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ArticlesTopic 03
Sweating through your shirt, smelling after a shower, and the science of staying fresh.
Odor & SweatEvidence check
Sofpironium (Sofdra) is a prescription gel for heavy underarm sweating, applied once a day at bedtime. In two 6-week trials of about 700 people, 49% and 64% of users improved by at least 2 points on a sweating scale, against 29% and 48% on a placebo gel. Dry mouth affected 14% and blurred vision 9%. Here is how it compares, who should avoid it, and what to ask.
Odor & SweatEvidence check
Heavy sweating is a common side effect of antidepressants. A review of 76 trials with 28,544 people found most SSRIs and SNRIs roughly tripled the risk compared with placebo, while bupropion, fluvoxamine and vortioxetine showed no clear increase. The sweating often hits the face, scalp and neck in bursts and can last as long as the medicine does. Here is what helps and what to ask.
Odor & SweatGuide
Botulinum toxin units cannot be converted between products. Ask which medicine and treatment area the clinic’s number describes.
Odor & SweatEvidence check
Athlete's foot often clears with a pharmacy cream and then returns. One reason is that the fungus survives in socks, shoes and towels. A 2025 review of hygiene studies found that a 60°C (140°F) wash with a 45-minute main cycle cleared the main athlete's foot fungus from fabric, while a short 30°C wash did not. Here is what helps break the cycle.
Odor & SweatEvidence check
The body gives off hundreds of chemicals that reflect how it's working, so illness can change how you smell. In a lab study, people's body odor became less pleasant within hours of their immune system being switched on. Researchers have even found skin chemicals linked to Parkinson's disease. Here is what the studies show, which smell changes need a doctor, and which need emergency care.
Odor & SweatEvidence check
Stress makes your underarms sweat more and smell more. In a famous experiment, sweat collected during people's first skydive lit up a fear center in strangers' brains, yet those strangers couldn't tell it apart from exercise sweat by smell. Here is what the research shows, and what helps on a nerve-racking day.
Odor & SweatEvidence check
The quick armpit sniff feels like proof, but your nose is a poor judge of your own scent. After two weeks living with a smell, people's sensitivity to it dropped and stayed low for up to two weeks more. In an Austrian test, people couldn't pick out their own sweat. Here is what the studies show, a better way to check, and when the worry itself needs help.
Odor & SweatMyth buster
Carbon monoxide is odorless. Leave immediately if its alarm sounds.
Odor & SweatComparison
A drenching sweat after 50 is usually a hot flash. But sweating a lot for no reason is also on the federal list of heart attack signs, and women are more likely than men to have a heart attack without chest pain. Here is how the two compare, and when to call 911.
Odor & SweatExplainer
Checking your underarms before a meeting is ordinary. Showering many times a day, avoiding people and buying treatment after treatment for a smell others don't notice can be olfactory reference syndrome, now its own diagnosis. In one study of 20 patients, 95% did repetitive checking or washing, and medical or dental treatment for the smell didn't help anyone who got it. Here is what the research shows and where help lies.
Odor & SweatEvidence check
Women are often said to have keener noses, and the research mostly agrees, by a small margin. A review of smell tests in thousands of people found women outperformed men on every measure, though the differences were small. A brain study counted 43% more cells in women's smell centers. Women also picked out their own body odor far more often than men. Here is what that means for body odor worry.
Odor & SweatEvidence check
If you've noticed men in your spin class drenched while you're merely damp, there's research behind it. In lab studies, women and men sweated about the same during lighter exercise, but at harder efforts men's sweat glands put out more. Training raised sweating in both sexes, more so in men. Sweating more doesn't mean you smell more, though. Here is what the studies show.
