We wear deodorants to make us smell better but new research suggests that in fact wearing regular deodorant could make body odor worse rather than better.

New research from Belgium claims that using deodorants actually increases the amount of odorous bacteria under the arm pits.

The research, published in the medical journal the Archives of Dermatological Research,, found that on test subjects who did not use deodorant the diversity of types of bacteria under the armpits increased but the actual amount of bacteria decreased, compared to when wearing deodorant.

The type of arm pit bacteria that causes the most pungent odor is called Actinobacteria, which along with all the other arm pit bacteria was overall less without deodorant than with it.