Makes you jealous! It turns out that South Korean and Japanese people rarely have underarm odor, this is the reason

Jakarta –

The issue of underarm odor has become a topic of discussion recently. For some people, it may be easy to exclude body failure, including underarms during the hot or dry season.

However, for people in East Asia, including South Korea and Japan, it turns out that underarm odor is not a bad problem, especially in the summer. How come?

According to several studies, this can happen because there is a gene mutation. About 80 to 95 percent of East Asians have a problem with the ABCC11 gene associated with underarm odor. This means that their bodies do not emit the same bitter smell that other inhabitants emit when exposed to heat and sweat.

“The smell will be much less and more common,” said Dr. Madalyn Nguyen, a dermatologist who lives in Oregon, quoted by NBC News.

“So we can last a little longer without having to cover up our body odor,” he continued.

Dr. Nguyen explains that body odor is primarily related to the apocrine sweat glands found in the armpit and groin areas. For those who do not have a mutation in the ABCC11 gene, the protein in the sweat glands helps transport fatty compounds, or lipids, from the cells into the sweat.

Bacteria on the skin break down these lipids into oilier, thicker sweat to produce body odor. But for those with the mutation, the protein doesn’t work that way.

“That transporter doesn’t work. And they don’t have the same lipids that go into earwax and sweat,” Dr. Nguyen explains about East Asians.

He also said that a malfunctioning ABCC11 gene is also associated with drier, less sticky earwax. “So, less of that means less body odor, and also means dry earwax. “

Although most East Asians have the mutation, it is only present in 3 percent of European and African populations, according to a 2010 study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. Among East Asians, Koreans have the highest mutation rate, but Chinese, Vietnamese and others also tend to suffer from gene malfunction.

So far, there is no definitive explanation why this mutation is so common among East Asians. However, a 2010 study raised the possibility that, with historically more prominent traditions of cleanliness and personal hygiene, people with less body odor may be preferred as mates, resulting in a larger population with dysfunctional genes. .

“We evolved to exhibit more specific traits depending on our environment,” said Dr. Nguyen.

(suck/kna)