Contributed by Cindi Pearce, Catalogs.com Top 10 Guru

Body odor — or BO — smells because there are bacteria living on the skin, which is broken done into acids when you sweat.

The bacteria break down proteins into various acids, and this is what causes the odor, not the bacteria itself.

People don’t generally have body odor until they go through puberty. It’s the price you pay for growing up. What you put into your body is evident by the way you smell. Here are the top ten causes of body odor:

10. Clothing

Sometimes your clothing is the culprit. If you are wearing tight clothing your body can’t breathe and perspiration gets trapped, which creates a great breeding ground for bacteria. When bacteria get trapped this can cause odors. Natural fibers allow your body to breathe, but synthetics don’t.

9. Anxiety

Did you know that anxiety can make you smell? When you are anxious, you sweat more than normal. However, it isn’t the volume of sweat that makes you smell but rather some sort of body toxicity that anxious people emit. In fact, research shows that those who are anxious have higher levels of body toxins, which is the result of exposure to environmental chemicals or certain foods that you eat when you are anxious. When anxious, people produce more adrenalin and this is why an anxious person may have a metallic taste on his tongue and produce a metallic odor.

8. Disease

If you are suffering from diabetes or fungal infections, liver disease or kidney disease, you are more likely to have body odor.

7. Your system

If your system is screwed up, and you become deficient in zinc or magnesium or constipated this can cause you to smell. Sometimes people who eat copious amounts of meat or those who are vegetarians have a unique body odor which isn’t pleasant. Some people can’t efficiently metabolize foods that have big amounts of choline in them, such as fish, legumes, eggs and liver.

6. Excess sweating

Some people sweat way too much. This condition is called hyperhidrosis. They are likely to have body odor more than someone who doesn’t sweat as much. When a person suffers from this condition, the salt in his sweat is so high that it can’t be broken down by the bacteria. Sweat glands can be removed in extreme cases to prevent this from happening.

5. Medication

Medication can cause body odor because some medicines cause excessive sweating (such as anti-psychotic meds, thyroid medication, acetaminophen, antibiotics and aspirin.) When you sweat copiously this allows unpleasant bacteria to grow in your sweat. Some medications cause dehydration, which causes dry mouth. When your mouth is dry, more sulphur-producing bacterium is produced in your mouth. This causes bad breath.

4. Smoking

Tobacco can make your breath stink because it comes up through your lungs, but it also comes out through your skin. When tobacco intermingles with your body chemistry is secretes a unique odor that isn’t pleasant.

3. Food

If you eat a lot of spicy foods, including curry and onions, or drink a lot of coffee or alcohol this can result in body odor as can oils and rancid fats that are found in baked and fried foods.

2. Not bathing

Not bathing regularly is a primary source of body odor. There are people who do not bathe every day or even every other day or every third day for whatever reason. Some of these people may not sweat or emit any foul odor at all so you can’t tell that they aren’t frequent bathers. It all depends on your body chemistry. However, there are others who reek to high heaven. There is nothing quite as icky smelling, except maybe garlic sweat, than pure, dirty, I-haven’t-had-a-bath-in-weeks rancid sweat. Some people don’t use antiperspirants, deodorant and body powders, which should really be mandatory, for the sake of others.

1. Garlic

Garlic is the big offender. Yeah, yeah, it tastes good, but it doesn’t smell so good on someone’s breath or when it’s emanating from a person’s pores. In fact, it’s enough to clear out a room in a heartbeat.