Aluminium salts like aluminium hydroxychloride, aluminium chlorohydrate, aluminium zirconium and aluminium sulphate commonly figure prominently on the components list of mainstream brands of toiletries and cosmetics. Aluminium salts are often encountered by the lay person as the active ingredients in antiperspirants, and they work by restricting the motion of sweat from the sweat glands to the skin surface area, where it is likely to cause odour.
Some research studies have actually recognized a link in between aluminium levels in the body and Alzheimer’s Disease. This study is substantiated by autopsies on individuals who passed away after the Camelford water poisoning incident in Cornwall in 1988, when large amounts of aluminium sulphate were unintentionally introduced into the town’s water supply. A few of these people died from unusual forms of dementia, and were found to have abnormally high levels of aluminium in their brains.
Other research studies assert that the quantity of aluminium soaked up by the body from antiperspirants and deodorants is very little compared with that in food and fluids. Nevertheless, there is sufficient concern over the component to make intelligent people question why aluminium salts are used in products at all when their total safety can not be guaranteed.
It is understood that aluminium from underarm deodorants can also find its way into the urine, so clearly the salts can be absorbed through the skin. Since some research likewise determines a link in between aluminium and breast cancer cells, that’s double the cause for anxiety.
Makers endorse aluminium salts as ‘a safe and effective approach in controlling sweat.’ Nevertheless, one has to wonder exactly how something that disrupts the body’s natural temperature regulation system can ever be called ‘safe.’
Because aluminium-containing antiperspirants mess with the body’s natural procedures, they are in fact medicines, yet producers fail to point this out to consumers. Sweating does not just cool you down, it also permits waste products to exit the body, and again, these aluminium containing antiperspirants prevent this natural procedure.
The fact is that despite all the current research studies, nobody can say with certainty that aluminium does not have long term destructive effects on the body. And some people can have a bad response to aluminium-containing antiperspirants, otherwise why would makers feel the requirement to warn individuals to stop use if they observe irritation when utilizing the products?
The main issue is that the aluminium in antiperspirants comes into direct contact with the skin, and stays there till you wash it off. And with antiperspirants containing around 25 % of aluminium salts, that’s quite a bunch of chemicals in contact with your skin.
Even one application of an aluminium-containing deodorant can appear in the blood stream after 15 days. One of the reasons for this surprising absorption is that females tend to shave under their arms, so the aluminium used in deodorants has an easy course into the body. Likewise, the body absorbs aluminium more easily from the skin than through food and alcoholic beverage, so there’s likely to be a higher concentration in the blood stream.
Another thing to consider is that if you use aerosol deodorants, in addition to soaking up aluminium through the skin, you’re breathing it in. The danger from aluminium in the body is not always what you take in at any one time, it’s the accrual in your system over months or even years.
While the links in between breast cancer cells and aluminium are as yet unverified, there is no doubt that aluminium overload in the brain is a contributing aspect in Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.
Aluminium was first recognized as a neurotoxin, or something hazardous to the brain and nerves, back in the 1880s. And the scary thing is that the presence of aluminium in the brain is normally determined post mortem.
Aluminium salts are inexpensive, effective and hassle-free, which is why major makers still use them, even though there is a substantial doubt over their security. So are manufacturers placing revenues ahead of personal health and wellness? The jury is still out on that one!