Underarm pH Imbalance: Why Does It Happen? (2024)

FAQs

Underarm pH Imbalance: Why Does It Happen? ›

Our bodies are constantly working to maintain pH balance while many factors can be working against it. Everything from what you eat and drink, medications, new products in your daily routine, stress, hormones, and more can throw off your pH balance, causing a strong underarm odor.

Deodorants and other personal care products contain ingredients that can affect your pH level. When a person uses products that are too acidic or alkaline it can upset the natural pH levels of your skin. This can cause skin irritation and long-term skin issues. Even natural deodorants can cause pH imbalance.

In humans, armpits offer a moist, warm environment where microbes can thrive, making them a microbial hotspot. The composition of the skin microbiota varies from one individual to another, and between locations on the same host; sometimes, even the left armpit can have a vastly different flora compared to the right.

Sour underarms are caused by sweat in contact with bacteria on the skin. This condition often occurs in people with hyperhidrosis, mainly in the areas of the hands, feet, and armpits.

Our bodies are constantly working to maintain pH balance while many factors can be working against it. Everything from what you eat and drink, medications, new products in your daily routine, stress, hormones, and more can throw off your pH balance, causing a strong underarm odor.

When your body becomes too acidic (as in acidosis) or too alkaline (as in alkalosis), it can lead to symptoms that make it difficult to manage everyday activities. The exact symptoms will depend on the type of pH imbalance but can include sleepiness, fatigue, headache, loss of appetite, confusion, and vomiting.

Like the skin on the rest of our body, the ideal pH range for underarms is between 4.5 and 5.5. This slightly acidic environment helps to maintain the skin's natural barrier, prevent bacterial growth, and reduce odor-causing bacteria.

Interestingly, sweat is not the cause of body odor. Bacteria is. So, smelly armpits can occur with and without sweat. The odor occurs due to the action of specific bacteria that are optimized in damp skin folds and from perturbations in the skin barrier function often linked to skin pH imbalance.

Why is my bo so bad all of a sudden? ›

Your environment, the things you eat, medications you take, shifts in hormone levels, or underlying disorders may all be behind a sudden change in body odor. Changes in body odor can be a normal part of development, such as when an adolescent is going through puberty.

Most of the world's population has the gene that codes for the wet-type earwax and average body odor; however, East Asians are more likely to inherit the allele associated with the dry-type earwax and a reduction in body odor.

Armpit masks for detoxing often involve charcoals, clays, or apple cider vinegar. You mix up the ingredients, so say proponents, and slather them onto your pits, keeping your arms raised above your head as they dry.

Limiting frequent bathing can lead to dirt, sweat and dead skin cells build up leading to Your clothes have a strong smell. You can reduce these effects by showering regularly and washing with mild soap and warm water. Sweating in the groin area can attract fungi and bacteria that lead to bad odors.

Deodorant. Deodorants can eliminate odor but not sweat. They're usually alcohol-based and turn your skin acidic, making it less attractive to bacteria. Deodorants often contain perfume fragrances intended to mask odor.

And when using products made with glycolic acid or salicylic acid in your armpits, you're lowering the pH, which “reduces the bacterial overgrowth in that area.” Within the beauty industry, these acids are often also used as exfoliators, which plays into their use as deodorant, too, according to Bunick.

Other ways to balance your pH include drinking alkaline water, eating lots of alkaline foods and staying away from acidic foods. Acidic foods are meat, fizzy drinks, white bread, white pasta, refined sugar and alcohol.

This is perfectly natural, even if it “stinks.” When the sweat from your glands meets the bacteria on your skin, it breaks down into products called thioalcohols. The thioalcohols give off a strong, often sulfurous scent that can also be comparable to onions or meat.