Smelly sweat or strong body odour?
Sweat turns smelly usually after having contact with the bacteria on the surface of the skin. This is different from strong body odour (BO) where you can have strong BO even without sweating! The odour usually emits from the underarm and may not disappear even after showering.
In TCM, Strong body odour can be influenced by 3 main reasons, mostly due to the combination of dampness and heat in the body.
- Spleen and stomach heat deficiency: Poor dietary habits, excessive strong flavoured, sour and spicy food intake, alcohol etc.
- Excess liver fire: Lack of sleep, overworking, emotionally or physically stressed.
- Kidney essence deficiency: Age, early marriage, multiple births, prolonged illness, and malnutrition
5 ways to help reduce strong B.O.
1. Sufficient exercise to strengthen the kidney and body: Exercise helps promote sweating and simultaneously relieve physical and mental stress.
2. Reduce taking overly spicy and oily food, cut down on smoking and alcohol: When the function of the stomach and spleen improves, the dampness in the body can be removed efficiently.
3. Avoid staying up late: As the body’s regulation function recovers, the spleen Qi also strengthens
4. Drink Si Shen Soup, Barley water, Dampness removing tea
- Si Shen Soup (Poria, Chinese Yam, Lotus Seed, Euryale seed)
- Dampness removing tea (Red bean, Barley, Euryale seed, Coix seed, Tangerine peel, Adzuki bean, Tartary buckwheat, Poria, Cape jasmine fruit, Liquorice root)
5. TCM Treatments: Acupuncture, Cupping, Chinese herbal medication, Acupressure such as:
- Zu San Li point (ST36): 4 fingers width below the depression of the outer patella
- Feng Long point (ST40): Midpoint between the outer patella and tip of the outer ankle
- Yin Ling Quan point (SP9): Inner side of the calf, depression below the protrusion of the tibia
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