Is using your deodorant/antiperspirant cause to worry?

Published on February 9, 2005 By foreverserenity In Health & Medicine

There has been a persistent murmur about deodorant and antiperspirant that one of them or both causes cancer. I’ve been hearing this for sometime now. I’ve ignored it but it keeps coming back and it makes me wonder, is this something I need to worry about?

Earlier today I was reading responses to a blog thread by Greywar or Gideon, forgive me guys, now, let me stop to see whose it was….it was Gideon’s (see link below), fellow JUser, Kobrano responded and one of the things he mentioned in his response was deodorants having aluminum in it.

Then I got this newsletter today from About.com regarding the same thing (I’m linking that article below). The worry is that deodorant and/or antiperspirant causes breast cancer. According to the article this is a myth and they linked to a report by the American Cancer Society which renounces this myth. Although one of the findings was that there seemed to be a link between underarm shaving and antiperspirant use, might cause some early diagnosis. They have to research this further.

My thoughts are, there IS cause to worry. If there is any "found traces" or link to any substance that would lead to a source that would cause cancer, this is worrisome. So now I have to remember (and I hope I do remember to do this) to read the ingredients listed on the next deodorant/antiperspirant I purchase to make sure it doesn't list "Paraben" as an ingredient.

Link

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Comments

Gideon MacLeish

on Feb 09, 2005

If you're so inclined, you could also explore "natural" anti-perspirants. There are some decent commercial products out there, I believe, and not at quite the markup as for organic foods and stuff (check out Tom's of Maine...I think they make pit stick).

Danny Bassette

on Feb 09, 2005

Or you could not use deodorant at all. After all, that's what showers are for, right?

(and on an unrelated issue, your favorite blogger links seem to have been made oddly. If you intended links and not just names you should redo them and make sure to put the url in this time. should you want someone to walk you through it just ask)

foreverserenity

on Feb 09, 2005

Mmm, I'll look into that Gideon, thanks.

Oh no Danny, I really hate not wearing deodorants, the only time I don't is when I've just shaved my underarm.

Ah yes, I know I messed up on those and need to add the urls, I will redo them. Thanks for the offer, I will take you up on it if needed.

KarmaGirl

on Feb 09, 2005

I have an article that is on this same topic:
http://karmagirl.joeuser.com/articleComments.asp?AID=62705

I never thought that it was cancer that was linked to antiperspirant. I thought that it was Alzheimer's linked to aluminum (which almost all non-"natural" antiperspirants have in them).

Ravenblack

on Feb 09, 2005

Aluminum in the deordorant - it could have come off from the cheap cans they use to contain the stuff, can't it?

Paraben is not listed because paraben is just the general name of a group of chemicals - esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid - a preservative.

Link- The links from this site goes to an interesting list of products that contain parabens.

KarmaGirl

on Feb 10, 2005

Aluminum in the deodorant - it could have come off from the cheap cans they use to contain the stuff, can't it?

No, it's the main ingredient in antiperspirant. Here's a link that explains it: http://www.dermadoctor.com/pages/newsletter253.asp

foreverserenity

on Feb 10, 2005

Ladies, thanks for the information. I've followed both links and bookmarked them to read further. So paraben is also used in a lot of facial products. No wonder sometimes people get allergic to stuff. They so only a small percentage is used but after a while, if you use the product a lot, doesn't it cause some harm? You will no doubt be getting a lot of it if it's all you use, right?

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