[elgrizzle]

Hi grizzle,

You have a way with words. I can almost "see" you in the bus and smell the very familiar odor you describe. It is the type of odor most of us seem to have. I heard an expert once say that we use the words to describe odor based on our experiences, our culture, the scent of the foods and vegetation that surround us. I think its best expressed in an environmental context the way you have done.

About smoking, all you are doing by smoking is ADDING an additional odor to the odor your body is emitting. It's like a fragrance, it may smell very good until it mixes with our odor, then who knows what it becomes, haha. Not only does smoke sit on your hair and mixes with your scalp oils, but the tar and nicotine goes into your blood and has to be metabolized by the xenobiotic enzymes. If these enzymes are weak, then you have these compounds that are not fully metabolized mixing with the others and might end up creating its own odor as it is added to the other odorous compounds your body is releasing...I think that this could very well be the reason that our odor can become so difficult to describe and identify. It might be a whole bunch of compounds not metabolized and mixed together as it leaves our bodies. This is why persons diagnose with TMAU frequently don't ONLY smell of fish.

I supposed people call this odor fecal because the feces is a mixture of alot of things, depending on what we eat and how our digestive juices are behaving at the time, as well as the composition of our gut flora as well.

The odor my sons and I get isn't fully fecal either. It's a combination of decaying fish or any other animal, musty, fecal, gross smell that the English or Spanish languages doesn't have a specific term for. Plus, when I do the laundry, I can identify which clothes belong to which son of mine based on the odor, since they wear the same size now and especially their undershirts are basically the same. Their odors are a mixture of compounds, but one has a distinctive odor that is different from the other. I can tell on their sheets as well. They grab the first sheet they find to make their beds, so I never really know whose sheets I'm washing, but the odor tells me. Then, I reconfirm it by seeing which bed has been stripped down, and I'm 99.9% right. However, since my older son has literally changed his body so much and has no odor that I detect, I now have to ask them to whom some of their clothes belong. It's a very welcomed inconvenience too.

María

"I just think about odor, I get anxious, and I can actually feel my pores open up and getting super hot. My palms seem to be sweating all the time now.

Now I believe this odor is connected to the smoking that I have taken up recently (past few months), cause I have never noticed it before. When I stopped smoking for about two days, I noticed that on the bus I smelt like rubber/fecal. It was a very strong smell, and I thought it might have been someone else on the bus, but I am not entirely sure. It could have been someone else on the bus, but I think I smelt it somewhere else that day.

These odors are different from the fart/gas type of odor I experience from drinking alcohol. I was hoping that was the only one, so I will be honest and say that I am having a rough time coping with this. But I must stay strong for everyone else out there suffering. It is a good thing that I can smell this, so I know what types of things I can do to reduce this type of odor.

I will take a break for a few weeks from the smoking to see what that does. The whole reason I started in the first place was to reduce stress and possibly cover up other odors. Ive never had this sweating before. Its definitely anxiety, but is the sweating alone causing these odd odors?

It could be so many things, bromhidrosis?!? but more likely a metabolic disorder. "

wow this could be me writing the above, I thought i was only me, I get super hot under my underarms.

The odour with gas/fecal was new and i started getting it to. I stopped smoking and started again. If you do smoke so important as i wasn't do this but don't wear same jacket/coat on the bus. People will react to this regardless if you have body odour or not and can screw your head.

With fecel odour if its new and 2nd thing to underarm odour as it was for me. I find that its brought on when i eat bad foods. Cut out meat, dairy and all sugar food for week. Plus i been drinking actimel danone drinks fatfree ones even tho i don't drink milk. Theses little drinks i found really helped , I drink about four/five a day. Every time i eat i drink one and they help ( probiotic drink ). Am going look into getting better probiotic drink next time.

Also alchole im fine on the night i drink but day after is dreadful, Drink dehydrates you and if you dehydrated you will sweat more and odour will be worst. Plus alchole smell comes out your poors and mix that in with any underarm odour problem will make it worst. If you must drink i find vodka is the best with orange juice and also drink loads and loads water between drinks or end of the night to flush it out your system. Really try avoid alchole.

I get sweaty palms when i eat something that does not agree with me - only made this link recently, Its not something that happends alot.


The old jacket smell could be the soap your using and after time it smells musty. I have switched products after years using same brand as was getting this old person smell.


I went to doctors i refuse to take any medication that will affect my head now fox anxiety. Insaid i do have betablocker that i only take when i feel anxious or something anxious is coming up - my head/body being in redalert - don't get fast heartbeats or any of the anxious body feelings.

[mpdela]

Bridge,

When we become anxious, which is a certain constant level of fear, our hormones kick in. The hormone adrenalin produced by the adrenal gland is a stimulant that causes our heart rate to increase. It prepares us for the 'fight or flight' response when we face danger. Sugars are broken down to provide us with energy, a metabolic process requiring metabolic enzyme activity, so that we can better flee from the danger if necessary. Then, as the blood circulates, all the other body systems go on overdrive as it received greater blood flow, including our breath rate, perspiration, oil glands secrete more oils, our skin sweats more, etc.

All of the above raises our odor level:
1. hormones
2. metabolic processes involving metabolic enzymes to produce energy for the 'flight or flight' response.
3. odorous compounds being secreted through our sweat, oils, alveolar breath, saliva, sinus mucous, etc., at a greater rate with the increased blood flow.

This is why stress and anxiety increase our odor levels.

THE SOLUTION: to try to focus our emphasis in life on 'living' as opposed to our odor. We are much more than our odor. Our life consists of much more than our odor. We need to explore that a little further. Begin a new cardiovascular exercise routine to relieve stress, to strengthen our heart to not get so active all the time with stress, and to clean out our blood from odorous compounds. Meditation to become more focussed on the truly important aspects of our lives. Accept support and give support to each other in this forum, to see ourselves as part of the solution as opposed to being a victim of the problem...

María

I have never been victim of this. I refuse to and always have - to me i treat it like cancer and its not part of who i am.

I do agree btw - Anxiety will make the odour strong because it will cause aprocrine glands to be more active and cause odour. Beating anxiety helped alot - i still have anxiety but not in sameway as i used to break out into sweat and have controled this now. I will get hot when really anxious.

I don't no its easy to say focus on living yet its bit hard to live with this and be happy. First you have to focus on the depression/anxiety - I work two jobs and this helps alot as takes up most of my time. The depression and anxiety gets out control when i feel im trapped or its hopeless. Its important to fight this - Get tests and refuse to give up.

[mpdela]

Wonderful attitude, bridge. Good for you! Keep it up

María

yeah thanks

[elgrizzle]

hmmm weird, what happened to my original post?

[mpdela]

omg, did I accidentally edit it instead of clicking on reply??? I'M SORRY, if that's the case.

María

[elgrizzle]

haha, thats okay Maria!

I'll just say again:

it has a celery type of smell, and an old coat type of smell that smells like its been in the same closet as dog food for a long time. Also kind of smells like toe jam, or the stuff that is under the toe nails if it hasn't been cut for a while. It also kind of smells like food, or old vegetables. This is an intermittent smell, and I can smell it in the area around me, like when walking in the grocery store, or on the bus.

When I don't notice this odor, I can smell something that is a mixture of blood/coffee/dirt. That one is really weird, I smell it in class, and in bed sometimes. This doesn't happen all the time.

Anyways, I bought some Phisoderm body soap. It is pH balanced. I had started using a new soap (St. Ives aroma steam body wash) the past few weeks, that could have caused the unusual odor. Not sure though, because the skin smelt fine after using the soap. Infact, the skin always seems to smell fine when I can notice the odd odors. They are in the air around me!

I was also starting to eat meats and sugars again, because I thought the gas odor I got from alcohol was the only one.

[vilenin89]

I feel like I could've written some of the posts in the thread. My odor is something I notice "explosively" nowadays.. like a fecal/rotten egg/ decaying stuff smell, but I'm not sure if it's only present when I notice it or if it's always there. It's present wherever I sleep. I feel like it sticks to sheets, but it's really just the air where I've been sleeping and breathing all night. It's hard to understand even with feedback from others. I'll go more in depth later, no time to type it all out at the moment, but I'm glad I have some friends and I feel somewhat comfortable here at school. It's tough, but I'm managing.

You guys really need to try to make it out to Nashville. It's just one weekend. I changed some plans to make sure that I'm free to make it out. It will be really instructive and I think help get me on the right track to figuring out my odor and how to manage it and also I think it won't be bad socially or mentally. I'm 20, a pretty amiable dude and I really hope that other people university-age going through the same thing can make it out. I know Maria has a couple of buddy-pases for the airfare and the board isn't too expensive (especially if you double up), so I hope finances isn't the concern.

Just a little plug there. More later.