While some extra deodorant swipes can feel like a necessity during these sweltering temps, there’s one group that’s not really sweating it.
Social media users are using the heat wave as a chance to point out many Asians simply don’t smell. According to experts, there’s actually a gene mutation behind it.
Between 80 and 95% of East Asians have a dysfunction of the ABCCII gene, which is linked to smelly pits, a number of studies say. And this means their bodies don’t release the same acidic odor smell the rest of the population does when exposed to hot temperatures and perspiration.
“It’s just going to be a lot less pungent and a lot less prevalent,” Dr. Madalyn Nguyen, an Oregon-based dermatologist, said of those with East Asian ancestry, including herself. “So we can go a little bit longer without needing to mask our body odor.”
With the heat kicking in, body odor has been on many people’s minds. Dermatologist Heather Kornmehl posted an Instagram video earlier this month explaining how “the potential for stinky armpits is genetically determined.” The video went viral with more than 4 million views.
Another TikTok video shared Thursday by dermatologist Dr. Daniel Sugai pokes fun at the empty experience of “asking your East Asian friend what’s their fav deodorant.”
Nguyen explained that body odor is primarily associated with apocrine sweat glands, found in the armpit and groin areas. For those without the mutation in the ABCC11 gene, protein in those sweat glands helps transport fatty compounds, or lipids, from the cell into the sweat. The bacteria on the skin breaks down those lipids in the oilier, thicker sweat to produce body odor. But for those with the mutation, the protein doesn’t function that way.
“That transporter doesn’t work. And we don’t have those same lipids that cross into the earwax and into the sweat,” Nguyen explained of East Asians, adding that a dysfunctional ABCC11 gene is also connected to…
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