There’s a whole market for aluminium-free deodorants. They’re marketed as natural or vaguely better for you. But hold up a sec: why are you avoiding aluminium, which (unlike those natural deodorants) can actually stop you from sweating? It’s fine.
Photo: Melanie Allan
Aluminium — yes, the same metal that “tinfoil” and soft drink cans are made of — turns up in trace amounts in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and in breast tumours. However, people who work with aluminium don’t develop dementia or Alzheimer’s at higher rates than anyone else and aluminium is found in healthy breast tissue at the same rates it’s found in tumours.
There is zero evidence that avoiding aluminium will reduce your risk of either condition.
So where did we get the idea that aluminium in your deodorant is a problem? The Cancer Council takes time to address the myths set out in a chain email from 1999 or earlier (debunked by Snopes here).
That email said that antiperspirants work by “inhibiting the body from purging toxins from below the armpits”. According to this story, the unspecified “toxins” build up in the lymph nodes of the armpits, and cause breast cancer in the areas of the breast nearest the armpits.
This story is all wrong: that’s not how sweat glands work. That’s not how lymph nodes work. That’s not how cancer works. Most breast tumours are in the “upper outer quadrant” of the breast, but only because that area has the most breast tissue. Research on an aluminium-cancer link has so far failed to turn up any convincing evidence.
What does aluminium actually do?
Aluminium-containing ingredients are in deodorants — technically, only in the ones labelled antiperspirants — because they can plug up sweat glands. They literally stop you from sweating.
Once sweat is on your skin, bacteria eat the sweat and excrete stinky chemicals. So the other active components of deodorants (natural or otherwise) either kill the bacteria, or provide a fragrance to cover up the stink. Some non-aluminium deodorants will include an ingredient like cornstarch that helps to absorb moisture so that even though you’re still sweating, you won’t feel as wet.
If you prefer non-aluminium deodorants, great! But it seems people often suffer through natural deodorants because they’re afraid of the aluminium ones, not because they enjoy the alternatives.
So if you’re avoiding the stuff that actually works because you’re afraid it will harm you somehow, relax. Few things are proven in this world — researchers are still working on that aluminium/cancer link just in case — but it’s not the kind of thing that should keep you up at night.
Comments
6 responses to “You Don’t Need To Worry About Aluminium In Your Deodorant”
We avoid aluminium saucepans, ant-acids and anti-perspirants and deodorants.
Will check back in a few decades to let you know how it’s gone for us.
I guess you also avoid; fish, poultry, beef, pork, most vegetables as well.
So lets follow your logic
Ive never eaten Avacado in my life.
Im still alive so following that logic Avacado is bad for you because im still alive?
I had a friend who didn’t want aluminium in her deodorant so was using a ‘natural’ bauxite crystal deodorant 🙂
Just like how I don’t have sugar, I only have dehydrated cane juice.
Antiperspirant with aluminium makes me sweat more so I stopped using off the shelf types. And I mean A LOT more, like sitting at a desk and have a trickle run down my arm.
Even tried the super-strength, but it was only good for a year or so.