There's nothing wrong with the way your body smells. But sometimes, body odour can get quite foul. Go from being Stinky Susan to Sweet-smelling Sunita with Femina's guide to underarm troubles!

IT'S not a subject we find pleasant, but we all have body odour (BO). Sure, personal hygiene can make for a good start to nip the problem. But that alone cannot prevent either sweat or body odour.

And while perfumes may mask the smell, that too, is not the answer to BO problems. BO is a result of sweat combining with the bacteria present on your skin. So the only way to tackle the problem is to reach for the nearest anti-perspirant deo!

Deo Day
There's a whole bunch of deo options you can choose from: Roll Ons, sprays, sticks and even deo talcs. But while some of these are simply deodorants, others are anti-perspirant deodorants. The latter variety has a two-pronged approach to tackling BO. They reduce sweating and fight bacteria. Here are some other ways you can tackle BO:

• Wash your clothes regularly. The same bacteria from your skin can also live on sweaty clothes and keep the smell alive.

• Dust with talcum powder or cornstarch after bathing. These keep you drier and prevent bacteria from growing.

• Cut your caffeine intake. Cola, coffee, tea, chocolate, and other foods and drinks with caffeine make certain sweat glands more active.

• What you eat can actually affect how you smell! You'll be less stinky if you eat plenty of fruits and veggies. Drinking a lot of water will keep the eccrine glands (sweat glands that only produce a fluid) active to dilute the scent.

• Use a fragrance family to layer the scents - bath gel, body lotion, talc and deo from brands like Calvin Klein, Burberry, Nina Ricci and Elizabeth Arden.

Busting Sweaty Myths
• Anti-perspirants stop you from sweating: No. They only reduce sweating.

• Anti-perspirants trap toxins in the body. No. Of all the sweat ducts across the human body, only a small percentage of them are in the underarms. Reducing the flow of perspiration in the underarms doesn't affect the body's ability to regulate temperature (which is the purpose of sweating).

• Anti-perspirants cause breast cancer. Contrary to some reports, there is no scientific or medical evidence to suggest that using anti-perspirants causes breast cancer.

• Sweat is foul-smelling. Sweat itself is odourless. It's the combo of bacteria and sweat that triggers BO. Bacteria proliferate easily in the moist environs of the underarm and feed on sweat.

• Sweating is unnatural. It's perfectly natural. It's our body's way of maintaining the right temperature.

• Humans sweat most at the armpits. An average adult sweats close to a litre every day. The armpits release only six ml a day. The underarms and the area down under seem to be sweaty all the time since these spots are not exposed to air and trap bacteria easily.

• Bathing regularly prevents BO. Bathing just maintains your personal hygiene and delays BO. Your body is bound to sweat and combine with bacteria.

• Deos are just another kind of fragrance. Nope. Unlike perfumes, soaps and plain talcum powders, deos fight the bacteria present on your skin.

• Anti-perspirants and deodorants are the same. Deos help control body odour by fighting the odour-causing bacteria as well as by masking the odour caused by bacteria combining with sweat. Anti-perspirant deos, reduce sweating, fight the bacteria - thereby fighting body odour on two fronts.