I believe, it is a not well known phenomenon in the Western world. It appears that a large percentage (80-95%?) of East Asians Chinese, Japanese, Koreans sweat less and produce less body odor under the armpits.
Western consumer brands had to find out the hard way when they tried to introduce deodorants into the Chinese market. Only about 10% of Chinese people use deodorants. This is not because most Chinese don't like it or they are unfamiliar with this product. However, 10% of the Chinese population is still a large market!
Besides the sneezing gene, this would be another gene to remove from the human genome!
"Human beings have two types of sweat glands: Eccrine (which are distributed over the skin of the entire body, and found in densest concentration on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet) and apocrine, which do not help in cooling and are mainly in the armpits and perianal area (i.e, around your privates).
Turns out that East Asians — Chinese, Japanese, Koreans — have fewer of the latter. ... a gene called ABCC11 that is non-functional in 80 to 95 percent of East Asians. ..."
"The characteristic human axillary odor [boldy odor] is formed by bacterial action on odor precursors that originate from apocrine sweat glands. Caucasians and Africans possess a strong axillary odor ,whereas many Asians have only a faint acidic odor. In this study, we provide evidence that the gene ABCC11 (MRP8), which encodes an apical efflux pump, is crucial for the formation of the characteristic axillary odor and that a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) 538G --> A, which is prominent among Asian people, leads to a nearly complete loss of the typical odor components in axillary sweat. ..."
No comments:
Post a Comment