I wanted to write a little bit about deodorant. The underarm stench remover that we got to learn about in late elementary school. When middle school hits, we were all wearing it and we all knew the kids that didn't. It's like magic. One minute you are an awkward middle school kid that smells... well awkward. The next, boom you're the popular kid that has the magic secret---deodorant. But did anyone ever think to look at the ingredients of what your putting on your body? Or why you all of a sudden stop smelling and sweating? I never did...not until recently, but I'm glad I did.
A little info on deodorant- Most of the main brands contains Aluminum Zirconium... Aluminum! What? So I'm putting shards of metal into my armpits? Well, not exactly. But you might as well.
What Aluminum Zirconium does is blocks toxins (sweat) from escaping the armpit. So if it blocks the release of toxins where do the toxins go? Well since they can't be released, toxins start to accumulate and build in the lymph nodes near the breast. This is not good. We need to release bad things from our body and when certain products start blocking the release of those things... well I can tell you one thing, it's definitely not healthy.
One study shows a link between breast cancer, shaving, and deodorant. Researchers interviewed over 400 breast cancer survivors about when they started shaving and when they started using deodorant. The women who developed breast cancer at a younger age were the women who started shaving and using deodorant before they were 16. The ones who started shaving and using deodorant at an older age developed breast cancer at a later stage of life. Although this study cannot for sure say that the use of deodorant, especially directly after shaving, results in breast cancer, in my opinion it definitely shows a link between them.
There is also a link between deodorant and Alzheimer's disease. Deodorant and Alzheimer's link
Giving up my aluminum deodorant was one of the hardest things to change. Truth be told, most natural deodorants don't work as well as the Aluminum ones. I tried a few different ones but I found I had to reapply them multiple times a day and I'm not a person that sweats a lot. But if you are, I don't recommend using "Hugo-Naturals." This deodorant was cheap at only $6 but didn't work at all. It also smelled very earthy and just not good. It's like it almost made me smell worse.
I decided then to splurge and buy a natural deodorant at Sephora. It had good reviews and I must say I'm impressed. It went on like a normal deodorant and it didn't stop me from sweating, but it absorbed any odor that came from the sweat. It worked wonderful for about 9 hours. After 9 hours or a full work day I noticed it wasn't as effective as before. But, if you reapply it, it will cover you again for 8 or 9 hours. It's called "Lavanila" they have different smells but I prefer the lavender vanilla smelling one. It's also $18, not cheap, but it works and so far it's lasted me 2 months and looks like it could go another 4 or 5 more. Lavanila Laboratories at Sephora
I could go on and on and write more studies about aluminum zirconium deodorant, but instead I'll leave it at this. Aluminum Zirconium is bad news. It's very natural to sweat. Sweating gets rid of nasty toxins and it cools us. If there are natural alternatives that work almost as well, then what's the point? Why risk your health and your life for the sake of a few bucks?
