Why is armpit sweat much more pungent than sweat from other areas of the body, such as back sweat?

Question

Why is armpit sweat much more pungent than sweat from other areas of the body, such as back sweat?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Body odor actually comes from bacteria, but the reason why odor is connect with sweat, is because the bacteria only produce stinky smells, when they eat organic compounds produced by certain sweat glands.

Here’s the catch: the stinky sweat glands — apocrine glands — only exist in certain areas of the body. The armpits and the genitals are the two most-important areas where apocrine glands exist, so those are the main places where bacteria turn the sweat into stink.

Back sweat isn’t produced by apocrine glands, so it doesn’t have the organic compounds that bacteria turn into stinks.