Antiperspirant vs Deodorant--Is One Healthier Than The Other?

Many people have a fear of looking or smelling sweaty around others. As a result, they coat themselves with antiperspirant or deodorant each and every day. The trouble begins, however, when they choose an antiperspirant over a deodorant, since an antiperspirant inhibits one of the body's natural processes.

Although antiperspirants and deodorants are often mixed together to create a single product, they are two very different products that work in very different ways. Antiperspirants operate on the principle that if one doesn't sweat, one doesn't smell. But how is sweating controlled?...Through plugging up and disabling sweat glands and pores. Nearly all antiperspirants accomplish this task by using aluminum compounds (typically aluminum chlorohydrate or aluminum zirconium). Deodorants, on the other hand, don't prevent sweating. Instead, the alcohol, or other chemicals, kill some bacteria, and then the fragrance covers the odors caused by any bacteria that remain. Nonantiperspirant deodorant products do not typically contain aluminum compounds.

What one should understand is that there are possible links between aluminum compounds and everything from breast cancer and kidney failure to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. But even with such looming health dangers, many people still persist in using antiperspirants and running the risk of serious problems later in life. Of course, many are unaware of the actual dangers. They think to themselves, "I can find it on a store shelf. It must be safe right?"

The concern with aluminum is really a cumulative one...or the result of cumulative toxicity. The threat that aluminum poses to one's health comes from the fact that it is used in so many products--literally thousands, from stepladders to antiperspirants. In fact, aluminum is ingested in many over-the-counter medications. It is actually one of the most common ways we come into contact with aluminum.

While there is no known need for aluminum in the human body, its presence in the body causes problems because it competes with several other elements with similar characteristics. If one is deficient in minerals such as magnesium, calcium, or iron, then aluminum is always there to take their place inside one's cells. To make this more clear, imagine building a steel bridge and having a worker add aluminum beams whenever steel isn't available. The bridge will have many weak spots that don't function properly and will likely collapse. Likewise, cells will collapse.

It might be comforting to learn that the body will try to excrete most of the aluminum that is consumed. However, any excess is deposited in various tissues including bone, brain, liver, heart, spleen, and muscle. Less comforting is the fact that if deposited in certain tissues such as the brain, aluminum is difficult to remove, resulting in long-term damage.

The bottom line is to be aware of the dangers of aluminum toxicity and weigh the risks. Using a deodorant that doesn't contain antiperspirant is a good option, especially at times when you know you won't be sweating as much.

NOTE: If you possess overactive sweat glands or live in a humid climate and feel you MUST wear antiperspirant, then wash it off in the evening. You don't need it while you're asleep. In addition, try to avoid other sources of aluminum, such as antacids to cut down your intake.

The Toxic Dangers of Many Personal-Care Products--Are You Informed?

Over 10,000 different chemicals are used in cosmetics, skin-care treatments, & other personal products. Some of these chemicals are nitrosamines, lead and other heavy metals, parabens, phthalates, hydroquinone, and 1,4-dioxane--all very bad! The chemical 1,4-dioxane is a probable carcinogen found in almost 1/4 of all cosmetic products--and not even as an ingredient, but instead as a contaminant! That shouldn't be very comforting to read!

But I am sure you are asking yourself: If these products have such dangerous ingredients, how can it be legal to sell them to unsuspecting customers?

The government created a term called "maximum safe levels" to tell you how much of a toxic ingredient your body should be able to withstand. This is the government's way of saying that a scientist has informed them that, based on animal studies, 5 parts per million of a particular ingredient doesn't cause health problems that they can detect. At higher levels, however, this same ingredient may show signs of causing anything from hives to cancer.

The fact that studies such as this have been done may sound reassuring to you, but you should understand that the groups typically performing toxicity studies on skin-care ingredients are the manufacturers themselves who want their products to make it to market. Furthermore, when it comes to clinical studies, one could be designed that shows cyanide is safe in mice. All you would have to do is evaluate the mice two seconds after the cyanide was administered and conclude they were fine. Yet if you waited a minute to record the data, all the mice would be dead.

Although this example may seem a little silly, it shows the very real dangers of performing short-term studies on ingredients that might have long-term, cumulative effects on your health. Cancer, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, Type 2 Diabetes, and other degenerative diseases take years to develop. And really, there are too many variables to look for in any single study. But as far as some manufacturers are concerned, safety is secondary. New chemicals are considered safe until PROVEN dangerous, and for many consumers, this may be too late.

You may hear some personal-care industry experts claim that the incriminating studies--such as those showing a risk of cancer--are unrealistic. After all, they say, the studies may have used ten times the "normal dose" or "maximum safe level" of an ingredient recommended in the use of that product. But what if you were to use 10 products with the maximum safe level of the same ingredient, or use them for 10 times longer than the study ran? Did someone actually decide that 1/10th of the poison that kills you is safe?

For that matter, are those who are conducting the studies assuming that you have a perfectly healthy immune system, liver, and kidneys, as well as excellent air quality and drinking water? If so, it is a bad assumption! It's more realistic to assume that your body is battling a hundred other cellular attacks at any given time.

The Vital Role of Sleep in Repairing Cells

The importance of sleep goes beyond just providing your body rest. Sleep helps to: improve the rate at which we learn; improve memory; reduce the risk of accidents and mishaps; improve mood; improve cardiovascular health; reduce the risk of disease; and more easily control metabolism and weight.

Sleep triggers hormones that help cells to repair the damage done to your body that day. The most important hormone in this process is probably human growth hormone (HGH), which stimulates cell growth by mediating in the metabolism of protein, fats, and carbohydrates. HGH also influences weight control by telling fat cells to release the energy in the fats they are storing and to reduce additional storage.

Your body seems to understand when to bring in these hormones, which isn't when you're performing normal daily activities such as work and play. As much as 70% of the growth hormone produced in any 24-hour period is secreted while you are sleeping.

This is why the time you schedule for sleep is important. Your body begins preparing for sleep as soon as the sun goes down, most importantly by secreting melatonin, a hormone that helps to regulate sleep. Secreting growth hormone begins not long after (and more HGH is released during the earlier hours of the night rather than later in the night).

The result is that 8 hours of sleep from 10 PM to 6 AM produces a greater level of HGH than would occur during the same amount of sleep from midnight to 8 AM. Secretion spikes during periods of deep sleep, and those periods more often occur earlier in the night and very early in the morning.

You produce less growth hormone as you get older, and that decline can begin as early as your twenties. The use of ARTIFICIALLY produced HGH as therapy is highly controversial, so your better off getting the greatest amount of growth hormone the natural way--through adequate amounts of healthy sleep at the right time of night.

Why Do I Need Nutritional Supplements?

For more than 50 years, the general public has been led to believe that RDA nutrient levels are adequate...

...but adequate for what? Adequate to prevent clinically obvious nutritional deficiencies like scurvy, beriberi, rickets, and pellagra?

According to the Food and Nutrition Board (under the umbrella of the National Institutes of Health):

"The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) is the average daily dietary intake level that is sufficient to meet the requirement of nearly all apparently healthy individuals in a particular life stage and gender group."

The Food and Nutrition Board further defines "requirement" as:

"...the lowest continuing intake level of a nutrient that, for a specified indicator of adequacy, will maintain a defined level of nutriture in an individual."

Basically, the RDA is - by definition - the lowest level of nutrient intake necessary to prevent deficiencies. This is clearly important for helping individuals avoid acute deficiency diseases, but it fails to address the issue of optimal nutrition.

It is wonderful that the RDAs have been so successful in reducing deficiency diseases (including scurvy, pellagra, rickets and beriberi) to their lowest levels in recorded history. It is also good that products based on RDA amounts help combat deficiency diseases by providing minimal amounts of important vitamins and minerals.

However, as more and more of the general population is able to meet minimal nutrient requirements, new questions arise. For example, are RDA levels of vitamins and minerals enough to help prevent other degenerative diseases? What about providing protection from oxidative damage?

There are more benefits to nutritional supplementation than merely preventing increasingly rare deficiency diseases.

Rather than just looking to prevent total vitamin deficiencies, we should be concerned for those who are "apparently" healthy. Many degenerative diseases and chronic illnesses develop over a lifetime, striking otherwise healthy individuals when they least expect it. For the millions of "apparently" healthy individuals in the world, minimal nutrient intakes may not be adequate to address modern health challenges.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), much of the illness, disability, and death associated with chronic disease is avoidable through known prevention measures. Furthermore, recent studies examining the potential economic benefits of vitamin supplementation have concluded that substantial cost reductions can be associated with the use of vitamin supplements, based on principles of preventative nutrition.

One question that commonly arises is, "if I eat a healthy diet, do I still need to take supplements?" Let it be clearly stated that a healthy diet is a necessary foundation for any program of optimal nutrition, and there is no substitute for eating well. In this context, nutritional supplements are designed to complement a healthy diet, not replace it. Supplements should be designed to provide advanced levels of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that are difficult to obtain from diet alone - levels that individuals can use every day to promote a lifetime of good health.

In June 2002, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published two articles by health researchers at Harvard University. The articles were entitled "Vitamins for Chronic Disease Prevention in Adults". Through their research, these independent researchers concluded:

"...suboptimal intake of some vitamins, above levels causing classic vitamin deficiency, is a risk factor for chronic diseases and common in the general population, especially the elderly. Suboptimal folic acid levels, along with suboptimal levels of vitamins B6 and B12, are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, neural tube defects, and colon and breast cancer; low levels of vitamin D contribute to osteopenia and fractures; and low levels of the antioxidant vitamins (vitamins A, E and C) may increase risk for several chronic diseases."

You can read this information on JAMA's website. Here is the link:
http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/287/23/3127.short

The scientific evidence supporting health benefits of nutritional supplements is solid and growing daily, and more health care professionals than ever before are now siding with these conclusions.