Deodorant vs. Antiperspirant
Deodorant vs. antiperspirant: each has its own characteristics and health risks. We all sweat. It’s our body’s way of cooling us down. There are two primary reasons to use deodorants and antiperspirants: moisture and odor. The basic difference between antiperspirants and deodorants is that the former keep you from sweating (moisture) while the latter prevent or mask (odor) when you do sweat. To further understand the difference let us learn a little armpit anatomy.
The Science of Sweat
There are several anatomical locations that produce body odor. The biggest culprit is the underarm (or axilla), this is because armpits have a higher concentration of sweat glands. The odor produced here is called axillary body odor. Humans have two types of sweat glands in their skin (our largest organ). These glands don’t begin to develop and produce body odor until puberty, around age 11 or 12.
The Eccrine Sweat Glands
The eccrine glands act to cool the body when it overheats. These glands excrete only water and salt, and do not produce body odor.
The Apocrine Sweat Glands
The apocrine glands are the culprit behind body odor. According to the Mayo Clinic, it is these apocrine glands—found in areas with hair follicles like armpits, groin, feet and nipples—that produce perspiration. Perspiration is a milky mixture comprised of water, proteins, lipids, fatty acids, cholesterols and iron. Iron which contains salts that bacteria can easily break down.
When armpits are washed with soap that is alkaline (pH 4.5–6), the skin loses its protective acid mantle, raising the skin’s pH balance. Bacteria are adapted to the alkali environment in the body, so they thrive in this elevated pH environment, making the skin more susceptible to bacterial growth. Bacteria feed on the proteins and fatty acids in the sweat from these glands, and on dead skin and hair cells, releasing trans–3–methyl–2–hexenoic acid in their waste, this is the primary cause of body odor.
When you sweat, the walls of the apocrine glands shrink, allowing perspiration to seep onto your hair follicles, eventually pushing its way to the surface of the skin through the pores. Hair is less susceptible to bacterial growth, so underarm hair wicks moisture away from the skin, and helps keep the skin dry in order to reduce bacterial growth and odor.
Deodorants and antiperspirants can be used to combat body odor (as is taking a bath or shower). Although these names are used interchangeably, each has its own classification for how it functions in dealing with body odor. While a deodorant can never be an antiperspirant, an antiperspirant can be a deodorant. That’s because some antiperspirants have antimicrobial ingredients.
In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies and regulates most deodorants as cosmetics: a product intended to “cleanse or beautify”. But it classifies antiperspirants as over–the–counter (OTC) drugs: products intended to “treat or prevent disease”, or “affect the structure or function of the body”.
Deodorant Classification
Deodorants are formulated to eliminate armpit odor but not perspiration––this means that once you apply deodorant to your underarms and exercise, you will sweat. Deodorant works to counteract the smell that’s produced when perspiration migrates to the surface of your skin.
Deodorant targets the bacteria in your underarms. They use antimicrobials to kill the bacteria and slow their growth. Bacteria can live at about 1 million for every 1 cm sq. of skin. Deodorants are often alcohol based, alcohol can have the side effect of drying the skin. Alcohol initially stimulates sweating but also temporarily kills bacteria. Other active ingredients can include parabens, sodium stearate, sodium chloride, and stearyl alcohol.
Deodorants can be formulated with other, more persistent antimicrobials such as triclosan (TCS), a common biocide that slows bacterial growth and is found in plastics, textiles, toothpaste, antibacterial soaps, cosmetics and body washes. According to the FDA, triclosan makes the skin in your underarm too salty or acidic to support bacterial growth. Without bacteria to consume the proteins and fats in your sweat, no odor is produced.
Deodorants may contain perfumes or essential oils intended to mask the odor of perspiration. In the past, deodorants contained toxic chemicals such as zinc oxide, acids, ammonium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and formaldehyde, but these ingredients were irritating to the skin and even carcinogenic.
OTC products containing alum (typically potassium alum or ammonium alum) are described as “rock alum“, or “rock crystal”, or “natural deodorant”. These compounds prevent bacterial action on sweat. Alum is a natural crystalline product widely used both historically and contemporarily as a deodorant, because it inhibits bacterial growth. These have gained popularity as an alternative health product, in spite concerns about risks of contact dermatitis. The word “alum” is a term for aluminum sulfate salts, therefore all alum products contain aluminum, although in a different chemical form from antiperspirants.
Vaginal deodorants, in the form of sprays, suppositories, and wipes, are often used by women to mask vaginal secretions. Vaginal deodorants can also cause dermatitis, as well as change the natural pH inside a woman’s vagina and other internal reproductive organs, wreaking havoc in her entire reproductive system.
Acidifiers and pH neutral products—deodorants that prevent bacterial growth by enhancing the skin’s natural acidity, known as the acid mantle, which normally reduces bacterial growth naturally. Activated charcoal and other products capable of absorbing sweat and odor are acidifiers. Although charcoal is black in its natural form, the activated charcoal used in deodorants is made a very light color for aesthetic reasons.
Less commonly used as deodorants are products such as Milk of Magnesia. Many milk of magnesia products contain amounts of sodium hypochlorite (bleach) in very small amounts that are meant to be safe for ingestion and topical application. Sodium hypochlorite is a powerful bactericide, which might explain its use as a deodorant.
Safety info: bleach is caustic and extremely poisonous, and can be lethal, in higher concentrations.
Other active ingredients in deodorants are metal Chelant compounds such as ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB). PHMB is an effective bactericide and is often used to clean swimming pools and hot tubs. A study published in 2013 in the National Library of Medicine showed that it was effective at wiping out bacteria that caused adenovirus ocular infections.
Researchers at the University of Bristol in Great Britain in a study published in Science Daily in 2013, found that 75 percent of the 495 women subjects studied had a particular gene that doesn’t produce underarm odor.
Antiperspirant Classification
Antiperspirants eliminate body odor using the opposite principle of deodorants: They actually prevent sweat, without sweat, the bacteria in your underarms have nothing to eat. Antiperspirants also have a wider range of applications.
Most antiperspirants share some of the same ingredients in deodorants as a fail–safe for bacteria. The active ingredients in antiperspirants, such as aluminum chloride, aluminum chlorohydrate, and aluminum–zirconium compounds,such as aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex gly and aluminum zirconium trichlorohydrex gly.
The two most common found in commercial antiperspirants are aluminum chlorohydrate and aluminum–zirconium tetrachlorohydrate gly. Aluminum–based complexes prevent you from sweating by reacting with the electrolytes in the sweat and forming a gel “plug” on the sweat glands in your underarms. The “plugs” prevent sweat from escaping through the glands and are removed over time by the natural exfoliation of the skin.
Aluminum salts work in another way to prevent sweat from reaching the surface of the skin. The aluminum salts interact with the keratin fibrils in the sweat and form a physical “plug” that prevents sweat from reaching the skin’s surface.
The metal salts also have a slight astringent effect on the pores; causing them to shrink, further preventing sweat from reaching the surface of the skin. Blocking a large number of sweat glands reduces the amount of sweat produced in the underarms. Less sweat means less bacterial action, which means less odor.
Methenamine (hexamethylenetetramine, also known as hexamine or urotropin) is a powerful antiperspirant, often used for severe sweat–related issues, as well as prevention of sweating in the sockets of prosthetic devices used by amputees. Methenamine in the form of cream or spray, usually available by prescription is effective in the treatment of excessive sweating.
Benefits and Risks of Deodorant Or Antiperspirant Use
The deodorant and antiperspirant industry has evolved into a multibillion–dollar business in the U.S. There are many deodorant brands such as Secret, Arrid, Rexona, Sure, Degree, Right Guard, and Mitchum.
However, there are drawbacks to not perspiring as we are (evolutionarily) meant to. There’s a concern that if the skin absorbs these aluminum compounds, they may be absorbed in to the lymph nodes or they can affect the estrogen receptors of breast cells. If commercially available deodorants and antiperspirants and their ingredients are a concern for you as they are for me, see my recipe for the most effective homemade natural deodorant you will ever try (completely aluminum–free).
Breast Cancer
The claim that breast cancer is linked with deodorant use has been widely circulated in two forms:
- Antiperspirants block toxins from “purging” the body, they build up and cause breast cancer. Sweat glands do not perform this function. Perspiration from the eccrine sweat glands is comprised of 99% water, with some salt and only trace amounts of lactic acid and urea. Perspiration from the apocrine sweat glands include waste proteins, carbohydrates, and fatty acids which would otherwise be processed by the liver. There is the possibility that there is confusion between sweat glands, and the lymph nodes in the armpits, which are part of the immune system and help filter toxins, either way, there appears to be no evidence of such “blocking” of lymph nodes that could result from deodorant use.
- Aluminum in antiperspirants can enter the body through open skin and cause breast cancer. One fact often cited to back this claim is that more breast cancers occur in areas of the breast near the armpits. However, breast tissue is not so evenly spread. The part of the breast near the armpit (called the Tail of Spence) contains much more breast tissue than the other quadrants.
Previous studies by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American Cancer Society (ACS) had refuted this claim, because breast cancer tissue did not appear to contain more aluminum than normal tissue; and only a tiny amount of aluminum appeared to be absorbed (0.0012%).
Other research in support of the idea that there’s no connection between breast cancer and underarm products are the studies published in 2002 and in 2006 in the National Library of Medicine. In a 2003 paper discussing deodorant safety, the U.S FDA concluded that it had not found enough data from studies on aluminum contained in antiperspirants to change the status of these products. A systematic review published in 2016 in the National Library of Medicine concluded that there was need for further research.
Members of the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) of the European Commission (EC) had concluded similarly to the FDA on this subject back in 2015. But, in light of new data in 2020 the SCCS changed the safety advisory of aluminum compounds up to 6.25% in non–spray deodorants and antiperspirants and 10.60% in spray deodorants and antiperspirants.
Two new publications in 2021 have confirmed the toxic effects of aluminum salts present in deodorants and their carcinogenic potential on breast cells. The aluminum chlorohydrate in antiperspirants can act like estrogen on certain breast receptors and has been shown to cause DNA mutation, and the growth of cancer cells.
The studies were carried out by a group of researchers from the Fondation des Grangettes and the Centre d’Onco-Hématologie in collaboration with the University of Oxford and led by the Swiss scientists André-Pascal Sappino and Stefano Mandriota.
The studies showed that mammalian cells, including those in the mammary glands in women’s breasts, “rapidly incorporated” the aluminum salts. Within 24 hours of exposure, genomic instability appeared in these cells as an altercation in the structure and number of chromosomes. This is known to occur during malignant transformation caused by proven carcinogens and therefore “confirms the carcinogenic potential” of aluminum on breast cells.
The studies also point out the concerns that aluminum salts are not just used in antiperspirant deodorants but other cosmetic products such as sunscreen. As well as the concerns regarding the link between breast cancer and petrochemicals like parabens.
Although the U.S. FDA claims triclosan is not harmful to humans, studies published in 2006 in the National Library of Medicine, indicate that this chemical alters hormone regulation and can make bacteria resistant to antibiotics.
Kidney Disease
The FDA has finally acknowledged that small amounts of aluminum can be absorbed from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and through the skin. Leading to a warning for people with kidney disease that the daily use of antiperspirant products containing aluminum may put them at a higher risk. The agency warns patients with kidney dysfunction to consult a physician before using any such products.
Alzheimer’s Disease
A 2014 review of studies examining the effects of aluminum products concluded that there were great health risks posed and the inevitable role played by aluminum in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease.
This review discusses the human brain as a target for aluminum and its accumulation throughout a person’s lifetime. This accumulation inevitably has detrimental effects on brain function and thus represents a potential driver for Alzheimer’s disease.
Allergic Reactions
After using a deodorant containing zirconium, the skin may develop an allergic response. Antiperspirants that contain propylene glycol (alcohol), when applied to underarms can cause irritation and create sensitization to the other ingredients. Deodorant crystals that contain synthetic potassium alum were found to irritate the skin. Frequent use of these deodorants has been associated with high concentrations of the synthetic musk galaxolide in the blood.
Aerosol Burns and Frostbite
If deodorants propelled by aerosol are held close to the skin long enough, they can cause an “aerosol burn”—a form of frostbite. In controlled tests, spray deodorants have been shown to cause temperature drops of over 60 °C in short bursts.
Clothes Staining
Aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex gly, a common antiperspirant, can react with sweat and create yellow stains on clothing. If this is a common problem for you, check my post on bluing to naturally brighten your whites without bleach or harsh chemicals. Some people opt for underarm liners as an antiperspirant alternative that won’t leave stains, but these create massive waste as well as contributing to the tremendous plastic pollution problem.
The History of Deodorants and Antiperspirants
Humans have been faced with the problem of body odor for centuries. The ancient Egyptians preferred to rub perfumed oils or cinnamon on their underarms. In Asia, people rubbed their armpits with rock salt. The ancient Greeks scraped their underarms with a metal tool to exfoliate dead skin cells hoping they contained the body odor.
In 1888 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. inventor Edna Murphey developed and patented the first modern commercial deodorant, Mum. It was a mixture of wax and zinc oxide (an antibacterial) sold in small tins. People applied it to their underarms and feet, women even used it during menstruation. But Mum turned out to not be a big seller because it was messy, hard to apply, discolored clothing and its acidity caused skin irritation.
The small company was bought by Bristol–Myers in 1931, then in the late 1940s, Helen Barnett Diserens developed an applicator based on the ball–point pen, which was newly invented. In 1952, the company began marketing the product under the name Ban Roll–On. The product was withdrawn from the market in the U.S., and then again became available under the brand Ban. In the UK it is sold by the names Mum Solid and Mum Pump Spray. In 1998 Chattem acquired the Ban brand and subsequently sold it to Kao Corporation in 2000.
In 1903, the first commercial antiperspirant was Everdry. The modern formulation was patented by Jules Montenier on January 28, 1941. The patent countered the acidity of aluminum chloride by combining it with a soluble nitrile to address the problem of skin irritation. This formulation was first found in Stopette deodorant spray, which Time Magazine called “the best–selling deodorant of the early 1950s.”Stopette gained prominence but was later eclipsed by other brands as the 1941 patent expired.
Between 1942 and 1957 the market for deodorants increased 600 fold to become a $70 million market. Deodorants were originally marketed to women, but by 1957 the market had expanded to men, and by that date, about 50% of men were using deodorants. Ban Roll–On led the market in sales. In the early 1960s, the first aerosol antiperspirant was Gillette Right Guard, whose brand was sold to Henkel in 2006. Aerosols were popular because they let the user to apply the product without coming in direct contact with the underarm.
By the late 1960s, half of all the antiperspirants sold in the U.S. were aerosols, this number continued to grow to 82% by the early 1970s. In the late 1970s two problems arose which changed the popularity of aerosol products. First, in 1977 the U.S. FDA banned the active ingredient in aerosols, aluminum zirconium, due to health concerns over long term exposure. Second, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limited the use of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) propellants used in aerosols due to awareness that these gases contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer. Aerosols would ultimately be replaced by stick antiperspirants.
Sources:
Deodorant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deodorant
HowStuffWorks
What’s the difference between deodorant and antiperspirant?
Functions of Deodorant and Antiperspirant
https://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/underarm-care/tips/deodorant-antiperspirant1.htm
BY JOSH CLARK
How do deodorants keep you from stinking?
https://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/underarm-care/tips/how-do-deodorants-keep-you-from-stinking.htm
BY JOHN PERRITANO
Healthline Media
Benefits and Risks of Deodorants vs. Antiperspirants
https://www.healthline.com/health/deodorant-vs-antiperspirant
Medically reviewed by Deborah Weatherspoon, Ph.D., R.N., CRNA — Written by Scott Frothingham on October 4, 2019