Dear Wirecutter: Should I Switch to Aluminum-Free Deodorant?
Q: Should I switch to aluminum-free deodorant? I’ve read studies about various health concerns about antiperspirant and deodorant ingredients, but I wasn’t sure if the risk was worth the switch. I also haven’t found one that lasts long enough either. I used Every Man Jack and I’m currently using Tom’s, but both can barely handle everyday work sweat let alone running or working out.
Longer answer, with all the evidence and stuff: There are two rumors, older than “them thar hills,” that aluminum in underarm antiperspirant is potentially harmful to our health. The first is that it causes breast cancer, the second is that it causes Alzheimer’s. There isn’t any good evidence for either.
Next: Alzheimer’s. “The connection between aluminum and Alzheimer’s disease is less a myth than a longstanding scientific controversy,” says this Washington Post article. There’s no question that people with Alzheimer’s have higher concentrations of aluminum in their brains than people without Alzheimer’s, but scientists still really don’t know what this means. But they do think that the increased aluminum is a result, not a cause, of the disease, and that the metal has a very small role, if any at all, in Alzheimer’s. Also, remember what I said above, that only 0.012 percent of antiperspirant aluminum gets absorbed into people’s skin. So you might get a tiny amount of this metal that scientists don’t really think causes Alzheimer’s anyway. Two unlikelys here make a really unlikely.
Last, a word on the difference between deodorant—which doesn’t have aluminum in it—and antiperspirant, which does. If you’re trying to stop the sweat, use antiperspirant. The aluminum salts in antiperspirant dissolve in the sweat coming off your pits and make a kind of goo that partially blocks your sweat glands, keeping them from spewing out more moisture. (Antiperspirants also usually have some kind of alcohol in them to help any moisture evaporate off your body faster, because azeotropes.) Deodorant doesn’t do this; it only masks the smell of your pits. So if you want to not get soaked when working out and you’re using a deodorant only, you’ve got the wrong product.
The good news: You don’t have to choose between them, because there are lots of antiperspirant-deodorant combos out there. Every Man Jack is a deodorant only, btw. Tom’s of Maine makes antiperspirants, deodorants, and combos (and their antiperspirants do have aluminum). Make sure to check the label to verify you’re buying the right stuff—and antiperspirant away, my friend.