Natural deodorant or antiperspirant: which is healthier? – Fields 24 Hours

05/06/2024, 08:29, Photo: GETTY IMAGES via BBC.

For most people, the daily personal hygiene routine includes the use of deodorants or antiperspirants, to avoid unpleasant odors caused by perspiration. (Read more below)

If you use these products, it is quite possible that you have already heard that they can be harmful to your health, due to the amount of aluminum they contain and because they block pores. (Read more below)

In recent years, there has been a growing supply of natural deodorants on the market that promise to be less aggressive on the skin, without alcohol or aluminum — a substance supposedly linked to diseases such as breast cancer. (Read more below)

These products are much more expensive, and the price can be three or four times higher than that of a traditional deodorant or antiperspirant.

Is it worth investing in these products? Are the ones we used really dangerous for our health?

BBC journalist Greg Foot spoke to dermatologist Adil Sheraz and Barbara Olioso, a chemist specializing in the composition of natural products, to understand what the science is behind these claims and what marketing is. (Read more below)

First, it is important to understand how perspiration works. (Read more below)

Millions of glands – “Sweating is the mechanism that regulates our body temperature,” explains Sheraz. “Sweat releases fluids, basically water with electrolytes, salt. When the body heats up, you release this fluid on the surface of the skin, it evaporates into the air and thus takes the heat away, reducing body temperature.”(Read more below )

Furthermore, we can sweat in situations that cause us stress, nervousness or anxiety. (Read more below)

It is not the perspiration itself that generates the odor, but rather the interaction of sweat with the bacteria that live on our skin.

“We have approximately 2 to 4 million sweat glands in the body. Some are called eccrine sweat glands, which are present in almost the entire body, release water and salts and do not present any type of odor”, says the dermatologist.(Read more below)

Others are apocrine sweat glands, which fulfill a slightly different function and are present in the armpits, groin, scalp and in some areas of the face. (Read more below)

“These glands also produce sweat, but their composition is a little different: they contain fatty acids, carbohydrates, some complex lipids and steroids. When this sweat is released, the bacteria that normally live on our skin feed on these components and this creates the odor that you associate with perspiration”, says Sheraz. (Read more below)

Impact on health – To avoid bad odor, we can generally use three types of products: deodorants, antiperspirants and natural deodorants. (Read more below)

Deodorants reduce odor by killing bacteria or masking the odor they generate, but they have no impact on the amount of sweat a person produces.

Source: G1/BBC