Aina didn’t care if I made was right in the head or not, all she knew is she was going to tell her off and she will do that sternly. The warning she’d give her must be understood and taken to. But how will she go about this? That, she doe not know.
I was dazzled, shocked…I sat there frozen
It the weekend! Perfect time to relax by Netflix-ing and chilling!
I was in the bathroom having a shower, enjoying the soothing cold water, cascading on my well-rounded firm breast down to my toes, relieving me of the day’s stress that had tensed my muscles when I heard two simultaneous knocks on the front door. I have always hated the fact that my bathroom was just a few steps away from the front door, that default in this building prevents me from pretending I did not hear whenever people come knocking. The closeness gives me away, they easily hear the splash of water, and my soft voice singing along and syncing with the songs from my MP3.
When body odor is mentioned, what comes to mind is an offensive smell.
But in the real sense, body odor is not always bad.
It is a term that describes natural smells that emanate from humans.
However, changes in body odor may develop when influenced by puberty, genetic makeup, diet, poor hygiene, and some other factors.
Most people wonder if body odor is a normal occurrence. Yes, it is normal, given that everyone is bound to have body odor whether good or bad, especially an adolescent who has reached the puberty stage.
Having a bad or unwanted body odor is a common occurrence and can be a result of various factors.
This article is set to help you discover the causes of body odor, types, and, preventative or control measures to get rid of body odor.
PARTS OF THE BODY THAT PRODUCES ODOR
Body odor emanates from certain parts of the body. Those parts include;
CAUSES OF BODY ODOR
As we grow older i.e during puberty, menopause, etc. we tend to sweat more often than usual due to the hormones behind sweat secretion or perspiration. Your sweat might produce a good odor or have no smell at all.
Sweat is odorless and only starts to smell bad when it comes in contact with bacteria in your body.
Below are some of the causes of body odor;
1. Hormonal changes
Constant changes in hormones can cause your body odor to smell. And these changes could be due to pregnancy, night sweats, your menstrual cycle, and hormonal fluctuations during menopause.
2. Poor hygiene
Poor hygiene is another factor that begets changes in body odor.
Practices like keeping excessive armpit hair, putting on dirty clothes, skipping baths, skipping teeth brushing, and wearing moist or damp undies give room for bacteria to feed on perspiration.
This in turn develops into a pungent body odor, mostly a smell like rotten eggs.
3. Infections and diseases
Bad body odor happens to be a characteristic symptom of some infections and diseases.
The virgina for example, produces a pungent smell when affected by bacterial infections such as yeast infections and vaginosis.
Also, infections such as the Urinary tract infections will cause the urine to release an unpleasant smell.
Skin infections like erythrasma, candidiasis, intertrigo, and other bacterial infections may have negative effects on normal body odor.
Also, diseases or medical conditions like diabetes, kidney or liver disease, cancer, gouty arthritis, and tuberculosis which cause foul-smelling breath, and some others can bring about changes in one’s normal body odor.
4. Drugs
Certain drugs used for the control of some particular medical conditions or infection can influence changes in body odor, causing excessive sweating.
So also, drugs like anti-depressants, codeine, tramadol, and other drugs that trigger hot flashes are known to induce unpleasant body odor.
5. Diet
The food we consume can influence a change in our body odor whether good or bad.
Some foods are known for their smell. People who love onions, for instance, will experience a strong smell on their breath or urine.
Consumption of garlic, locust beans, curry, and cummin in foods can also result in foul-smelling breath.
Some of the other foods that causes foul-smelling breath;
6. Hot temperature
Another causal factor of bad odor is hot temperature. People live in some parts of Nigeria, for instance, the northern part experiences heat causing them to sweat excessively which might result in a bad body odor.
Other common factors that trigger unpleasant body odor includes;
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Body odor is nothing out of the ordinary. It can be treated by oneself at home.
Change in body odor can be easily curbed by practicing good personal hygiene especially if you are someone who falls under the category of poor hygienic habits. The use of do-it-yourself treatments (DIY) also helps with unpleasant body odor.
1. Good personal hygiene
Washing the body thoroughly with the use of antibacterial soap to keep the skin clean and fresh daily.
While doing this, focus more on the armpits, bellybutton, behind your ears, feet, and groin.
You should also avoid keeping excessive armpit hair. Taking a shower more often also reduces the possibility of unpleasant body odor.
Do not wear clothes more than once, wash clothes regularly, and wear only clean and dry ones. It is advisable to wear clothing i.e bra, panties, and clothes made of cotton as this material allows the body to take in air.
2. Use of deodorants and antiperspirant
Use deodorants and antiperspirants only on clean and dry skin. The active ingredient in most antiperspirants is aluminum.
Use antiperspirant after showering or bathing and before bed.
It is advisable to use strong fragrances i.e perfumes with high longevity.
Take note that, covering up your body odor with deodorants while your skin remains uncared for will only complicate your condition.
3. Oral hygiene
This is also an important part of personal hygiene.
Brushing your teeth twice a day, scraping your tongue, and changing your toothbrush every 3-4 months will reduce the possibility of foul-smelling breath.
4. Good diets
Reduce or stop consuming smelly foods, alcohol, caffeine, red meat, and other foods that induce bad body odor.
5. DIY (Do It Yourself) treatments
Some Do-it-yourself treatments like lemon, baking soda, and apple cider vinegar work wonders on underarm odor.
Another easy way to get rid of body odor is to wipe the armpits with a towel already soaked in warm water, this will ensure the thorough cleansing of the pores on the armpits.
As a young person experiencing puberty, a change in your body odor is normal just practice good personal hygiene.
6. Talk to an expert
The overall important step to getting rid of body odor is to speak out to either an expert in the area or a close pal you know can be confined in, covering up body odor to yourself can make this condition complicated.
It is advisable for anyone experiencing overly excessive sweating, such as sweating while writing, sleeping, and frequently sweat-soaked clothing to see a doctor.
OR
If the odor persists and becomes severe and unbearable then you should see a doctor as it may be due to a disease or an infection in the body.
Fruity body odor is a sign of diabetes, you should see a doctor immediately.
CONCLUSION
As we have said in this article, Body odor is present in all humans. But you should pay attention when you start to notice changes in your body odor, or when you sweat more than usual.
Hope this was helpful to you. Share your thoughts in the comments or join our Whatsapp channel. Follow our Twitter and Instagram page to keep track of more helpful posts.
Do you know “bread addiction” is real?
Of course as bread lovers we ate in self denial as the phrase sounds funny and almost impossible.
“Yes, we know we like bread, we take bread every time, we can’t do without taking bread in a week, we can’t resist the sight of freshly baked bread neither can we shut out the enthralling aroma but that can not be termed as an addiction, it is not an addiction! WE SIMPLY CAN NOT STOP EATING BREAD, PERIOD!” says every bread lover, each time AprokoDoctor’s videos or any other videos scolding bread lovers pops up.
This content is meant to fully support to bread lovers, explicitly outlining the GOAT (greatest of all time) quanlities of bread in the world of snacks while also outlining the advantages and disadvantages giving us a choice whether to stick to making bread our ride or die, reduce its intake or put a stop to eating it.
Follow till the end to know which category you will eventually fall in to;
GOAT (GREATEST OF ALL TIME) QUALITIES OF BREAD
On one of the numerous quests of how human beings can have a great and lovely day, keen observation and critical analysis have revealed that there are two top secrets to human beings having a great day, daily. These two ways are explicitly explained below;
Getting cooked or dragged is a prevalent catchphrase used to describe the instance where someone is getting mocked or insulted.
Sounds interesting, right? There is more tea.
Whenever you see a tweet with few or no likes and more quotes and comment section responses then the person is getting cooked. The comment section of such tweet is usually filled with memes and slangs such as “cook that thing” “I’m sat” “na here e dey happen” etc.
Getting cooked or dragged on Twitter is no new thing, it is in fact a common phenomenon nowadays. The process simply involves a crowd of social media i.e. Twitter users gathering to counter the opinion (dropped in the form of a tweet) of another user but in brutal ways that are high-handed use of insulting words or counter phrases. While many are used to being dragged, some are not. Dragging can be a source of emotional hullabaloo for someone being dragged for the first time.
These dragging scenarios do not just occur, they happen when you least expect as Twitter is too slippery a platform when some topics, especially the sensitive ones are up for discussion.
Or ceremonially put, the app might not be in your favor on a day you tweet your most random thoughts, thinking you’re tweeting without a care for traction then suddenly, your tweets crosses seas and oceans to Lucifer’s abode, and people from several timelines away start quoting your “it shouldn’t be this deep” tweet hence, activating you being dragged.
I. Tweeting your opinion on controversial topics.
If you want to have a memorable day worthy of putting in your records, just tweet an opinion to counter or an insensitive take on sensitive topics that has to do with religion, feminism, patriarchy, or any trending topic at the moment then release the wheel and watch Twitter users take the wheel of dragging you in through a silver coloured mud.
Better still, tweet a random opinion whether well constructed or not and pray it reaches the part of twitter that remoulds and Interpretes tweets. Relax and watch them twist and give your it an astounding interpretation that will blow your mind and get you dragged like an “I better pass my neighbor” generator.
Then sit tight, pour yourself a glass of wine, juice or anything chill, and cheers to a great day.
“Debo, come inside this minute, dust the footmat and shut my door. No one must go out of this house today until I say so” My father bellowed.
Obeying my father’s stern orders that were like prison orders was an easier task than washing plates but not again. Not after seeing my mother packing her things to leave the house while my father looked on without saying a word to stop her earlier today. The both of them had fought yesterday night, he was sure of that.
He could still remember the dream that had him sweating profusely, last night. He had woken up breathing heavily and suddenly scared of the dark, contemplating whether to lay down or attend to nature’s call, go to the toilet two rooms away and empty his painfully full bladder.
A few minutes of contemplation was all it took for him to jump out of his bed and race off towards the toilet without light. With the fear of the dark still lurking around, he paused by the living room’s curtain to make his way to the toilet by feeling the wall, and doors while hitting his legs and big toe on some obstacles on the way. Blaming the dream for instilling such fear was easy, he would have raced towards the toilet and would have been back to his room, the urge to return to bed and resume his dream if he could was greater than the darkness itself. He needed to know why his father was chasing his mother with a pestle in that dream and why people witnessing the act just stood there looking at him chasing her, they made no attempt to stop him or help his mother hideaway.
Why was the toilet still far away?
The toilet was like an adjoining room to his parent’s bedroom. He was almost there and it was time to tiptoe. Quietly, he made his way to the toilet’s door, opening it carefully so as not to wake his mother who does not sleep heavily. It worries him always that his mother finds it difficult to sleep and when she eventually does, she sleeps lightly so lightly that a drop of pin could wake her, leaving her fully awake till day break.
Iya Debo, as his mother was popularly referred to by everyone had once told him the doctor said she has insom.. something, he had made a mental note to check for the meaning of the word from his elementary school’s library but since forgot to do so. He must remember to check it in school on Monday.
His mother was the only reason he prays to God to conquer her sleepless nights and that none of his two siblings or himself should wake up to urinate to avoid disturbing her while opening the toilet door that squeaks so loud even at the slightest touch, the door was a bad one, so bad it was at the risk of falling off, it would have fallen off if not for the barb wire his father had used to hold it in place two months ago.
Baba Debo has refused to call Saka the carpenter to do the repairs.
The last time they tried to raise the topic of repairing the toilet door to his father, he snapped at them and said,
“Manage it that way, I will hold it with a strong wire, and it won’t fall if you kids are careful. And Anyone at whose hand it falls off will have to answer to my judgement”
Baba Debo’s judgement is not a pleasant sight to behold so they had since stopped bringing up the door’s issue since that day.
No one dares bring it up again.
He was through using the toilet and was about to close the door and leave when he held a repressed noise that sounded like muffled cries and someone else’s harsh and scolding voice. Curious, he moved away from the toilet’s door towards the source of the sound, lo and behold it was coming from his parent’s bedroom. He was dazzled, never has he seen them bicker at each other, at the middle of the night at that.
Who is that crying? His mother? His father appears to be the one shouting, why?
He moved closer and saw the door slightly ajar, he moved closer to peep in and listen but could barely grasp anything. All he heard were murmurs.
Minutes passed when he thought to open the door slightly further, he was about to do so, when he saw his father moving towards the door with a very angry expression on his face. He turned on his heels and ran blindly towards his room miraculously missing the obstacles on the way and making no noise. He mouthed a prayer of thanks to God because if his father had caught him, it would have been a different story.
Curiosity about what was happening in his parent’s bedroom and the will to resume the previous dream had him turning back and forth on his bed until a mild headache forced him to eventually fall asleep.
That was all that happened to me yesterday night, just few hours ago… until this drama unfolding as I stayed by the door watching helplessly as my mother struggled to mount her baggage onto the lorry waiting by the crooked steps that led to our parlor. Earlier that morning, I had woken up to my father’s heavy footsteps on the concrete floor. I knew something was wrong. I came out right on time to witness my beloved father hurling my mother’s belongings out of the house onto the veranda with all the might I have never seen him exert before. All my pleas, questions, and cries fell on deaf ears. He shoved me off his way all the time I tried to stop him, my father was like a menacing beast at that moment.
My mother did not make any attempt to move her loads back inside or plead with him. She just stood at a corner loosening and retying her wrapper above her breasts. A few hours later, she dressed up and went out. Now, here she is, packing her loads into the lorry she came back with. As soon as she was done, she shouted at the top of her voice to tell the driver to come to tighten the loads together, then she started moving towards me, she stopped a breath away from me and said,
“Okomii, I will come back for you when the time is right. Make sure to eat well, do your school works well, and don’t miss me. Anything your father tells you about me is all lies. I’m a good mother but I have to leave to survive for you”
I did not respond as everything was just so strange to me. I have a lot of questions. What happened between them last night? Why does she have to leave? Without me? What was her offense? She held me closer and squeezed me tightly in an embrace.
“Debo, shogbo? Answer me”
“Can’t you just beg him, mother?” I spoke out suddenly.
“Beg him? That son of a gun? Oluhun mii o ni je” She vehemently replied while moving her hand over her head in demonstration of the swear.
She hugged me tightly again, pulled my cheeks playfully, and turned towards the lorry.
“Mama, come back! Mother, please come back!” I screamed.
The last I saw of my mother was her waving at me from the window of the lorry.
“Please, don’t leave me” I screamed again, my voice echoing in sync with the disappearing lorry.
“Debo, come inside this minute, dust the footmat and shut my door” my father bellowed.
“No!” I screamed back at him, left the footmat untouched, opened the door more widely and turned to walk away.
It is common knowledge that the situation of the country has gone from bad to worse. The persistent irregularity in Nigeria’s economy most especially the high prices of key essentials has led to the rich lamenting, the comfortable, living averagely, and the poor, poorer. The cloud is so blurry with no sign of even, a ray of hope that things will get any better soon.
Nigeria has always been a place of running helter-skelter to survive, there is little or no access to secured employment in the labor sector of the country for the youths, especially fresh graduates, and implementation of initiatives from governments like providing employment opportunities is also absent. It is left to each individual to find a way out and strive to survive in the face of difficulties.
Of course, there are chances of survival i.e. succeeding in Nigeria but they’re as slim as a thread.
Some of the ways to survive nigeria listed below are no new information, and might appear clichè already. This article’s main purpose is to stand as a resounding reminder that you should not let Nigeria kill your dreams of getting higher or meeting your life goals.
Ways to Survive Nigeria in 2024
1. Have a plan/plans
The country is more or less a field of struggles to survive than of ease and every Nigerian must have plans in place to survive. As in financially liberating plans to secure their future. Different versions of solid plans, that is plan A, B, and C must be intact and ready to be weaponised for survival. Your survival rate in this country depends on how solid your plans are, how zealous you are to survive, and how unrelenting you are in case your plans don’t work out.
Almost everyone’s fixed plan is going to school and bagging a degree or a diploma then utilizing the degree/diploma to search and apply for sustainable jobs afterward which is almost or not attainable at all nowadays. Hence, the need to strategize and incorporate a concrete plan for the betterment of your future.
One of these concrete plans is “A JAPA PLAN” i.e. traveling out of the country. One of the ways to survive Nigeria is to be out of Nigeria. It is better to start and work towards this particular plan as early as possible, prepare fundings for your japa plans and make ready preparation of the money making mediums to rely on when you get to the planned destination.
Other plans like learning a skill set or utilizing a passion/hobby as a source of maximum income earning might turn out to be your financial way and a means to secure your future.
2. Earn in Dollars
The next paramount action after acquiring a skill set or utilizing your passion and hobby should be how to use it on platforms or gain clients that’ll pay in dollars. Dollar’s value to Nigeria naira is a high gap, earning in dollars enables you to get the right pay worth the values you proffer.
The exchange rate of Dollar is of substantial value. When you continually earn a good and sustainable amount in dollars, this will enable you sort out as much bills as possible and along the line, if possible, you save enough to invest in other business forum.
These two options mentioned above are not as easy as they appear, they take month or even years of strategic planning, hardwork and a series of failures but the resilience and the great desire to survive Nigeria is the key to keep going. After all, no one wants to be thrown under the bus by Nigeria and its ups and downs.
Alfreda had the car at full speed, she did not care if she got the speed limit ticket. She will pay but right now, she needs it to be sane, to think clearly, and to scream. And she did scream, over and over again.
Life with David was supposed to be smooth forever, as smooth and problem-free as it has been for the past 3 years. David never gave her a cause to be sad, worried, and question her trust in him until now.
Even when her friends try to convince her to not trust a man. ‘Men are scum, ‘they will always cheat’ they’d say whenever the topic comes up. Several times, they’ve tried to convince her to hire a private detective to tail him which always results in her blatant refusals, wearing a defensive armor for David and not speaking to the two of them, or picking their calls for the whole week. Tina and Shalewa find a way to apologize, though they still try to slot it in at the slightest crack-in-the-wall of gists, and roaming conversations.
Putting a call through and telling both of them is no solution, she will likely get an ‘I told you so’ response.
She is desperate to do something, anything to get out of this mess with David. The options they both have are in no one’s favor. It’s either she dies or he dies. She will not let any of that happen.
“Never!” She said out loud.
She can not survive without David. They need each other to survive.
Should she call Tina? Tina is the most approachable of their trio and she always has a solution to all problems. That’s it! Tina! After searching frantically for her phone, she realized it might be at home or lost in the garage when she was trying to enter the car in a rush.
Alfreda brought the car to a stop in the middle of the road with the tires screeching loudly, she did a U-turn and headed straight home at full speed.
The front door was still ajar as she had left it, she went straight to their bedroom to search for her phone, but it was nowhere to be found. She searched downstairs in the living room, the garage, and everywhere else she could think of but to no avail.
Even David was not in sight.
Where did he go to? That man is supposed to be indoors, hiding his head from the impending death! Why the hell is he out there? She is scared to death here but he is like hell not, she has to find him.
She forgot the main reason she was home, she rushed out toward her car and sped to the nearest telephone stand.
“Omg” She exclaimed as she got to the stand and saw four people waiting for their turns.
She switched off the car engine silently fuming, she came out of the car and joined the queue.
The wait seemed to take forever, she started counting as each person took turns to call….one…two. The second woman seems to be calling the whole of the town, why? She started tapping her foot on the ground…Three. The third man is done…three. Before she could stop herself, Alfreda rushed towards the telephone stand, picked it up, and dialed David’s number. The fourth man’s wail of protest fell on deaf ears, it seemed like a church bell ringing from afar. When she’s done, she’ll apologize.
She heard a click at the end of the phone and then, David’s voice
“Hello”
“David! Where in the name of Jesus are you? Why are you risking your life moving about? I expected you to be at home” Alfreda screamed into the telephone.
“Oh, Al! Are you safe? Thank God. I was so worried about you. You just left without telling me where you’re off to” David responded, his voice low almost inaudible.
Alfreda knew something was off.
“Where the hell are you? David. Where are you!”
“Well, you have to calm down Al, and listen. I’m there again. At the game house. I had no choice but to come”
A long deafening silence.
“Al, I have to go. And Al, are you searching for your phone? Do not stress yourself, I took it. I sold it. I needed the money to bet on another game, that’s what’s holding our life now. Why we are still alive. I have to keep on playing, placing bets on human life to keep us alive”
The call dropped and right there, where everyone was waiting for their turns to call, she cried. She was oblivious to the screams and remarks of those in the queue, she cried and cried until she had cried her whole heart out.
David is in shackles, and it appears he can’t be out of it until… until what?
With a heavy heart, she stood up from the floor of the telephone stand, and walked slowly to her car, silently apologizing to those hurling abuses at her for keeping them waiting in the queue and silently acknowledging those with the pitiful, sympathizing look on their faces.
She drove home and took a shower after which she changed into a comfortable home dress and laid down to ponder on what to do to get them out of this mess. The first step is to call Tina.
She started mentally looking for her phone again when she remembered that it was gone.
Now, she has to go back to the telephone stand. She stood to dress up to go back to the telephone stand when it occurred to her to just go to a nearby store and get another mobile phone. Then suddenly, she remembered that the last time the topic of hiring a private detective came up Tina had squeezed a business card of one private detective downtown in her hands. She had just further squeezed it and thrown it away.
“Away? Away where?” She murmured to herself, scrolling through her memory to gasp where the business card ended up.
Yes! It should be inside her journal.
Now, where is the journal?
She set out to find it, ransacking and rummaging through the already scattered bedroom.
It was nowhere to be found. The car is the next place to search.
She went downstairs, searched and searched, and was about to give up when she saw the peeping form of a piece of paper under the driver’s seat, she bent her back and stretched her hands to reach for it. Her relief of having found the business card was cut short when what she held turned out to be a squeezed envelope.
“Where the hell is this card?” Gritting her teeth, she murmured to her and began searching all over again, thoroughly with a vengeance.
After long hours of searching, she finally saw it lying peacefully in between the pages of her journal. The journal was in the booth of the car.
Getting a new phone wasn’t as much work as she thought, it was as if the phone store was waiting for her visit. She saw one as soon as she reached the end of their street, got the phone in no time, went back home and placed a call to the private detective who picked up on the 3rd ring, in just 5 minutes he fixed an appointment with her the next day. The man sounded like he had not had clients for years and was happy to get one.
Now what is she to do next? Look for David?
No, take a shower and sleep. Alfreda went upstairs and took a cold shower regardless of the cold weather.
Minutes after lying down to sleep, She realized it was a big joke thinking she could sleep. Reading was not an option, thinking was. She could get killed in her sleep. She has to be at alert.
The clock by her bedside read 10.01 pm when Alfreda woke up later that day and David was not yet back.
She needed not to call him to ask, he was not coming home tonight.
That night was the beginning of the end.
David did not come home that night, neither did he the next day nor did he the day after and several days later.
She searched for him and made a missing person report everywhere she could.
He was nowhere to be found until…
Until 60 days later when he showed up at the foot of the bed. Alfreda woke up and saw him staring up at her, she took him all in with her eyelids half opened, His beards were overgrown, his eyes sullen and sucked into their sockets, his shirt hanging on him like a scarecrow…He looked like he had just survived the rain of fire and brimstones or a deadly war ….He looked like…like…
Suddenly, the exact form of what he looked like occurred to her, fear gripped her and made her jump off the bed right on her foot.
David looked like a zombie seeking for whom to devour…like a madman ready to go on a killing rampage.
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