It’s a short post today because I’ve already talked about a related topic in the past, but I wanted to mention something that I’ve been noticing for a year or so. When I was working in an office, I had unpleasant B.O. I did everything I could to deal with it: Trying different deodorants, washing midday in the bathroom with paper towels, keeping my arms up while at my desk, and keeping them down when near others. I even made my own, low allergen, awesome homemade deodorant, which works great, but I still had to apply every single day.
After leaving the office environment, the smell continued until I started to get a handle on my allergies. Suddenly I could go for two days without applying deodorant, and I wasn’t afraid of getting close to my shirts after wearing them for a day. Huh.
I’ve been tracking this for a little while now. It turns out that my level of stink is often directly proportional to how much my body has been allergically reacting recently. If I spend a few days in a large crowd of people, I smell a lot more for several days afterward, and I’m reaching for the deodorant daily. If I’m outside and spending time around the house, I can often go without deodorant, with just a spritz of vodka and a rub to kill any bacteria.
A quick search of Google brings up body odour and anxiety, body odour and your body’s energy, body odour and synthetic fabrics, and body odour and foods, but no mention of body odour in relation to allergies. Like those other topics, though, perhaps because this really is a systemic allergic reaction I have, it affects the microbiology on my skin and causes me to smell more. If so, reducing my allergic reactions will really help me to spend closer time with others in low-allergy settings. And if not, my deodorant will do the trick.
Have you noticed any connection between your body odour and your allergic reactions? Comment below.