Does antibacterial soap help with body odor?

This is one of those tic tok/social media related questions that often comes my way.

Short answer is yes!

First let’s talk a little about excessive body odor, scientifically called bromhidrosis. Body scent is derived from our apocrine glands.  These glands are primarily located in our folds:  under arms or axillae, inner thighs, buttocks and under our breasts. 

Apocrine secretions can vary from little to no scent.  Scent can be affected by things we eat- garlic, fish, onions and ramps are a few of the worst. Hormonal changes can also affect the composition of our apocrine secretions making them more odiferous.  

In contrast, sweat giving wetness is produced by our eccrine glands.  These glands are located both in areas where we have apocrine glands, but also in other areas such as the forehead.  Wetness allows the apocrine secretions to vaporize, so that is why many people associate odor with sweat, but they are actually two different things.

Topical agents that treat odor are generally called Deodorants.  Deodorants often do three things:  Absorb moisture, mask scent and kill bacteria.  Many contain absorbing ingredients such as tapioca, corn starch, aluminum free baking soda, clay and charcoal.  Scent control is done by a wide variety of perfumes and essential oils.  

However, it is the bacteria killing portion that has the most clout.  Most apocrine secretions do not have smell unless they are in contact with bacteria that break the secretions down and cause scent.  So, it is apocrine secretions PLUS bacteria that are required to produce odor.  Of note, a the leave on deodorant “lume” uses mandelic acid which has some natural antibacterial effects as its main active ingredient.  

So yes, an antibacterial soap of any kind can be extremely helpful to reduce scent in odiferous areas.  Unfortunately, many years ago many antibacterial agents for soaps were removed from the market for complex reasons.  The antibacterial ingredient that can safely be used for washing is  chlorhexidine found in the OTC product Hibiclens.  Cerave acne foaming cream cleanser is one that I used to recommend as well, but the recent concerns of benzene in benzoyl peroxide washes keeps me from recommending that one more recently.   To learn more about the recent concern with benzoyl peroxide washes, see our article below.