Does stress sweat actually smell worse than your normal sweat? Yes — it's not just yourimagination!
There are a few scientific reasons whystress sweat smells worse than normal sweat. Let's dive in.
Stress Sweat Explained
Stressful situations like a looming deadline or public speaking activate your nervous system — known as the fight-or-flight center. You sweat as an evolutionary response.
Here’s what happens: When you experience stress, the brain releases adrenaline and cortisol into the bloodstream. The nervous system then signals your apocrine — not eccrine — sweat glands to perspire.
You sweat to compensate for this uptick in activity. Because stress sweat is not tied to your external temperature, you can't control it as easily.
You may have noticed your shirt reeks after a long day at the office. Lucky for your co-workers, stress body odor actually puts off a stronger scent than other types of sweat.
Your body likes tostick around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit and sweats to regulate this internaltemperature. But not all sweat is created equal.
Your body experiencestwo other types of sweat, which produce distinct smells:
Exercise-induced sweatresults from — you guessed it — being active. That includes physicalactivity like jogging, climbing stairs or any other activity thatraises your heart rate.
As your body heats up,your internal thermostat (aka the hypothalamus) triggers the central nervoussystem to release neurotransmitters, which tell the eccrine glands to producesweat.
As sweat leaves yourskin, heat goes with it — helping you maintain a normal body temperature.
Heat-induced sweat isanother type of perspiration. For instance, you might sweat extra when sittingoutdoors in hot temperatures — even though your body isn’t physically moving.
As your body works tostay at the ideal temperature, your hypothalamus, central nervoussystem and eccrine glands all communicate to release sweat.
Why Does Stress Sweat Smell Worse?
Here are a few things to blame for that extra pungent body odor:
Evolution
Did you know stresssweat evolved out of necessity?
Think about it:Putting off a strong, repulsive scent would deter predators who were out to eatyou.
There’s also anevolutionary reason your hands get moist (yes, we said it) when stressed. Wethands helped our ancestors better grasp weapons.
Anatomy
Your body contains two types of stress sweat glands that release different substances and smells. These include:
- Eccrine: Your body containsmore than 3 million eccrine glands. Located between hair follicleson the skin’s surface, eccrine glands release an odorless combination of water,salt and electrolytes. The eccrine glands are responsible for exercise and heatsweat. If you suffer from some type of hyperhidrosis, your sweat primarilystems from these glands.
- Apocrine: The apocrine glandsare found beneath hair follicles. When stressed, your body secretes an odorlesswhite, milky fluid consisting of water, proteins and fats. Once the fluid mixeswith natural bacteria on your skin, the bacteria eat sweat and produce afoul-smelling waste you know as B.O. These glands produce stress-induced sweat— which is why stress sweat smells extra.
Worries About Stress Sweat
To make matters worse, worrying about and smelling stress sweat can trigger you to sweat even more.
But wait, it getsbetter. Fearing sweat — before it even happens — can also induce stress sweat.Lovely, right?
If you notice stresssweat smells worse than regular sweat, you're not going crazy!
The key to fightingstress sweat and body odor is to attack the source. Of course, eliminatingstress is easier said than done. It’s often an unconscious response.
What other ways tipsdo you have for fighting body odor caused by stress sweat?Learn more on our Stress Sweat resource guide.
