icon-nav-help
Need Help

Submit your question to our team of health care professionals.

icon-nav-current-questions
Current Question

See what's on the mind of the community right now.

icon-conf-speakers-at-a-glance
Meet the Team

Learn more about our world-renowned team.

icon-nav-archives
CWD Answers Archives

Review the entire archive according to the date it was posted.

CWD_Answers_Icon
February 18, 2003

Other

advertisement
Question from Chicago, Illinois, USA:

I have had type 1 diabetes for a little over a year, and I have a unusual body odor that occurs when I sweat. It is all over my body. It smells like a boiled egg and is worse the harder I sweat. Do have any suggestions as to what this could possibly be?

Answer:

From: DTeam Staff

Body odor can be caused by excessive sweating or secretions from the skin. The residual sweat and secretions may contain bacteria that make the matter worse. I am not sure that the diabetes is causing this. Rather, I would concentrate on using a good antiperspirant to prevent the sweating and a good soap to kill the bacteria on the skin (like Dial soap). If problems persist, you may want to discuss this with your physician to see if you have evidence of a hormone excess syndrome that might drive the production of excess sweat. Some experimentation will be necessary to see if you can prevent this.

JTL