Antiperspirant and Breast Cancer
Because I live in the tropics, antiperspirant/deodorants are very commonly used here. In fact, I have been using antiperspirants since I was 12. I swear!
In my country (the Philippines), I hate to admit but people are generally snooty of body odor, especially of underarm odor. Hence, you wouldn’t like to be caught dead in public without wearing your antiperspirant or not having taken a bath.
After taking a shower a night, I sometimes forget that I am not going anywhere but in bed and automatically rub my underarm with deodorant stick. That’s how automatic wearing antiperspirant is to me.
Antiperspirants contain aluminium compounds such as aluminum chloride, aluminum chlorohydrate or aluminum zirconium which form a temporary sweat duct plug thus preventing the sweating.
But these compounds have apparently been linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease and breast cancer.
However, until now it isn’t clear if that is really true because not enough scientific evidence exists to pin down antiperspirants (or aluminum compounds) as culprits.
Read the full story here.
But what strikes me most are what Timothy Moynihan, education chair and consultant for the division of medical oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said:
The idea that toxics would enter the body through the underarm, migrate to the lymph nodes and then travel to the breast may have more to do with geography than biology.
Why you would think that antiperspirant would somehow go upstream and get into your lymph nodes and then somehow get into the breast is unclear. It doesn’t make sense other than the fact that it’s in the neighborhood.
Ultimately, lifestyle changes like exercising are more important than whether or not your underarms are sweaty while you are walking around or working out.
Everyone worries about underarm antiperspirants, but nobody quits smoking.”
What do you think?
Tags: aluminum-compounds, Alzheimers-disease, antiperspirant, breast-cancer, deodorantRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Breast cancer, ~ General Comments ~
1 opinion for Antiperspirant and Breast Cancer
Trisha
Aug 11, 2007 at 2:13 am
I don’t think it is anything to worry about. It doesn’t seem to have any sort of scientific basis and seems to be more a rumor based on fear. At the very least until there is actual evidence of a connection it seems silly to avoid using antiperspirants.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: