Skip to main content

Odd Enough What to do if your belly button oozes, smells, and gets crusty


As if you didn’t have enough bodily fluids to handle, here’s one more: belly button discharge.
Whether you have an innie or an outie, you’ve likely experienced the common phenomenon of belly button crust, says dermatologist Aditi Jha, M.D., head physician at online medical consultation company JustDoc.com.

That’s because your skin cells regenerate regularly, she says, and the old stuff is washed away when you bathe. But because some may get trapped in the folds of your belly button, it can accumulate as dried skin—with a feel and look that’s similar to crusty eye stuff you get overnight.

But if you’re dealing with something that’s more ooze than crunch, it could be a sign that something’s not right, says Dr. Jha. And if that’s the case, it’s not something you should pick at to try to determine what the heck is going on down there.

“It is strongly advised by all doctors to avoid meddling with the belly button, because it has the highest blood drainage in the body,” Dr. Jha says. “That means all abdominal veins converse from that point, so any infection in or around it could spread up far through the blood and become serious.”

Belly button discharge is never normal, she adds. So if you see something, get it checked by a doctor.

Most likely, it’s due to an infection, she says. That could come from abdominal surgery, but also from digging around too roughly in there to “clean it out.” Dr. Jha says that could cause abrasions or tears that let bacteria get into the area and then into your bloodstream.

Usually, the belly button discharge will be a pale white, off-yellow, or light green color, and will kind of look like snot does when you have a cold. It may also give off an unpleasant, sour smell, which is another sign of infection.

Other red flags include an itchy rash around your belly button, swelling, or pain.

In terms of potential causes of those symptoms, you might be dealing with a cyst in the abdominal area, or the effects of a procedure there like hernia surgery. In either case, get it looked at.

Now, you may have heard that belly button discharge can signal diabetes, but that’s really just a myth, says Dr. Jha. This may be because some research suggests there’s a link between high blood sugar and candida yeast infections—a condition that could, theoretically, affect the belly button area. But Dr. Jha says this connection is a stretch in actuality.

An infection is much more likely to be the culprit, she says. And if that’s the case, it will usually be treated with antibiotics. Just make sure you don’t let the ooze go on for too long. A delay in diagnosis can cause things like a bacterial infection or sepsis.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

President of Iran Declares End of ISIS

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran on Tuesday declared the end of Islamic State in an address broadcast live on state TV. A senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani, also declared the end of Islamic State in a message sent to the country’s supreme leader Tuesday which was published on Sepah News, the news site of the Guards. Videos and pictures of Soleimani, who commands the Quds Force, the branch of the Guards responsible for operations outside of Iran’s borders, at frontline positions in battles against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have been posted frequently by Iranian media in recent years. On Friday, Iranian media published pictures of Soleimani Kamal in eastern Syria, a town which Soleimani said Tuesday was the last territory retaken from Islamic State control in the region. The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s most powerful military force which also oversees an economic empire worth billions of dollars, has been fighting in support of S...

EPL: Kelechi Iheanacho might be available for sale in January – Leicester City boss, Puel

Leicester City manager, Claude Puel, has hinted at the possibility of selling Nigeria star Kelechi Iheanacho four weeks before the winter transfer market opens for business. The Foxes have six strikers in the first team consisting of Iheanacho, Vardy, Ahmed Musa, Slimani, Okazaki and Ulloa, and the former Man City starlet has found game time hard to come by after making only two starts in the Premier League from a possible fifteen. Speaking to Leicester Mercury, Puel said: “Kelechi had an injury and for the moment, we have competition. “I am happy with Jamie for example. Kelechi or other players cannot play on the side. “It’s difficult for them, but for me also to manage all these players because we have six strikers so there is no place for all the players.” Iheanacho penned a five-year contract with Leicester City in the summer for a fee in the region of 25 million pounds.

Tech How Alibaba turned an obscure, made-up Chinese holiday into a $17.8 billion shopping extravaganza that's bigger than Black Friday

Alibaba raked in over $8 billion in sales in the first hour of its made-up marketing holiday, "Singles Day." Singles Day has its roots in an obscure Chinese holiday for students who had not married yet. Alibaba CEO Jack Ma capitalized expertly on the holiday, and now, Singles Day dwarfs traditional American shopping holidays like Black Friday, and is much larger than Amazon's "Prime Day." Alibaba turned Singles Day, the Chinese holiday for the single-set, into a huge economic opportunity through a savvy marketing blitz. The company raked in well over $8 billion during the first hour of this year's sale, largely through its online shopping platforms, Taobao.com and Tmall.com as well as a glitzy gala. Students at Nanjing University first celebrated Singles Day in 1993 as an appreciation of, you guessed it — being single. They picked November 11 (11/11) as an ode to the loneliness of the number one. But Single’s Day was never meant to be a somber aff...