Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, Charles W. Chuck, Bryan's with me.
Speaker 1: If my my nose doesn't deceive me, I didn't do
Speaker 1: my cheeks today, that's bad luck. Now, thank you. I
Speaker 1: don't think that that's gonna save this episode, but it
Speaker 1: will make it from being the worst, probably like the one,
Speaker 1: the unreleased one. Yeah, in case of brake, we'll make
Speaker 1: that when we retire, that will be our final episode,
Speaker 1: will go out of the whimper. That's not bad idea. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lost episode everyone that only Jerry, Chuck and
Speaker 1: I know about, in case of emergency breake Glass episode.
Speaker 1: It is so bad that if if something happens, we
Speaker 1: we released the emergency episodes. Right. Yeah. That feels good
Speaker 1: to have, does it? Yeah? Yeah, I guess so. I
Speaker 1: feel like we have a margin of error, but of one. Um,
Speaker 1: All right, Chuck, let's get this started, all right. You stink,
Speaker 1: I stink, We all stink. Jerry doesn't stink. Jerry smells
Speaker 1: like lilac. She does. Um, but the wow, you just
Speaker 1: threw me off with that one. But your stink and
Speaker 1: my stink are unique. Um, it's like, um uh it's
Speaker 1: called an oder type, right, So an oder type is,
Speaker 1: as I said, very unique. It's uh so unique that
Speaker 1: there is research into figuring out how to identify somebody
Speaker 1: through their odor. Yeah. I thought that was interesting. It's
Speaker 1: like a smelly fingerprint. Yeah. Um. And no matter what
Speaker 1: you do, it can't be masked, like you can't alter
Speaker 1: it to where a machine that's designed to molecularly and
Speaker 1: allies odors can't say oh it's Josh, Oh there's chuck.
Speaker 1: And they're also they're really laying on the Polo cologne
Speaker 1: today for some reason because this that was my man.
Speaker 1: I remember the day I did you wear that bottle
Speaker 1: of Polo? It is like the size of my torso
Speaker 1: and I was so excited. I only wore one cologne
Speaker 1: in my life for like two years in high school. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Benetton Colors it was. But um, I haven't worn cologne
Speaker 1: since literally I was seventeen. Yeah. I went through maybe
Speaker 1: like three periods of my life where I worked cologne
Speaker 1: for a little while, and then finally I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't wear cologne? What am I doing? Not? Not many
Speaker 1: guys do anymore? Do they? Yeah? Really? At the gym
Speaker 1: I go to, it's like get out of the sauna. Now, Wow,
Speaker 1: it's bad. Yeah, when I told you, I think one
Speaker 1: time when I lived in Arizona for a year. It
Speaker 1: may be cultural, but those dudes work alogne like a
Speaker 1: lot and hair jail, don't they. Um, I seem to
Speaker 1: remember a fair amount of depitty do Yeah, Arizona is
Speaker 1: like New Jersey West, So anyway, we all have very
Speaker 1: distinct odor types, is what it's called. Oh and not
Speaker 1: only can you not alter it to with the machine,
Speaker 1: but if you're a mouse and you're trying to mask
Speaker 1: your scent, other other mice can still see who you
Speaker 1: are through their Yeah, I saw that that study. Should
Speaker 1: we tell them that the technique they use, even though
Speaker 1: I don't understand it involves tickling uh volatile b ocs
Speaker 1: like you get in paint, volatile organic compounds also in
Speaker 1: your body, which is just something that turns to gas
Speaker 1: at what we consider room temperature exactly. They use they
Speaker 1: can analyze uh, these scents in your sweat, saliva, and
Speaker 1: urine using gas chromatography, mass spectrauma spectrometry. That's good stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you got hung up on that. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: don't know how that works, so I didn't have enough
Speaker 1: time to look into that. But that's what the Pentagon
Speaker 1: and the Homeland Security are using to try and snip
Speaker 1: out terrorists and also apparently to figure out if someone's
Speaker 1: lying because there's different kinds of sweat. There's different kinds
Speaker 1: of sweat glands. Um as you know, we've actually kind
Speaker 1: of covered some of this. Remember we did what's the
Speaker 1: difference between any perse print and deodorants? Again? Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: I didn't think that was me. I mean you were
Speaker 1: wildly impressed with Like I had a theory about, um,
Speaker 1: deodorant stocks going up. Remember hormones and milk are making
Speaker 1: kids hit puberty younger in my opinion. Uh, and then
Speaker 1: with global warming, people are going to need more deodorants,
Speaker 1: so theodorant stocks were the way to go. Um, that's
Speaker 1: not as good as my early man theory. What happened?
Speaker 1: They melted? So happened to the Neanderthals? These are the
Speaker 1: old days. Yeah, I think that theodor one was like
Speaker 1: one of the ten minutes shows, wasn't it. It It was
Speaker 1: pretty quick, like really early. Yeah, but we're going to
Speaker 1: revisit it because even you don't remember it, and you
Speaker 1: were in it, I remember right now. Um, So we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about the different kinds of sweat clans because
Speaker 1: we've also talked about this before and what can you
Speaker 1: sweat colors? Yeah? Okay, but let's let's do it again.
Speaker 1: You want to? That was the introduction. That's great, I
Speaker 1: love it. Um. You know, they also have studies that
Speaker 1: that say that little babies are more attracted to their
Speaker 1: mothers obviously because of their scent and like early on
Speaker 1: humans can sniff out their parents, which is and I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a theory of mine. I think it's
Speaker 1: pretty well established that if you're like a smoker, even
Speaker 1: if you're like, oh I don't smoke around my kids,
Speaker 1: they still sniff that stuff out and they are more
Speaker 1: likely to smoke later on because of that. Is that true? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, children of smokers are way more likely to smoke.
Speaker 1: I know in studies of um babies born eyeless and
Speaker 1: as worms, they will like they'll sniff their parents out
Speaker 1: and like just wiggle over toward them even though they
Speaker 1: can't see usually can't hear. It's a neat study. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff in here like that. Um,
Speaker 1: so let's talk about the different kinds of sweat glands.
Speaker 1: You got echrone glands. Yeah, those are my favorite, same
Speaker 1: here because they cool me off. Yeah, they're innocuous. They
Speaker 1: basically just secrete water and electrolytes, which if you've seen
Speaker 1: um idiocracy, you know how important electrolytes are. Um and yeah,
Speaker 1: it's used to regulate body temperature. Your hypothalamus says, hey,
Speaker 1: you're getting a little warm here. Let's get rid of
Speaker 1: this perspiration. The water, the the the water and electrolytes
Speaker 1: on your skin. When they evaporate, it's going to cool
Speaker 1: you down. And I love it. And sweat doesn't stink.
Speaker 1: I think we've pointed that out before, but it bears repeating.
Speaker 1: The sweat itself is not smelly. And I like saying
Speaker 1: that because for obvious reasons, it's well established that I'm
Speaker 1: a sweaty guy. But I'm not a smelly guy. No,
Speaker 1: you really aren't. I was thinking about this. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I was. I was thinking about you as I was
Speaker 1: researching this, and I was like, you know, Chuck doesn't smell.
Speaker 1: I've never I've never smelled chuck. And I've been around
Speaker 1: you when you're sweating. I've been around you when you
Speaker 1: were wearing nothing but like shorts and a Hawks jersey sweating. Sah, well,
Speaker 1: you better be sweating if you're wearing that. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: because I take exactly, That's because I take care of
Speaker 1: myself and do all the things that we're gonna talk about,
Speaker 1: like bathing. Yes, So in ekorne sweat um, there's nothing
Speaker 1: to smell. Electro LTEs don't smell in the other sweat
Speaker 1: gland and ecorn sweat glands are found all over your body.
Speaker 1: The other sweat glands epicrine like sweat glands, they don't
Speaker 1: smell either. I know what you're saying. Like that, you
Speaker 1: you produce sweat, but it has a lot more than
Speaker 1: just water and electrolytes chuck. Anytime a cell excretes waste,
Speaker 1: poop something out, or is destroyed through maybe autolycens or whatever,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of little um cellular detrius and that
Speaker 1: stuff has to leave the body because you don't want
Speaker 1: it to build up. You want to get rid of
Speaker 1: your broken up dead cells, and they enter secretory cells
Speaker 1: in the skin and hike along with your sweat. So
Speaker 1: the apricrine sweat is a means of disposal, cellular detritus
Speaker 1: disposal in your body. But even that doesn't smell. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what produces the smell? Uh well, And we did cover
Speaker 1: this before, but it is bacteria that basically eats those
Speaker 1: proteins that we sweat out and then they poop them out. Essentially,
Speaker 1: they poop out fatty acids that stink. That's the smell.
Speaker 1: It's not us, it's the local flora, the bacteria. I
Speaker 1: don't even like the word flora, I know, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't even make sense because bacteria aren't plants, and even
Speaker 1: if they were plants, um flora apparently refers to multicellular plants. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but they call local flora bacteria's local flora um and
Speaker 1: a little protozoa on your body, those are called fauna
Speaker 1: local fauna. And I can't figure out why. Uh well,
Speaker 1: I bet the answers out there. I looked, man, really, Yeah,
Speaker 1: if anybody knows that this is the one I'd really
Speaker 1: like to know from this episode. Well, what we do
Speaker 1: know is that these nasty applecrine glands are found in
Speaker 1: some pretty unfortunate places like you're growing or you're growing
Speaker 1: and your armpits um, your what is it the and
Speaker 1: your hands and your feet, So that's where you're gonna
Speaker 1: smell um in your feet. Interestingly, the reason they don't
Speaker 1: smell quite like your armpits is because they also produce
Speaker 1: fungus in addition to the bacteria pooping out batty acids. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's why your footot is going to be a
Speaker 1: little different. It's not really coincidence that, like all of
Speaker 1: these places are hairy, well except for your hands. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I guess the soles of your feet, but your
Speaker 1: armpits and your groin are hairy. I'm five years old,
Speaker 1: loves naturally they're hairy. Um, and uh, when we wear shoes,
Speaker 1: were in socks whatever. Where we are providing like these
Speaker 1: great places for bacteria to thrive and eat the stuff
Speaker 1: to their hearts content. But it takes about an hour apparently. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good news. So when you start sweating apricrine
Speaker 1: cell detrius through your armpits um, you it takes about
Speaker 1: an hour for the local bacteria to digest. I mean
Speaker 1: they'll eat it immediately, but then they lay around, have
Speaker 1: they wake up and they're like, I got a poop
Speaker 1: and they poop and then you start smelling. Um the
Speaker 1: other gross thing, and there will be many gross things,
Speaker 1: but to me, one of the gross things is the
Speaker 1: the ekron glands secrete kind of you know, clear liquid,
Speaker 1: but the apicrin glands excrete liquid that can be thicker
Speaker 1: and milky and hello, which is why if you've ever
Speaker 1: had the old mustard stains on the undershirt, which are
Speaker 1: really unsightly they are, that means it's time to get
Speaker 1: rid of that undershirt, or if you're like me, then
Speaker 1: it's time to keep wearing it until it's crunchy. Yes,
Speaker 1: and I know the crunch you're talking about. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that's the deodorant as well, I hope, so in
Speaker 1: combination with the milky yellowish secretions. Yeah, uh yeah, so
Speaker 1: that that's the gross stuff. That's where your pit stains
Speaker 1: come from. UM and the smell. Also one of the
Speaker 1: big guys of the smell world as far as the
Speaker 1: waste products that the local flora are producing is um
Speaker 1: E three methyl two hexanoic acid. That's what's making you smell, friends,
Speaker 1: that's the one. It's one of. And the bacteria that's
Speaker 1: producing this are called microcoxie or staphylocoxie. And um, like
Speaker 1: I said, this is where they love living in your pits. Um,
Speaker 1: And I don't know if like they live in our armpits,
Speaker 1: like over time they've become attracted to human armpits the revolution,
Speaker 1: like they're like, oh, well this is where we eat,
Speaker 1: so we live here. Um. And they never learned you
Speaker 1: should never poop where you eat. They do the whole
Speaker 1: gam but you know, um, or poop where you live? Um,
Speaker 1: but it's poop where you eat. I think it's both,
Speaker 1: is it? Yeah? Okay? Um? I wonder if like they
Speaker 1: were attracted to humans over time, because I mean, are
Speaker 1: we born with these things in our under arms? I
Speaker 1: don't know how do we pick them up? How? How
Speaker 1: soon after birth do we pick them up? Well, I
Speaker 1: don't think we're born because newborn babies don't have the
Speaker 1: ap aprican sweat. So that's why little babies smell delicious.
Speaker 1: And unless they're pooping, which is like an ungodly thing
Speaker 1: such what is wrong with babies? So yes, you're right, Um,
Speaker 1: we we aren't born with apricream glance. We develop them
Speaker 1: around puberty. You probably won't start the body out or
Speaker 1: of the b o um as my mom always called it,
Speaker 1: until until puberty, till your teen years, and that's when
Speaker 1: you start getting stinky and um. So it's not just
Speaker 1: there's not just a difference between little kids, between teens
Speaker 1: and tweens, right, tweens on stink teen stink um. Supposedly
Speaker 1: there's a distinction among um races. This is highly controversial,
Speaker 1: is it? Yes, it's not nearly as cavalier as it
Speaker 1: might seem in this article. You can't just say like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: Asians are the least stinky um. There's there's supposedly here's
Speaker 1: the problem. Okay, here's the problem that the field of
Speaker 1: anthropology has with this. It's possible that there are differences
Speaker 1: among among races, but you can break it, don't even further?
Speaker 1: Is it um? Is? Is it food based? Is a
Speaker 1: diet based? Like? Is it? So if you are in
Speaker 1: northern India you're eating less curry in southern India India
Speaker 1: or vice versa. I can't whatever, So are all Indians?
Speaker 1: Did all Indians share a similar smell that's more pungent
Speaker 1: than say Europeans. The it you can't and even within that,
Speaker 1: it's like, how many vegetarians are there that hate curry
Speaker 1: in India? Well, the reason you point out curry, we
Speaker 1: should point out is because that's mentioned specifically in the
Speaker 1: article as one of the more highly um pungent foods
Speaker 1: that will eventually come out in your sweat exactly like garlic. Right. Um.
Speaker 1: But the the I guess the point is is, um,
Speaker 1: when you differentiate among people, whether it's smell, especially if
Speaker 1: something is unpleasant as body odor, then you are you're
Speaker 1: creating a disparity. You're propagating the possibility of racist stattitudes
Speaker 1: because if this person is different from me and how
Speaker 1: we smell, how else is that person different? You know,
Speaker 1: maybe I don't really like that person. Well it's not
Speaker 1: even endorsement. Well you just well you have to be
Speaker 1: careful with Plus the other problem is is most of
Speaker 1: the research that that is cited um these days for
Speaker 1: difference among races and body odor was last compiled in
Speaker 1: like the nineteen thirties. And then also for example, like
Speaker 1: Asians have fewer axillary glands, do they? I don't know
Speaker 1: when's the last time anyone checked. And then some of
Speaker 1: the other old data suggests that half and estimated half
Speaker 1: of Koreans don't even have axillary glands, so they couldn't
Speaker 1: even sweat if they tried. You know, you see the point.
Speaker 1: So you're saying it's just hinky data, it's old data,
Speaker 1: and you're not supposed to cite data over ten years old. Well,
Speaker 1: why don't we just as a as a show, as
Speaker 1: a part of the public specter, say, some people stink
Speaker 1: some and some people don't. Yeah, people are people, Some
Speaker 1: stink somet' so why should it a be jerry like
Speaker 1: that one she saw her that. Um, men definitely, uh
Speaker 1: are are stinkier than women in general. We don't mind
Speaker 1: a little sexism, especially when we're throwing it on ourselves
Speaker 1: as stinky men. But it's not sexism because it's true
Speaker 1: and it's not. I mean, there's no there's no disparaging
Speaker 1: that comes along with that. That's true. Um. But and
Speaker 1: this is actually backed up by some science. We have
Speaker 1: more testosterone, which is gonna up your production of the
Speaker 1: apricree sweat. I'm just gonna lead to stinkiness. Um. Another
Speaker 1: theory is that women are more efficient regulators of their
Speaker 1: body temperature because they have less core heat going on
Speaker 1: because less muscle and fat than us dudes. And conversely,
Speaker 1: you can make the case that men are more efficient
Speaker 1: at um cooling there themselves. Yet true because women don't
Speaker 1: just tell sweat as much. And I thought this was
Speaker 1: really interesting, and so did Emily because I was throwing
Speaker 1: some stuff at her today while I was researching when
Speaker 1: men actually need one degree higher body temperature in order
Speaker 1: to start sweating to begin with. Yeah, I thought that
Speaker 1: was interesting and must be significant. I found it sounding
Speaker 1: hypothesis that that face unners attached to that. That's that
Speaker 1: women have less body fluid than men and so have
Speaker 1: evolved to sweat less. And so that would be the
Speaker 1: mechanism that that that evolution is taken the form of
Speaker 1: well lucky ladies, is what I say. But what's interesting
Speaker 1: is no, because if you are working out and your
Speaker 1: lady you suffer, you stay hotter longer, you get hotter. Um.
Speaker 1: And there's a study in Japan of all places, because
Speaker 1: they can't even sweat, you know, um that where they
Speaker 1: found that um women could train themselves just by working
Speaker 1: out a bunch like forming a workout routine over time
Speaker 1: to start sweating earlier, um than women who were just
Speaker 1: like working out for the first time got you. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: since you brought up Japan, this is a sidebar, but
Speaker 1: we'll throw it in there. Um. And I thought this
Speaker 1: is interesting. Apparently they take their their sweating and their
Speaker 1: stink pretty seriously over there, because they have a couple
Speaker 1: of interesting products. One company, um Aoki, has developed a
Speaker 1: deodorant suit that uses uh fabric with silver ions impregnated
Speaker 1: in it to fight off this bacteria just by wearing
Speaker 1: it right. And then they think they have determined. A
Speaker 1: cosmetic company thinks they have found the fatty acid responsible
Speaker 1: for old people smell, which I thought was really mean
Speaker 1: to say. And uh, no, Neil is the fatty acid.
Speaker 1: And in Japan they call old people smell carry issue
Speaker 1: and they are trying to combat that. And I guess
Speaker 1: grandkids all over the world they're just gonna be like
Speaker 1: spraying their grandparents when they walk in or when you
Speaker 1: inherit the house, you just walk around and spray carry issue. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's interesting though. I went over to my mom's last
Speaker 1: night and I realized that her home that it's not
Speaker 1: the house I grew up in. This is She's been
Speaker 1: there for a while though, um, probably fifteen years. It
Speaker 1: smells like my grandparents house that I went through growing
Speaker 1: up in Tennessee. That's interesting, like a lot like it,
Speaker 1: And I don't know. I mean, it's gotta have something
Speaker 1: to do with heredity or maybe products or furniture that
Speaker 1: you have some of their stuff, do it. Odor types
Speaker 1: are genetically um based, Yeah, so, I mean it would
Speaker 1: make sense that your mom inherited some of her ODO
Speaker 1: type from her parents. It's what. It was very comforting though.
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, oh yeah, man, I'll bet granddaddy'suse
Speaker 1: you unless your grandparents stunk like ox and I'm sure
Speaker 1: it's very comforting even more were abusive and hated my guts.
Speaker 1: You're like the scent of Guardinia makes you like drop
Speaker 1: into the fetal position. You never hear that of like
Speaker 1: abusive grandparents. That's like, that would be the worst thing ever.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there are some you gotta be out there, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you don't hear about it much. Thank god, thank god, everybody.
Speaker 1: It keeps that secret. I've been around some mean old
Speaker 1: people though, so you know what, everyone has that capacity.
Speaker 1: It's true, and that's why I quit boy Scouts and protest.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I just didn't like the idea of respecting
Speaker 1: your elders. No matter what. I was like, no has
Speaker 1: to earn respect. Agreed, Thank you. Alright, I finally vindicated
Speaker 1: after all these years. Um. We did talk about this
Speaker 1: in another podcast about women able to pick up um.
Speaker 1: I think when we talked about it before, it was
Speaker 1: a study about women able to pick up clues through
Speaker 1: scent about whether or not someone's a good reproductive partner.
Speaker 1: Like that there they would have a different immune system
Speaker 1: than you together in form of super baby, definitely one
Speaker 1: that wasn't born without eyes with a worm like body. UM.
Speaker 1: We also kind of debunked that, yeah were The research
Speaker 1: we found is that like we don't even have the
Speaker 1: capacity to um detect for modains any longer, most most
Speaker 1: humans don't. So like that whole idea is a little um.
Speaker 1: There was there was it's it's hit or miss, Like
Speaker 1: there's some studies that suggested, yes, this is true, others
Speaker 1: that didn't. If you read the um the release though
Speaker 1: on this study that this guy is talking about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the guy just like the researchers just totally leapt to
Speaker 1: a conclusion. They were like women can differentiate, Like it's
Speaker 1: tougher to mask um a man's odor to a woman
Speaker 1: and he basically said, ergo, women can detect body odor better,
Speaker 1: which means that they must be detecting like something like
Speaker 1: immune system robustness or something. It was like, where did
Speaker 1: you get this extra stuff? You know, it's drive me crazy.
Speaker 1: I'm on a tirade today. Research. Yeah, I'm sorry, everyone,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm very sorry. Well, speaking of that leads us
Speaker 1: right into this article. Actually, we're we like to point
Speaker 1: out when our own articles aren't quite up to snuff.
Speaker 1: And there were a few interesting things and it's a
Speaker 1: shame that we can't find verification on these, because I
Speaker 1: thought it was interesting, really interesting. Um. A tribe in
Speaker 1: New Guinea says goodbye to each other by rubbing each
Speaker 1: other's armpits before they leave, and so you can keep
Speaker 1: a little piece of the other person to sniff. That
Speaker 1: was really sweet. It's not a bit gross. And you
Speaker 1: said that it might be bunk like I found. I
Speaker 1: found virtually no support for this, and everything I found
Speaker 1: was like not a reliable thing. Um. And then Austrian tyrol,
Speaker 1: which is a very specific place to bus about, but um,
Speaker 1: they supposedly men would dance with handkerchiefs in there tucked
Speaker 1: under their arms and their armpits, and I guess, work
Speaker 1: up a real sweat, and then be like you and
Speaker 1: point to the girl he was going for and wave
Speaker 1: the handkerchief under and knows she would swoon, and they
Speaker 1: get married and have babies in that order. Didn't find
Speaker 1: verification for that either, right, No, same same thing. But
Speaker 1: I found even less for that. What about the last one?
Speaker 1: This one appears to be true, all right. I misinterpreted
Speaker 1: this because I told Emily this one this morning that
Speaker 1: in Elizabethan times they would soak peeled apples in their
Speaker 1: armpits sweat and give them to their lover when they parted,
Speaker 1: and I, for some reason, took the lead to mean
Speaker 1: that they would eat them, and I thought it was
Speaker 1: a grossest thing I ever heard. And Emily was like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't think they eat them. I think they just
Speaker 1: keep them. But they're they're called love apples, by the way,
Speaker 1: Well that's not what I call love apples. What do
Speaker 1: you call love apples? Apples that you know you give
Speaker 1: to the teacher on their desk? Yuh, because it seems
Speaker 1: odd that's an apple for the teacher's not love love
Speaker 1: apples because you love your teacher. Huh Um, were you
Speaker 1: home schooled by your mom? Wasn't? Uh, but my dad
Speaker 1: was my principle. Um, I don't know. Did they eat them?
Speaker 1: I'm sure some sick ate them. And how the oscar
Speaker 1: wilde ate them? How did they collect enough? How do
Speaker 1: they collect enough underarmed sweat to soak them? Is what
Speaker 1: I want to know. Oh he was Victorian, This is
Speaker 1: Elizabethan Um soak it up in a hanky and ring
Speaker 1: it out? Maybe I think they just sat there for
Speaker 1: a while and like, um, but it doesn't like drip
Speaker 1: out if you're dripping rub it around all right, who knows,
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 1: under arm. That would make sense. Yeah, I imagine they
Speaker 1: collected and just like hover over a table with an
Speaker 1: apple on it. Well no, I imagine they collected the
Speaker 1: under armed sweat in a dish and then soaked it
Speaker 1: in that. But that's why I was thinking. Just ignore
Speaker 1: me for the rest of the show. What was it?
Speaker 1: Was it kids in the hall where they had like
Speaker 1: some guy's body odor was so beautiful that like they
Speaker 1: had this guy like some perfume company bought him. Basically
Speaker 1: and they had him running on a treadmill and it
Speaker 1: was either Mr. Show or Kids in the Hall. It
Speaker 1: was hilarious. Not cabbage Head clearly. No. You know it
Speaker 1: was like a segment, like an additional segment. You know
Speaker 1: that you can tell where they're like, they put some
Speaker 1: money into it. Oh yeah, yeah, alright, where are we? Um? Oh?
Speaker 1: I did think this was interesting. The term b o,
Speaker 1: of course, comes from an advertising agency that didn't surprise
Speaker 1: me at all. Nineteen nineteen um Odo Rono deodorant. They
Speaker 1: and I love how this ad goes. Remember that wonderful
Speaker 1: man you met, the way he danced, and the telephone
Speaker 1: number he asked for and never used. You should take
Speaker 1: the arm whole Odo test stinky, Yeah, like a stinky woman.
Speaker 1: That's why the man didn't call you back, eighteen year
Speaker 1: old spinster. So yeah. Products in nineteen nineteen were not
Speaker 1: afraid to be uh sexist jerks. No, and I went
Speaker 1: back and I remember the spec ind Um. They released
Speaker 1: a product called mom and Um. Think back with me
Speaker 1: to the anti perse a deodorant one Um. You had
Speaker 1: to apply it with like a swab on a stick,
Speaker 1: and it worked, but it also would like burn a
Speaker 1: hole through your clothes and that was the first deodorant, right, yes, Mom,
Speaker 1: I think it was still around for a while. Well, Tussy,
Speaker 1: what was that? I don't know? Or what was the
Speaker 1: sprinkle a day one? Uh, just a sprinkle a day
Speaker 1: for feed? Have you had your sprinkle to day? It
Speaker 1: was like a general body deodorant. I don't think it
Speaker 1: sprinkling your body like gold bond. Yeah. I like the
Speaker 1: gold bond though. Oh yeah, that's a lifesaver with certain things.
Speaker 1: So so Chuck, Yes, have you ever seen um that
Speaker 1: one Simpsons where the Homer and Marge have their kids
Speaker 1: taken away from them and they have to go to
Speaker 1: the government parenting class. That's what this next segment is
Speaker 1: going to feel. Like, what do you do if you
Speaker 1: um find that you have body odor? Well, um, one
Speaker 1: thing you can do, Josh, because interestingly, um animals would
Speaker 1: use their scent to broadcast and it would scent would
Speaker 1: get tangled up in the hair, so we'd stick around
Speaker 1: a little longer. So obviously if you have hair and
Speaker 1: like you're growing, what you do and your under arms,
Speaker 1: so I could pointing out the smell is gonna stick
Speaker 1: around longer. So if you keep that area trim then, um,
Speaker 1: you're less likely to have odor in those places. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's good advice. And I'm a I'm a believer in
Speaker 1: keeping your body neat as a general rule, regardless of
Speaker 1: the scent factor. You know, take care of yourself, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: may manage your your hair, your ear hair, your nose hair.
Speaker 1: And there is nothing shameful about a man getting a
Speaker 1: manicure and or petticure. Okay, Uh, that was supportive. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean it has nothing to do with body under sure,
Speaker 1: there's nothing taking care of yourself. Well, I don't have
Speaker 1: I bite my finger and else, so there's really kind
Speaker 1: of no point for me. You know, remember Carrie Grant
Speaker 1: took a bunch of acid. Well they Uncle John's Bathroom
Speaker 1: Reader published like a list of like some of his
Speaker 1: best quotes while he was tripping, and the psychiatrists like
Speaker 1: wrote him down. And one of them was, if I
Speaker 1: have to look at him, man, shouldn't he have to
Speaker 1: comb his hair and brush his teeth? So Carrie Grant
Speaker 1: was a big time into taking care of yourself to him,
Speaker 1: and look what happened to him. He had a long,
Speaker 1: successful life exactly. He's an acting legend. Bathing Josh we said,
Speaker 1: it takes an hour for the bacteria to do its thing.
Speaker 1: And so if you've got you know, you've got a
Speaker 1: big interview or something, you a little nervous, take that
Speaker 1: shower less than an hour. Yeah, because I don't know
Speaker 1: if we mentioned this. Um Ekran sweat is triggered by
Speaker 1: body temperature. Epicrine sweat gland is triggered by emotion. Yeah
Speaker 1: we didn't. We didn't. Actually, anxiety specifically is a big
Speaker 1: one that makes you start sweating. Yeah. Boy, I sweated
Speaker 1: a lot when I interviewed here. Oh my god. It
Speaker 1: was July. Yeah, me too, and it was so and
Speaker 1: I couldn't figure out where this building was. Kind only
Speaker 1: just said like park it it's like by at Lenox
Speaker 1: parked Atlantics Mall And walked in like a hundred degree
Speaker 1: heat means like half mile and was like my shirt
Speaker 1: was like a dark blue even though it's supposed to
Speaker 1: be light blue. And I'm like, hey, I'm here to
Speaker 1: be interviewed. But I remember the shirt I wore two
Speaker 1: and it was light blue, which was a big mistake.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I was thinking. And I have
Speaker 1: not dressed that nice at this job since that day,
Speaker 1: which is I think I should go at every job.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, you are you wearing a suit? Brown? No? No,
Speaker 1: I should punch you for saying that I didn't wear
Speaker 1: a tie or anything. And you know it's like a
Speaker 1: nice shirt and pants. But look at me now, I'm
Speaker 1: glad you didn't punch me. By the way, Um, what
Speaker 1: are some natural remedies Josh to avoiding this kind of thing?
Speaker 1: If you're not into the chemicals? Boric acid? Tony Mule
Speaker 1: Team are good friends a Towny Mule Team? Uh, sprinkle
Speaker 1: a little powder under the arms. Yeah, it's actually a
Speaker 1: low level acid. Yeah, and I think probably what it
Speaker 1: does is just makes your armpits inhospitable local flora. There
Speaker 1: you go. Yeah. Vinegar, which is just like the most
Speaker 1: amazing thing in the history of the world. Do you
Speaker 1: drink that stuff now? I mean Lea's vinegar for like everything.
Speaker 1: You mean, It's got me into like drinking diluted vinegar,
Speaker 1: drinking it today, weed killer and kill weeds, you know,
Speaker 1: like big time? Uh, like any not any, but many
Speaker 1: many chemical remedies. I bet you if you look up
Speaker 1: on these homespun websites, some kind of vinegar might help
Speaker 1: you help you out as well. Well, it's changing the pH.
Speaker 1: Any time you change the pH, that's something's accustomed to,
Speaker 1: it's probably going to just die. Which hazel, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: like that smell, do you? I can't stand it. I
Speaker 1: like it baking soda. Um. As the article points out,
Speaker 1: it works in your fridge, so it'll work on your armpits.
Speaker 1: I've never done, ideally theoretically rosemary oil. Yeah, dilute that
Speaker 1: in some water, little sprinkle on your under arms. Have
Speaker 1: you done that one? You know? It does work those
Speaker 1: um tea tree oil because it's an antimicrobial, right, so
Speaker 1: it's just gonna go in there and destroy everything it sees.
Speaker 1: That'll dry out pimples to a big time. Um. Well,
Speaker 1: since we're on deodorant, we might as well talk about
Speaker 1: some of the controversies with any personant. Well, let's just
Speaker 1: give a brief overview of the difference between the two.
Speaker 1: That's the difference between deodorant and any personant. Well, uh,
Speaker 1: any persprit um contains kim things like aluminum and what's
Speaker 1: the other one. Aluminium is the big one. Hydro hydro
Speaker 1: hydroxy broma, hydroxy bromide, and they will essentially close up
Speaker 1: your sweat glands so they don't work. It plugs them
Speaker 1: for a little while. And not only no eventually, like
Speaker 1: I mean they they it is overall temporary, but the
Speaker 1: length of time between the application and the time you
Speaker 1: would start sweating again becomes longer and longer with with
Speaker 1: UM repeated use, because it actually shuts down your apricrine
Speaker 1: gland like it plugs, it swells it and basically says,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm done trying. I worry about it something.
Speaker 1: To be honest, a lot of people do a lot
Speaker 1: of which is a lot. Yeah, yeah, that's a lot, dude. Um.
Speaker 1: And yeah, there's there's been plenty of studies that have
Speaker 1: linked um aluminum to breast cancer. Yeah, and aluminiums have
Speaker 1: been shown to mutate UM cells into cancer cells, but
Speaker 1: there's never been like the smoking gun, like, oh, yes,
Speaker 1: this person has breast cancer because they use deodorant. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: and the cancers are hard to nail that too, because
Speaker 1: there are so many things that could be contributing and
Speaker 1: there's so many different types of cancers exactly. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then also with what Alzheimer's. Yeah, but I think that's
Speaker 1: just a general link, a general tenuous link between Alzheimer's
Speaker 1: and aluminum. I'm surprised that the studies are from the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. Surely they've done something since then. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think everybody's been focused on b P A S
Speaker 1: really well, all the breast cancer links are they're newer
Speaker 1: than that. But there's just no one's been able to
Speaker 1: produce a study that's definitively linked deodorance or any person pants,
Speaker 1: I should say to breast cancer. Um, but there's a
Speaker 1: strong correlation. Um. There are chalky deodorants, there are the
Speaker 1: liquid jelly types. You don't see the aerosols anymore, thank god, right, Uh.
Speaker 1: And then there's the disgusting roll on that I'm not
Speaker 1: sure who uses still I don't know either. Didn't Tussie
Speaker 1: make a roll on? I think so band band was big.
Speaker 1: I think they innovated the roll on stick. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then also we should say deodorants are they're they're different
Speaker 1: from any press prints, and that they don't stop you
Speaker 1: from sweating, but they make it so that when all
Speaker 1: your cell detritus reach is the skin surface in your
Speaker 1: under arms, there's no local Florida eat it and then
Speaker 1: produce terrible smells as a waste. Um. Tom's of Maine.
Speaker 1: It's very popular natural deodorant. I love that apricaant one
Speaker 1: that my underarms laugh at. Yeah. Uh. And then the
Speaker 1: crystal stuff that makes um, makes your own arms too
Speaker 1: salty for the bacteria live. Right, it's like a mineral
Speaker 1: crystal deodorant. I've never used this, so, um, do you
Speaker 1: want to talk about any of that? That's not necessarily
Speaker 1: body odor from sweating? But there are some other smells
Speaker 1: that one can produce, like asparagus p If you, um,
Speaker 1: are interested in learning about why asparagus can make your
Speaker 1: pee smell, you should check out our video podcast because
Speaker 1: we explained it. That's right, you specifically explained it. We
Speaker 1: did it together, and I think it was it. Only
Speaker 1: a percentage of people believe that there smells. Don't don't
Speaker 1: give don't give it away, okay, Um, But if you
Speaker 1: want to find that, you can find it on iTunes
Speaker 1: just look for stuff you should know his video podcast,
Speaker 1: that's right. Um. You can also find it on our
Speaker 1: ss feed on how stuff Works. It's short and uh,
Speaker 1: kind of fun, like we're having a good time doing them,
Speaker 1: and they're really loosen, like, man, they're so loose. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the things we're getting away with saying I don't think
Speaker 1: people understand um. Yeah, so okay, um, Oh so you've
Speaker 1: got asparagus p you have UM maple syrup urine disorder.
Speaker 1: We've talked about that too. Yeah. It's a real thing,
Speaker 1: and there's no other clinical term for it, like that
Speaker 1: is the name of it. And it's actually kind of
Speaker 1: a big deal. Like you have problems with your metabolism,
Speaker 1: it's a metabolic disease UM, and these amino acids can
Speaker 1: build up and kill you if you're not careful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's in kids, and I think adults UM have
Speaker 1: a similar condition. You can make it to adulthood, but
Speaker 1: it won't smell like maple syrup anymoretal like say it
Speaker 1: you say burnt sugar. I'm not sure what that's like. Um,
Speaker 1: you've never surely like, um, oh what's that wonderful dessert crimble,
Speaker 1: Oh well that's lovely. Yeah, okay, yeah, No, it's complaining
Speaker 1: about the smell of their pea, but it's very worrisome,
Speaker 1: you know. Um. If you are around a diabetic a
Speaker 1: person with diabetes UM who suffers from keto acidosis, you
Speaker 1: might say that they smell a bit like nail polish.
Speaker 1: Removering that their breath smells kind of fruity and like
Speaker 1: juicy fruit, kind of gotcha. Um. And then what else
Speaker 1: chuck fish oulder syndrome. Yeah. Um, that means you lack
Speaker 1: the ability to metabolize something called t M A and
Speaker 1: that apparently smell like fish. I don't know what kind
Speaker 1: of fish, but it's fishy. Yeah. And that's pretty Um
Speaker 1: what do they call that? I'm daring you to try
Speaker 1: and say that word. Try and methyl m and euria nice,
Speaker 1: thank you? That is the word. That's um, that's the
Speaker 1: name primary trimethyl amin urea. And that is the condition
Speaker 1: which means you can't metabolize the t m A and
Speaker 1: that means you will smell like fish. Yeah. And then
Speaker 1: if you have phennel ken turneria, you might have a
Speaker 1: barn like smell, musty barn like smell. Can you imagine
Speaker 1: if you had the fish odor disease you sweat blue,
Speaker 1: and you had that condition that makes your face silver,
Speaker 1: what kind of life would that be? That'd be a
Speaker 1: heck of a ride. I'm praying that none of those
Speaker 1: things are compatible. I mean it's possible. The blueskin thing
Speaker 1: that's just from too much copper, right, so there could
Speaker 1: be some comorbidity. Silver silver, silver, yeah, sweat blue. I
Speaker 1: got nothing else. Well, hyperhydrosis Just for my friends out
Speaker 1: there who suffer from hyperhydrosis. I don't think I have
Speaker 1: hyper hydrosis. That's like I'm just extra sweaty. Hyper Hydrosis
Speaker 1: is really really abnormally high, like these sad cases you
Speaker 1: hear about, and it can be men and women where
Speaker 1: your palms literally sweat all the time, just like leaking water. Um,
Speaker 1: and you can there's a variety of things you can
Speaker 1: do to treat that, from surgery to uh ion to paresis,
Speaker 1: which is using electrical an electrical current to disable your
Speaker 1: sweat glands. Right. You can also have them surgically removed.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't mind that from the neck up really, yeah,
Speaker 1: because that's where my sweat bothers me. I don't mind
Speaker 1: like sweaty body. But when you're like, you know, you
Speaker 1: can get boat toox to fix that, nothings. Well, it works. Um.
Speaker 1: There's also I do have one more thing, brome hydrophobia.
Speaker 1: I thought that was interesting. So it's the fear of sweating.
Speaker 1: I al thought it was a fear of stink. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right. And the fear of stinking from sweating. Brome
Speaker 1: hydrosis is yeah your body owner, Yeah, yeah, you're right,
Speaker 1: chu um. And somebody who suffer from rome hydrophobia will
Speaker 1: take a lot of showers every day, to the point
Speaker 1: where it's been linked akin to O c D. But
Speaker 1: there's no other behavior except for you know, taking showers
Speaker 1: or trying to or your fear of smelling. It's not
Speaker 1: you're not You're not messing with light switches or anything
Speaker 1: else too. It's just this fear of smelling. I had
Speaker 1: that with poop smell specifically. Oh man, if I walk
Speaker 1: in the bathroom and someone's taking care of things, I
Speaker 1: like leave immediately. Or I will often put my shirt
Speaker 1: over my nose and I do that when I clean
Speaker 1: out the litter box, and when I do the dog
Speaker 1: poop on the walks, I put my shirt. I can't
Speaker 1: stand that. Yeah, because anybody has seen the Ice Storm
Speaker 1: knows that, like, those are the volatile organic compounds of
Speaker 1: your poop that you're smelling. That's what the odor is.
Speaker 1: It's what was that about Ice Storm? I've seen that
Speaker 1: movie ten times. Some kids says that like in like
Speaker 1: a school report or reything like that, and from that part.
Speaker 1: I've never seen the movie and I know that. Oh man,
Speaker 1: it's great. Yeah, Angley great director of the Hulk. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: so what else? I got nothing else? Let's stop talking
Speaker 1: about this then, yes, please if you like this one.
Speaker 1: There's a surprising amount of stuff about sweating on how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com, uh, sweating colors, the difference between
Speaker 1: any personant and deodorant, and come listen to those old
Speaker 1: podcasts are good too. Um, and there's just a lot
Speaker 1: of sweating stuff if you have sweating problems. I personally
Speaker 1: wrote it a lot of sweating things too, didn't you.
Speaker 1: Um no, no, there's ironically there's a push about remember
Speaker 1: that stuff. Um. But just type sweating s W E
Speaker 1: A T I n G in the search bar how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot common. That will bring up some cool stuff,
Speaker 1: I said, search bar, which means it's time for listener mail. Josh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this one on guard I think that's
Speaker 1: a funny one, hey, guys. Through college I was really
Speaker 1: active and fencing, the sport generated by the ancient rules
Speaker 1: and honor code. You guys mentioned. One interesting symptom from
Speaker 1: engaging and fencing through UH though, was an ultra critical
Speaker 1: eye on swordplay shown in films. Movies like Star Wars,
Speaker 1: Pirates of the Caribbean, and Highlander are examples of what
Speaker 1: is called quote show fencing, the art of making the largest,
Speaker 1: flashiest attacks without ever threatening either actor. Um show fencing
Speaker 1: is sometimes slanged as Flynning after Errol Flynn or Mark
Speaker 1: Hambling Cameling. Um he says that Errol Flynn pioneered this technique. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a swashbucklet to us, and still is. I think, well,
Speaker 1: he's good. He lives on though as a swashbuckling. Um.
Speaker 1: If you or your listeners want to see excellent representations
Speaker 1: of Hollywood showing true fencing, I have two recommendations. First
Speaker 1: is the black and white version of The Three Musketeers.
Speaker 1: I think it's from I can guess the other one
Speaker 1: Riding in Cars with Boys, How to Lose a Guy
Speaker 1: in Ten Days. The rapier duel on the staircase at
Speaker 1: the tail end of the film is still admired of
Speaker 1: some of the best fencing on film to this day.
Speaker 1: The other film I'd recommend, and we got a few
Speaker 1: people tell us about this one is Ridley Scott's uh
Speaker 1: directorial Premier ninety seven, The Duellists, based on the true
Speaker 1: story of two Napoleon Area Area Napoleon era French officers
Speaker 1: with a feud lasting for decades. The film accurately shows
Speaker 1: multiple types of duels and weapons, including foil uh, cavalry,
Speaker 1: saber pistols just to name of you, fo foils, the
Speaker 1: really thin long thin fencing. How gonna go out in
Speaker 1: a limb and say that without looking it up? Well,
Speaker 1: we got some coffections coming to anyway. The film is
Speaker 1: simply a must for those who want to see great
Speaker 1: fencing and accurate dueling. Um. And that is from Josh.
Speaker 1: That's from me. Yeah, thanks me, thanks. While we're on this, um,
Speaker 1: that joke my memory, the dueling UM reminded me of
Speaker 1: a movie that we well, not not just a movie, Wow,
Speaker 1: I'm a hic, a movie and a book um that
Speaker 1: we left out of the Revenge podcast, the Count of
Speaker 1: Monte Cristo. I don't know how we did that, because
Speaker 1: that is like the quintessential Revenge plots. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: That And also I want to say in the beer episode,
Speaker 1: I wrongly attributed the super human happiness to one of
Speaker 1: the guys in the bands for Human Happiness, when really
Speaker 1: it was a super fan named Kurt Schlachter. So sorry, Kurt. Well,
Speaker 1: and since we're on that, you also called New Belgium
Speaker 1: new Amsterdam. Oh yeah, that was a big one. I'm
Speaker 1: really sorry. Guys. They've even sent us peer before New
Speaker 1: Belgium makers of fine Fat tire sixteen sixty four. Now
Speaker 1: that's Cronenberg. Let's just stop right here. And you do
Speaker 1: have to pay all kinds of money for covering songs too,
Speaker 1: of the way, that was completely wrong. Okay, yeah, that
Speaker 1: was a huge sidebar in the Yeah, like they would
Speaker 1: spell it out like, no, you don't have to spend
Speaker 1: money to that's crazy, that's wrong. Okay, well good, so
Speaker 1: I feel clean, like we just purged ourselves of all
Speaker 1: the correct Yeah. And not only that, I didn't realize this,
Speaker 1: but clubs that have like cover bands that play there
Speaker 1: actually pay like yearly licensing fees just so they can
Speaker 1: have like the Kiss tribute band play. Oh man, so
Speaker 1: I don't think the band plays. I think it's up
Speaker 1: to the club to take ownership with that. People will
Speaker 1: pay anything to have the Kiss tribute band play, especially
Speaker 1: if it's Strutter. Yeah, that's all them. So let's see
Speaker 1: if you're related to a member of the band Strutter
Speaker 1: or Kiss, or you have a correction for us, send
Speaker 1: it along. Just don't be a jerkoin you do um.
Speaker 1: You can tweet to us at s Y s K Podcast.
Speaker 1: You can join us on Facebook, Facebook dot com slash
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know, and you can also reach us
Speaker 1: via email at off Podcast at Discovery dot com. Be
Speaker 1: sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from
Speaker 1: the Future. Join How Stuff Work staff as we explore
Speaker 1: the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to
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