Why antiperspirant is bad

Most breast cancers grow in the upper outer part of the breast, not far from your armpit. But it may be simply because the tissue in this area is denser. Dense breast tissue is linked to an increased risk for breast cancer.

Dense breast tissue also makes it more difficult for your doctor to see abnormal or cancerous tissues on mammograms. Filtering toxins is done by your kidneys and liver, which remove toxins from your body by helping to produce urine or feces. In general, deodorants and antiperspirants are safe products for most people in good health to use. If you want to discuss with a Penn Medicine provider, request an appointment online or by calling Get information on a variety of health conditions, disease prevention, and our services and programs.

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Date Archives Year We talked to scientists and chemists to get to the bottom of the concerns. Here, we'll break down why aluminum is in deodorant to begin with and address the potential health concerns associated with aluminum. Deodorant is simply made to curb body odor, and antiperspirant is meant to curb sweat or perspiration. They only reduce body odor, by using fragrance or antibacterial compounds.

The aluminum compounds found in antiperspirants, Schueller says, not only reduce wetness by blocking your underarm sweat ducts, but they also minimize body odor by inhibiting the bacteria that feed on your sweat and cause it. To make matters even more confusing, many products are combinations: as in deodorants and antiperspirants. The active ingredient at the top could be listed as aluminum chloralhydrate or aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex gly. The concerns about the risk of breast cancer largely have to do with the proximity of the underarms to the breasts.

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Erin Heger. Antiperspirant is safe to use and has no major health risks. In the early s, it was rumored that the active ingredient in antiperspirant, aluminum, could potentially lead to breast cancer — but that is not true and this link has since been disproven. Aluminum does not enter the body in any significant quantity when using antiperspirant, and it will not lead to any potential health complications, unless you already have kidney disease.

This article was medically reviewed by Jason R. Visit Insider's Health Reference library for more advice. Erin Heger is a freelance journalist located in the Kansas City area. She primarily covers stories related to healthcare policy, maternal mental health, parenting, and personal finance.