Stuff You Should Know - Body Odor: You Stink

Episode Date: April 12, 2012

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 episode of Stuff You Should Know. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid work. Be sure to listen to The War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, Charles W. Chuck Bryant is with me if my nose doesn't deceive me. I didn't do my cheeks today. That's bad luck. Do now. Thank you. I don't think that that's going to save this episode, but it will make it from

being the worst, probably, like the one, the unreleased one. 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. That's not a bad idea. Yeah, there's a lost episode, everyone, that only Jerry Chuck and I know about. Yeah, in case of emergency break glass episode. It is so bad that if something happens, we release the emergency episode. That's right. Yeah, that feels good to have, does it? Yeah, yeah, I guess so. 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. Thank you. I stink. Yes, we all stink. Jerry doesn't stink. Jerry smells like lilac. 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, 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. Yeah, I thought that was interesting. 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 wear a machine that's designed to molecularly analyze odors. Yeah. Can't say, oh, it's Josh. Oh, there's Chuck. And they're also, they're really laying on the polo cologne today for some reason. Because it's 1985. That was my, man, I remember the day I got my bottle of polo. It was like the size of my torso and I was so excited. I only wore one cologne in my life for like

two years in high school. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Benetton colors. It wasn't very fancy pants. But I haven't worn cologne since literally I was 17. Yeah. I went through maybe like three periods in my life where I wore cologne for a little while and then finally I'm like, I don't wear cologne. What am I doing? Not many guys do anymore, do they? Yeah. Really? At the gym I go to. It's like get out of the sauna now. Wow. It's bad. Yeah. When I told you, I think one time when I lived in Arizona for a year, it may be cultural, but those dudes work alone like a lot. And hair gel, don't they? I seem to remember a fair amount of Dippity-Doo. Yeah. Arizona is like New Jersey West. Wow. 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 scent, other mice can still see who you are through their nose. Yeah. I saw that study. Should we tell them that the technique they use, even though I don't understand it? It involves tickling. Volatile VOCs like you get in paint, volatile organic compounds also in your body. Which is just something that turns to gas at what we consider room temperature. Exactly. They use, they can analyze these scents in your sweat saliva and urine using gas chromatography, mass spectrometry. That's good stuff. I'm glad you got hung up on that one. Yeah, I don't know how that works though. 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. Yeah. And 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 that with the difference between any perspirant and deodorant? Was that me? Yes. Okay, I didn't think that was me. You were wildly impressed with like, I had a theory about deodorant stocks going up. Oh, that's right. Remember hormones and milk are making kids hit puberty younger? Yeah. In my opinion. And then with global warming, people are going to need more deodorant. So deodorant stocks were the way to go. That's not as good as my early man theory. What happened?

They melted. That's what happened to Neanderthals. These are the old days. Yeah, I think that deodorant one was like one of the 10 minute shows, wasn't it? It was pretty quick, like really early. Yeah. But we're going to revisit it because even you don't remember it and you were in it. I remember now. So we're going to talk about the different kinds of sweat glands because we've also talked about this before and what can you sweat colors? Yeah. Okay, but let's do it again. You want to? Sure. That was the introduction. 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, 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. Is that true? Yeah. Oh yeah. Children of smokers are way more likely to smoke. I know in studies of babies born eyeless 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. It's a neat study. There's a lot of stuff in here like that. Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about the different kinds of sweat glands. Okay. You got echoing glands. Yeah, those are my favorite. Same here. Because they cool me off. Yeah, they're innocuous. Yeah. They

basically just secrete water and electrolytes, which if you've seen idiocracy, you know how important electrolytes are. That's right. And yeah, it's used to regulate body temperature. Your hypothalamus says, hey, you're getting a little warm here. Let's get rid of this perspiration. The water, the water and electrolytes on your skin, when they evaporate, it's going to cool you down. You're gonna love it. 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. No, you really aren't. I was thinking about this. I'm like, I was thinking about you as I was

researching this. I'm sure. And I was like, you know, Chuck doesn't smell. I've never, 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 and a Hawks jersey. Sweating. Sweating. Yeah. Well, you better be sweating if you're wearing that. 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. Yes. So in Ekron sweat, there's nothing to smell. Electrolytes don't smell. Right. In the other sweat gland, in Ekron sweat glands are found all over your body. The other sweat glands, apocrine sweat glands. Yeah, those crows. 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. Yeah. Chuck. Anytime a cell excretes waste, poops something out or is destroyed through maybe autolysis or whatever. There's a lot of little cellular detrius 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. Yeah. So the apocrine sweat is a means of disposal, cellular detrius disposal in your body, but even that doesn't smell. Yeah. What produces the smell? Well, and we did cover this before, but it is bacteria that basically eats those proteins that we sweat out and then they poop them out essentially.

They poop out fatty acids that stink. That's gross. That's the smell. It's not us. It's the local flora. Yeah. The bacteria. I don't even like the word flora. I 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. I was wondering that. But they call local flora, bacteria's local flora, and little protozoa on your body. Those are called fauna, local fauna. And I can't figure out why. Well, I bet the answer's out there. I looked, man. Really? Yeah. If anybody knows, this is the one I'd really like to know from this episode. Well, what we do know is that these nasty apocrine glands are found in some pretty unfortunate places like you're growing

or you're growing and your armpits, your armpits. What is it? The axilla axilla and your hands and your feet. So gross. That's where you're going to smell in your feet. Interestingly, the reason they don't smell quite like your armpits is because they also produce fungus. Yeah. In addition to the bacteria pooping out fatty acids. Yeah. And that's why your foot odor is going to be a little different. It's not really coincidence that like all of these places are hairy. Well, except for your hands. Yeah. And I guess the soles of your feet. But your armpits and your groin are hairy. I'm five years old. I'm sorry. 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

this stuff to their heart's content. But it takes about an hour, apparently. Yeah, that's a good news. So when you start sweating apocrine cell detrius through your armpits, 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. Yeah, watch a little TV. Then they wake up and they're like, I've got a poop. Yeah. And they poop and then you start smelling. The other gross thing, and there will be many gross things. But to me, one of the gross things is the the eccring lands secrete kind of, you know, a clear liquid. But the apocrine glands excrete the liquid that can be thicker and milky and yellow. Yeah. Which is why if you've ever had the old mustard stains on the undershirt, which are really

unsightly. They are. 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. Yes. I know the crunch you're talking about. Yeah. I think that's the deodorant as well. I hope so. In combination with the milky yellowish secretions. Yeah. God. Yeah. So that that's the gross stuff. 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 E3 methyl 2 hexanoic 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 micro coxide or staphylocoxide. 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. Right. So we live here. Right. And they never learned you should never poop where you eat. They do the whole gambit or poop where you live. Yeah. But no, it's poop where you eat. 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? I don't know. How do we pick them up? How soon after birth do we pick them up? Well, I don't think we're born because newborn babies don't have the apricot apricot sweat. You're right. So that's why little babies smell delicious unless they're pooping, which is like an ungodly

thing. What is wrong with babies? I know. So weird. So yes, you're right. We aren't born with apricot and glands. We develop them around puberty. Yeah. So you probably won't start the body odor of the BO as my mom always called it till puberty, till your teen years. Yeah. And that's when you start getting stinky. And so it's not just that there's not just a difference between little kids, between teens and tweens. Yeah. Right. Tweens don't 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 a lot. They appear apricot and glands, though, right? Supposedly. Okay. Here's

the problem. Okay. Here's the problem that the field of anthropology has with this. Right. It's possible that there are differences among races. Sure. But you could break it down even further. Is it food-based? Is it diet-based? So if you are in northern India and you're eating less curry than southern 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? You can't... And even within that, it's like, how many vegetarians are there that hate curry that live in India? 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. Right. But I guess the point is, is when you differentiate among people, whether it's smell, especially if something as unpleasant as body odor, then you are creating a disparity. You're propagating the possibility of racist attitudes, because if this person is different from me and how we smell, how else is that person different? Sure. Maybe I don't really like that person. Well, it's not even endorsing them. Well, you have to be careful with it. Plus, the other problem is, is most of the research that is cited these days for difference among races and body odor was last compiled in the 1930s. And then also, for example, Asians 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 axillary glands. 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 old data. Old data. Yeah. And you're not supposed to cite data over 10 years old. Well, why don't we just as a show, as a part of the public specter say, some people stink some and some people don't? Yeah. People are people. Yeah. Some stink, some don't. So why should it be? She saw where that was headed. Yeah. Men definitely are stinkier than women. No, that is true. In general, we don't mind a little sexism,

especially when we're throwing it on ourselves. That's stinky men. 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. That's true. But and this is actually backed up by some science. We have more testosterone, which is going to up your production of the apocrine sweat. It's going to lead to stinkiness. Another theory is that women are more efficient regulators of their body temperature because they have less core heat going on, right? Because less muscle and fat than us dudes. And conversely, you can make the case that men are more efficient at cooling their themselves.

Yeah, sweat. True. Because women don't just don't 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. I thought that was interesting and must be significant. I found a hypothesis that that's based on her's attach to that, and that's that women have less body fluid than men. And so have evolved to sweat less. Okay, that makes sense. And so that would be the mechanism that that evolution is taking the form of. Well, lucky ladies is what I say. But what's interesting is no, because if you are working

out and you're a lady, you suffer. You stay longer. 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. Then women who were just like working out for the first time. 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 carry issue. And they're trying to combat that. And I guess, if Shiseido is grandkids all over the world, they're just going to be like spraying their grandparents when they walk in. Or when you inherit the house, you just walk around and spray carry issue off. True. It's interesting though, I went over to my mom's last night and I realized that her home that is not the house I grew up in. This is she's been there for a while though.

Probably 15 years. It smells like my grandparents house that I went to growing up in Tennessee. Huh. That's interesting. Like a lot like it. Yeah. And I don't know. I mean, it's got to have something to do with heredity or maybe products or furniture. Well, yeah, some of their stuff to odor types are genetically based. Yeah. So I mean, it would make sense that your mom inherited some of her odor type from her parents. It's what it was very comforting though. I was like, Oh, yeah, man, I'll bet granddaddy's house. Yeah. Unless your grandparents stunk like oxen, I'm sure it's very comforting. Yeah. Or we're abusive and hated my guts, which is not true. You're like the son of gardenia makes you like

drop into the fetal position. 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 gotta be out there. Yeah, yeah, but you don't hear about it much. Yeah. Thank God. Thank God everybody keeps that secret. I've been around some mean old people though. So yeah, well, everyone has that capacity. It's true. And that's why I quit Boy Scouts in protest. Oh, you had a mean old person. No, I just didn't like the idea of respecting your elders no matter what. I was like, no, I think the person has to earn respect. Agreed. Thank you. All right. I've finally vindicated after all these years. We did talk about this in another podcast about women able to pick up.

I think when we we talked about it before is a study about women able to pick up clues through scent about whether or not someone's a good reproductive partner. Yeah, like the deal there. They would have a different immune system than you. So yeah, yeah, yeah, they're in form of super baby. Definitely one that wasn't born without eyes right in it 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. Right. So like that whole idea is a little there was there were 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 about. Yeah, the Monal Center study. Yeah, the guy just like the researchers just totally let to a conclusion that they were like women can differentiate 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. Right. It was like, where did you get this extra stuff? You know, it's driving me crazy. I'm on a tirade today with bad research. Yeah. Yeah. The war on drugs impacts everyone whether or not you take America's public enemy. Number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to

distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil answer for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

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Deep brief on all the looks and more. Listen to Squirrel Friends, the official RuPaul's Drag Race podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm sorry everyone, I'm very sorry. Well speaking of, that leads us right into this article actually. We'd like to point out when our own articles are 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 was really interesting. A tribe in New Guinea says goodbye to each other by rubbing each other's armpits before they leave and so you can keep a little piece of the other

person to sniff. That was really sweet. It's not a bit gross and you said that it might be bunk. I found virtually no support for this and everything I found was like not a reliable sign. Then Austrian Tyrol, which is a very specific place to BS about, but they supposedly, men would dance with handkerchiefs tucked under their arms and 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 and she would swoon and they'd get married and have babies in that order. So you couldn't find verification for that either, right? No. Same thing. I found even less for that. What about the last one? This one appears to be true. All right. I misinterpreted this

because I told Emily in 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. I thought that too. And Emily was like, no, I don't think they eat them. I think they just keep them. But they're called love apples, by the way. Well, that's not what I call love apples. What do you call love apples? Apples that, you know, you give to the teacher on their desk. It seems odd. That's an apple for the teacher. It's not a love apple. It's a love apple. It's because you love your teacher. Were you homeschooled by your mom? No, I wasn't.

But my dad was my principal. I know that. I don't know. Did they eat them? They just kept them. I'm sure some sicko ate them. All the Oscar Wilde ate them. How did they collect enough underarm sweat to soak them is what I want to know. Oh, here's Victorian. This is Elizabethan. Soak it up in a hanky and wring it out, maybe? No, I think they just sat there for a while and like, um, but it doesn't like drip out. If you're dripping, kind of rub it around. All right. Who knows? We'll try it. We'll try and make a video of it. Oh, so maybe they would rub the apple on their underarm. That would make sense. Yeah, I imagine they collected and just like hover over a table with an apple on it. Well, no, I imagine they collected the underarm 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. 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 oh, really? It was either Mr. Show or kids in the hall. It was hilarious. Not cabbage head, clearly. No, no. You know, it was like a segment, like an additional segment. You know, you can tell where they're like, they put some money into it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, one of 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. That didn't surprise me at all. 1919.

Odo Rhono 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. That's why you're an 18 year old spinster. So yeah, products in 1919 were not afraid to be sexist jerks. No, and I went back and I remember this back in 1888. They released a product called Mum and think back with me to the antiperspirant deodorant one. You had to apply it with like a swab on a stick. Oh, really? And it worked, but it also would like burn a hole through your clothes. And that was the first deodorant, right? Yes. Wow. Mum. I think it was still around for a

while. Well, and Tussie. What was that? I don't know. Or what was the sprinkle a day one? Just a sprinkle a day. Was that for underarms or was that for feet? Have you had your sprinkle a day? It was like a general body deodorant. I don't think it was sprinkling your body. Yeah. Like gold bond. Yeah. I like the gold bond, though. Oh, yeah. That's a lifesaver with certain things. So Chuck. Yes. Have you ever seen that one Simpsons where the Homer and Marge have their kids taken away from them? Yes. And they have to go to the government parenting class? Yeah. That's what this next segment is going to feel like. What do you do if you find that you have body odor? 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 stick around a little longer. Sure. So obviously, if you have hair and like you're growing, which you do and you're underarms, 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. Yes. That's good advice. 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. And there is nothing shameful about a man getting a manicure and or pedicure. Okay. That was supportive. Well, I mean, it has nothing to do with body

odor. Sure. There is nothing wrong. Taking care of yourself. Well, I don't have, I bite my fingernails, so there's really kind of no point for me. You know, remember, Cary Grant took a bunch of acid? Yeah. Well, these Uncle John's Bathroom Reader published like a list of like some of his best quotes while he was tripping. And the psychiatrist has like wrote them down. Yeah. And one of them was, um, if I have to look at a man, shouldn't he have to comb his hair and brush his teeth? So Cary Grant was big time into taking care of yourself, 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're a little nervous. Take that shower less than an hour. Yeah. Because I don't know if we mentioned this, um, echorin sweat is triggered by body temperature. Apocrine sweat gland is triggered by emotion. Yeah, we didn't, we didn't actually. Anxiety specifically is a big one that makes you start sweating. Yeah. Boy, I sweated a lot when I interviewed here. Oh my God. It was July. Yeah, me too. And it was so hot. And I couldn't figure out where this building was. Connelly just said like, park it. It's like by Lenox. Yeah. So I parked at Lenox mall and walked in like a hundred degree heat. Yeah, me too. That 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 him. 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. Yeah. And I have not dressed that nice at this job since that day, which is, I think I would should go at every job. Wait a minute. Are you, are you wearing a suit brown? No, no, I should punch you for saying that. I didn't wear a tire or anything. You know, it's like a nice shirt and pants. Gotcha. But look at me now. I'm glad you didn't punch me, by the way. What are some natural remedies, Josh, to avoiding this kind of thing? If you're not into the chemicals, boric acid, 20 mule team are good friends at 20 mule team. Yeah.

A little sprinkle, a little powder under the arms. Yeah, it's actually a low level acid. Yeah. And I think probably what it does is just makes your armpits inhospitable local flora. There you go. Yeah. Vinegar, which is just like the most amazing thing in the history of the world. Do you drink that stuff? No, I mean, we use vinegar for like everything. You mean it's got me into like drinking diluted vinegar. Yeah, drinking it once a day. Weed killer and 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 home spun websites, some kind of vinegar might help you help you out as well. Well, it's changing the pH anytime

you change the pH. Yeah. That's something that's accustomed to. It's probably going to just die. Witch hazel. Yeah. I like that smell. Do you, I can't stand it. I like it. Well, baking soda as the article 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. Have you done that one? No. You know, it does work those tea tree oil because it's an antimicrobial. Right. So it's just going to go in there and destroy everything it sees. Yeah. That'll dry out pimples too. Big time. Yeah. Well, since we're on deodorant, we might as well talk about some of the controversies with antiperspirant. Well,

let's just give a brief overview of the difference between the two. What's the difference between deodorant and antiperspirant? Well, antiperspirant contains things like aluminum and what's the other one? Aluminum is the big one. Hydro, hydro, hydroxy bromide. Yeah, hydroxy bromide. And they will essentially close up your sweat glands so they don't work. It plugs them for a little while. And not only, no, eventually, like, I mean, they, 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, with repeated use because it actually shuts down your apricot gland. Like it plugs it, swells it and basically says, all right, I'm done trying. I worry about it some, to be honest.

A lot of people do. A lot of mine can do 25%. Yeah, which is a lot. 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. Well, yeah. And the cancers are hard to nail that to because there are so many things that could be contributing. Sure. And there's so many different types of cancer. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And then also with Alzheimer's. Yeah, but I think that's just a general link, a general tenuous link between

Alzheimer's and aluminum. I'm surprised that the studies are from the 1960s. Surely they've done something since then. I don't know. I think everybody's been focused on BPAs. Oh, 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 deodorants or any person that I should say to breast cancer. Right. But there's a strong correlation. 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 it still. I don't know either. Didn't Tussie make a roll-on? I think so. Band, band was big. I think they innovated the roll-on stick.

Oh, did they? Sure. And then also we should say deodorants are, they're different from antiperspirants in that they don't stop you from sweating, but they make it so that when all your cell detritus reaches the skin surface in your underarms, there's no local flora to eat it and then produce terrible smells as a waste. Yeah. Tom's of Maine. Yeah. It's a very popular natural deodorant. I love that apricot one. That my underarms laugh at. Yeah. And then the crystal stuff that makes your underarms too salty for the bacteria to live, right? Yeah. It's like a mineral crystal deodorant. I never use this. So do you want to talk about any of that? It'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 pee smell, you should check out our video podcast because we explained it. That's right. You specifically explained it. We did it together. And I think it was only a percentage of people believe that their pee smells. Don't give it away. Okay. But if you want to find it, you can find it on iTunes. Just look for Stuff You Should Know's video podcast. That's right. You can also find it on our RSS feed on how stuff works. It's short and kind of fun. Like we're having a good time doing them. Yeah. And they're really loose and like. Man, they are so loose. Yeah. The things we're getting away with saying, I don't think people understand. Yeah. So okay. What else? Oh, so

you've got asparagus pee. You have maple syrup urine disorder. We've talked about that too. 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. Yeah. And it's in kids. And I think adults have a similar condition. You can make it to adulthood. Okay. But 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. Are you sure? Like, what's that wonderful dessert? Creme brulee. Oh, well, that's lovely. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No one's complaining about the smell of their pee, but it's very

worrisome. Gotcha. You know, okay. If you are around a diabetic, a person with diabetes who suffers from ketoacidosis, you might say that they smell a bit like nail polish remover and that their breath smells kind of fruity and like juicy fruit kind of. Gotcha. And then what else, Chuck? Fish odor syndrome? Yeah. That means you lack the ability to metabolize something called TMA. And apparently you smell like fish. I don't know what kind of fish, but it's fishy. Yeah. Yeah. And that's pretty, what do they call that? I'm daring you to try and say that word. Trimethylaminuria. Nice. Thank you. That is the word. That's the primary trimethylaminuria. And that is the condition, which means you can't metabolize the TMA and that means you will smell

like fish. Yeah. And then if you have phenylkentynuria, you might have a barn-like smell, musty barn-like smell. 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? That'd be a heck of a ride. I'm praying that none of those things are compatible. I mean, it's possible. The blue skin thing, that's just from too much copper, right? Yeah. So there could be some comorbidity there. Silver. Silver. Silver. Yeah, sweat blue. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute a 2,200

pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty, exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil asset for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app,

Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Ready, set, slay. Squirrel friends, the official RuPaul's Drag Race podcast is taking you behind the scenes of RuPaul's Drag Race season 15 on MTV with me, Alec Moppa, and my co-host, Lottie Love. Alec and I will recap the latest episode, the best and worst looks, and we'll even be joined by some of your favorite queens along the way. One thing's for sure, there is no shortage of queens this season, because we are witnessing the biggest cast in RuPaul's Drag Race herstory, and the stakes are higher than ever with the largest cast prize in drag race herstory. So make no mistake, the competition is going to rev up. Watch season 15 of RuPaul's Drag Race

every Friday on MTV. Then join us on the podcast right after the show to recap the episode, debrief on all the looks and more. Listen to Squirrel Friends, the official RuPaul's Drag Race podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. I got nothing else. Well, hyper hydrosis just for my friends out there who suffer from hyper hydrosis. I don't think I have hyper hydrosis. That's like I'm just extra sweaty. Hyper hydrosis 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. Yeah. Just like leaking water. And you can, there's a variety of things you can do to treat that, from surgery to ion toporesis, which is

using an electrical current to disable your sweat glands. Right. You can also have them surgically removed. Yeah. I wouldn't mind that from the tiny in 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. No, thanks. Well, it works. No. There's also, I do have one more thing, bromhydrophobia. I thought that was interesting. So it's the fear of sweating. Oh, I thought it was the fear of stink. Oh, yeah, you're right. It's the fear of stinking from sweating. Because bromhydrosis is. Yeah, your body odor. Yeah. Yeah, you're right, Chuck. And somebody who suffers from bromhydrophobia 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 this fear of smelling. 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. Oh, yeah. Or I will often put my shirt over my nose. And I do that when I clean up the litter box and when I do the dog poop on the walks, I put my shirt. I can't stand that. 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.

What was that about ice storm? I've seen that movie 10 times. Some kid says it like in like a school report or something like that. I don't remember that part. I've never seen the movie. I know that. Oh man, it's great. I've heard. Yeah. Ang Lee, the director of the Hulk. Yeah. So what else? I got nothing else. Let's stop talking about this then. Yes, please. If you like this one, there's a surprising amount of stuff about sweating on HowStuffWorks.com. Sweating colors, the difference between any person in deodorant. You can listen to those old podcasts that are 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. Ironically. There's a push

about sweating stuff. But just type sweating, S-W-E-A-T-I-N-G, in the search bar, HowStuffWorks.com. That'll bring up some cool stuff. I said search bar, which means it's time for listener mail. Josh, I'm going to call this one unguarded. I think that's a fine one. 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 swordplay shown in films. Movies like Star Wars, of course. 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 flinning after Errol Flynn. Or Mark Hamilling. He says that Errol Flynn pioneered this technique. Yeah, he's a swashbuckler. And still is, I think. Well, he's dead. He lives on, though, as a swashbuckler. 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 1948. Oh, I can guess the other one. Riding in cars with boys. How to lose a guy in ten days. The rapier duel on the staircase at the tail end of the film is still admired as some of the best fencing on film 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, 1977's The Duelists, based on the true story of two 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 a new view. Foil is the really thin, long, thin fencing sword. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that without looking it up. The film is simply a must for those who want to see great fencing and accurate dueling. And that is from Josh. That's from me. Yeah. Thanks, me. Thanks, Josh. While we're on this, that jogged my memory. The dueling reminded me of a movie that we, well, not just a movie. Wow,

I'm a hick, 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 plot. Yeah, that's true. That and also I want to say in the beer episode, I wrongly attributed the superhuman hoppiness to one of the guys in the band, superhuman happiness, when really it was a superfan named Kurt Schlachter. So sorry, Kurt. Well, and since we're on that, you also called New Belgium, New Amsterdam. Oh, yeah, that was a big one. I'm really sorry, guys. They've even sent us beer before. I know, I know. New Belgium makers of fine fat tire 1664. Now that's Cronenburg. Let's just stop right here. Sorry, Gus. And you do have to pay all kinds of money for covering

songs, too, by the way. That was completely wrong. 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. That was wrong. Okay. Well, good. So I feel clean, like we just purged ourselves of all the corrections. 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 so they can have like the KISS tribute band play. Gotcha. Oh, man. So I don't think the band plays. I think it's up to the club to take ownership of that. People will pay anything to have the KISS tribute band play, especially if it's Strutter. Yeah, that's all them. So let's see. If you're related to a

member of the band, 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 SYSK podcast. You can join us on Facebook, facebook.com, slash stuff you should know. And you can also reach us via email at stuffpodcastatdiscovery.com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join House of Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. Brought to you by the Reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging?

They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil answer for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Langston Kermit. Sometimes I'm on TV. I'm David Boreen. I'm probably on TV right now. David and I are going to take a deep dive every week into the most exciting ground breaking and sometimes problematic black conspiracy theories. We've had amazing past notable guests like Brandon Kyle Goodman, Sam J. Quinta Brunson and so many more. New episodes around every Tuesday. Many episodes out on Thursdays where we answer you,

the listeners conspiracy theories. Listen to my mama told me on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.