I think I messed up my microbiome. What can I do?
Hi Dr Callewaert, I never used to smell, but used antiperspirant every day regardless because I thought that's just what you're supposed to do. About a year or so ago, I stopped using antiperspirant because I became alert to how bad it may be for you. I tried a few natural deodorants for a while - none of them worked well. For the first time in my life, I became very self conscious of how I smelled, because I was not smelling good at all. After a lot of natural deodorant research and experimentation, I finally ended up settling on just using men's Old Spice deodorant because it was cheap, widely available, and it worked. For a while. I've been using it for over half a year now. In the beginning I was really happy I thought I had found a solution. I felt good about finding a non-antiperspirant that was pretty effective. However, the past month or so, I've become increasingly concerned that I'm smelling worse and worse. The deodorant no longer seems to be working very well. I've thought about switching back to antiperspirants, but I feel like this isn't a good long term solution either :\ You mentioned in one of your posts: "If you do not have smelly armpits: keep it like that and don’t overuse deodorants. Because, if you’re using a lot of deodorants, more different bacteria will occur, and if one of those bacteria is an odor-causing bacterium, and he can suddenly take over, smelly armpits will be the results." So I think I've already over-used at this point and some odor-causing bacterium has indeed taken over! Do you have any advice for what I can do now?? Should I just switch back to antiperspirants?? I'm tired of being self-conscious of my smell :'(
1 Answers
Hi Emmeline, thanks for sharing your story. Appreciate it. Many people here know your story. And I do too. I guess indeed your underarm microbiome is "messed up". What you can do is not using any underarm cosmetic for a while. It will be very hard/smelly in the beginning, but at least you are giving your underarm the opportunity to establish a microbiome again, which is less diverse. Getting the switch back to the "good" bacteria is difficult and usually does not go on its own. We are working on such solution. If you are interested in taking part, contact me at info@drarmpit.com. Best, Chris
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