Are Antiperspirants a Health Risk?

You know you’ve found your tribe when everyone in it shares the status of their armpits.  Odor (loads or a little to none), sweat (when and how much) and products that work or fail.

Now that’s friendship.

After this completely transparent (like a deodorant that doesn’t leave white stuff on my tops) text chat, I feel empowered.  So much so I will share, unashamed, that I am a sweaty betty.  It takes very little heat and stress for me, ironically and otherwise always cold,  to glisten in a terribly unattractive way.  (Sweaty yoga doesn’t count.  Everyone is drenched there.)  I recently did a presentation in an uncomfortably warm room with sweat trickling down my back, betraying my carefree put-together look of a sundress and easy makeup.  At social events I’m careful to pick loose peasant-y blouses to avoid as best I can the sweaty armpit debacle.  You get the picture (I’m so sorry).  In short, I need antiperspirant.  Sometime lots of it.

Despite my family’s commitment to clean living inside and out,  I do use antiperspirant.  The stuff with aluminum that has been the subject of internet concern.  Now this is a sticky subject.   Do we tame the sweat and odor with a potential harmful but reasonable effective aluminum-containing antiperspirant?  Or do we risk the social stigma of odor and pit stains?

In order to sort out this problem, let’s debunk some rumors:

1.  Aluminum causes Alzheimer’s.  One study has shown increased levels of aluminum in the brains of Alzheimer’s victims.  One study that no research has been able to replicate since.  And the amount of aluminum observed was very, very small, with no reasonable theories as to how the metal got there in the first place.  In other words, don’t panic if you have been using antiperspirants; so far this study stands alone as an outlier.  More work is needed to find out more.
2. Aluminum causes breast cancer.  We don’t need an anatomy lesson to know the armpits (axillae)  proximity to breast tissue.  So it does seem to follow that since most breast cancers occur in the upper, outer portions of the breast (nearest the axillae), and the lymph nodes that serve the breast lie in the armpit area, that perhaps what we put here could cause breast cancer.  But no.  To quote the American Cancer Society website:

“There are no strong epidemiologic studies in the medical literature that link breast cancer risk and antiperspirant use, and very little scientific evidence to support this claim.”

And let’s also correct some misinformation about the goings-on in our armpits:

1.  Antiperspirants are dangerous because the chemicals they contain are absorbed by our bodies.  For one, research is nowhere close to establishing that antiperspirants are harmful to our health.  And also, antiperspirants act locally, plugging the sweat ducts in the armpits to reduce sweating.  In other words, these products do not enter our lymph node or bloodstream to any significant, if any, amount.  For all intents and purposes, they stay were we put them.  Otherwise, they wouldn’t be effective.
2. We detoxify by sweating, so we shouldn’t “block” our sweat ducts with antiperspirants.  Sweat is mostly water and salt, not toxins.  Even if our bodies “cleansed” by sweating, sweat glands exist in varying amounts all over our bodies so blocking those in the armpit area would be virtually insignificant.  But we eliminate toxins in another way:  by peeing and pooping.  So if you are concerned about freeing your body of the bad stuff, give your kidneys and intestinal tract some love by drinking plenty of water and eating right.
3. Armpit odor and sweating are two separate issues.  Here I’m going to paraphrase comments from an earlier post:  when we sweat, a distinctive odor comes with it.  That odor is caused when the (normal) bacteria on our skin have a feeding frenzy, breaking down the protein and fat in perspiration.  (I won’t tell you what my kids call this process.  Oh, ok,  you’re twisting my arm…they call this “bacteria farts.”  Ah, the joys of the pubertal.  But that’s another post entirely…)  This is like the Field of Dreams:  if you sweat, the odor will come.

All this said, I am not trying to push the use of antiperspirants on anyone; I just want to reassure you that the danger-rumors are simply that:  scare tactics.  And to give you a better understanding of how our amazing bodies work.  If you take away just one thing from this post, know that antiperspirants are considered safe.  Still, if you don’t feel comfortable using these products, don’t.  If their use is out of alignment with your clean-living lifestyle, by all means don’t use them.  There are many, many naturally-based products on the market for odor control.  Give them a try and see what works for you.

And it wouldn’t be a health-related post if I didn’t include this:

If you have any concerns about excessive body odor or perspiration, rash in the armpit area, etc., seek medical advice.