay all kinds of money for covering songs too, by the way, that was completely wrong.

Speaker 2

Okay, yeah, that was a huge sidebar in the Yeah, like they would spell it out like, no, you don't have to spend money to that's crazy.

Speaker 1

No, that's wrong.

Speaker 2

Okay, Well good, so I feel clean, like we just purged ourselves of all the correction.

Speaker 1

Yeah. And not only that, I didn't realize this, but clubs that have like cover bands that play there actually pay like yearly licensing fees just speak so they can have like the Kiss tribute band play.

Speaker 2

Gotcha?

Speaker 1

Oh man, So I don't think the band plays. I think it's up to the club to take ownership of that.

Speaker 2

People will pay anything to have the Kiss tribute band play, especially if it's Strutter.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that's all them.

Speaker 2

So let's see. If you're related to a member of the band's Strutter or Kiss or you have a correction for us, send it along, just don't be a jerk when you do. You can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook, Facebook dot com, slash Stuff you Should Know, and you can also reach us via email. At stuff podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com.

Speaker 1

Dot Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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