Bayi, a long-time reader and good friend from Malaysia, recently sent me a story about Laser Sweat Ablation published in the UK?s Daily Mail. Laser Sweat Ablation (invented in Brazil), the most recent medical breakthrough in addressing excessive sweating and resulting body odor, uses a laser to burn away underarm sweat glands resulting in sweat-free armpits.

Of course, there are concerns. In the same article, it is said that some experts claim that people might easily resort to Laser Sweat Ablation when the cause of their excessive sweating is more behavioral than physiological. And I wondered if ?behavioral? included not taking daily baths and changing into clean clothes.

It brought back some very graphic descriptions in James Clavell?s ?Tai Pan? about the difference in hygienic practices between Asians and Europeans. I first read Tai Pan in the 1980s and I can still remember my shock when Dirk Struan made sarcastic comments about how Europeans refused to bath and wash their clothes with the result that men were forever scratching their heads and faces because their long hair and beards were infested with lice. Still they stuck to their habits arguing that taking a bath everyday would kill them and that it was stupid to ruin the cut of their clothes by washing them.

I thought at the time that that part was merely a satire. I did a lot of reading and found, much to my amazement, that Clavell wasn?t exaggerating. Europeans had very bad bathing and laundry habits during the 1800s. Baths were unknown to the poor and uncommon for the rest. Shocking indeed for people in the tropics where, even in the 1800s, getting a bath was as simple as jumping into a lake, river or the sea. I mean, people in the tropics always had a different attitude about nudity and semi-nudity than Europeans, especially the English during the Victorian era.

But that was more than a hundred and fifty years ago. Surely, modern plumbing and information dissemination have changed a lot of attitudes?

One time, I was in Banawe with some friends and the inn where we stayed only had common baths. The room next door was occupied by a European couple. If you?ve been to Banawe, well, it?s cold? colder than Baguio. Yet, we Filipinos bathed everyday. But this European couple wore the same clothes for two days straight and they only washed their faces in the morning and in the evening.

Then, there?s this online American (?) community of mommy bloggers discussing morning and night-time bathroom rituals during winter. I couldn?t resist asking where taking a bath figured in their daily schedules. And they were shocked. Didn?t I know how cold it was where they were? How could I talk about baths? And was I even suggesting that they insist their children take baths everyday too?

Intrigued, I later discussed the issue with a Fil-Am friend who told me that some people still have this notion that frequent bathing during cold weather dries the skin. Besides, if you don?t sweat, you don?t smell. Ergo, bathing everyday is not a necessity.

Still not content to take the word of a single person, I scoured discussion forums about this issue. My Fil-Am friend was right. What?s even more surprising was that this is an attitude found even in Asian countries.

In Yahoo! Answers (India) there was this question: ?In winter if I do not go for bath daily, what would be the impact?? And the best answer chosen by voters was, ?A lot of people cannot bath every day do to extremely dry skin but you will need to really wash well under your arms and other areas?use good deodorant and it will not hurt you!?

In another forum (mylot.com), a Chinese girl who thought bathing everyday harms the skin wanted the feedback of other readers. After getting bombarded with disagreements, she finally admitted that it was laziness on her part that prevents her from bathing every day during winter.

So, in countries where it is cold all year round, do people bath everyday? If I consider my observation of the European couple I met in Banawe, it would seem that not bathing every day (nor changing into clean clothes every day) is no big deal to them.

And there?s the thing about washing clothes. Top coats, trench coats and all those thick winter outer garments aren?t washed. Most are dry cleaned. And dry cleaning costs. If the wearer does not sweat because it?s cold, is it okay not to wash clothes after they are worn and wear them again?

Science says even if you don?t feel your skin getting wet, you are still perspiring. In fact, you only stop perspiring when you?re dead. And perspiration is only part water. It also contains chemicals and minerals that the body expel as waste. All of that stick to clothing.

Now, if you don?t bath every day and you wear unwashed clothes too, when you start smelling, is it really due to an extraordinary condition or bad bathing and laundry practices? Extreme procedures like Laser Sweat Ablation may be for those with extreme problems but for the rest, daily use of soap and water may be a sufficient solution.

The author blogs at http://houseonahill.net, http://pinoycook.net and http://www.sassylawyer.com