Aubrey Organics - Nontoxic Antiperspirants and Deodorants

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ARTICLES ON AUBREY

Can Your Antiperspirant Cause Alzheimer's Disease?, from Healthy Living

One of the commonest questions readers have when they get to the topic of deodorants and antiperspirants is whether the aluminum in antiperspirants can increase their risk of Alzheimer's disease. We don't have a definitive answer, but suggestive evidence may change the buying habits of some shoppers.

However, don't stay fixated on Alzheimer's disease as your sole concern. That's because aluminum is clearly a powerful neurotoxicant (i.e., toxic to the nervous system), even if its link with Alzheimer's disease is not clear. That alone should raise a warning flag for users of aluminum-containing antiperspirants (as well as aluminum cookware).

Further, not all cases of cognitive decline may be due to Alzheimer's disease. In fact, Alzheimer's disease accounts for only about half of all senile dementia cases. It is sometimes difficult for doctors to determine whether a patient suffers simple senile dementia, a progressive degenerative brain disease associated with old age, or full-blown Alzheimer's. As a neurotoxin, aluminum could play a role in both.

Aluminum-Alzheimer's Link Gains Respect

"Considerable evidence exists that [aluminum] may play a role in the aetiology or pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease," says Dr. T.P. Flaten, of the Department of Chemistry, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, in the May 2001 issue of Brain Research Bulletin. "At first, medical scientists thought this theory was absurd," notes Melvyn Werbach, M.D., a faculty member at the UCLA School of Medicine and the author of Nutritional Influences on Illness (Third Line Press, Inc. 1993). "Aluminum, they believed, accumulated merely as a result of a destructive process caused by some other factor.

"In recent years, however, the aluminum hypothesis has been gaining respect," continues Dr. Werbach. "For example, studies have discovered a direct association between the level of aluminum in municipal drinking water and the risk of Alzheimer's dementia."

In fact, nine of 13 published epidemiological studies of aluminum in drinking water "have shown statistically significant positive relations," notes Flaten, adding, "these studies are remarkably consistent."

Link with Antiperspirants?

Although aluminum is generally poorly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract (and there is no clear link between aluminum-containing antacids and Alzheimer's disease), this may not be so when applied to skin.

Aluminum salts are the major constituents of many widely used antiperspirant products. "The use of such antiperspirants has been linked with the systemic accumulation of aluminum," notes Dr. C. Exley in Molecular Medicine Today. But can the frequent use of based-based antiperspirants lead to the accumulation of toxic levels of aluminum?

In a 1990 study in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, researchers from Battelle Seattle Research Center, Seattle, found such a link. The association between exposure to aluminum through the lifetime use of antiperspirants and antacids and Alzheimer's disease was explored in a case-control study of 130 matched pairs.

Cases were clinically diagnosed between January 1980 and June 1985 at two geriatric psychiatric clinics in Seattle, Washington. Although for all antiperspirant and deodorant use, regardless of aluminum content, no association with the disease was found, this was not so when the study looked more closely at the contents of the products.

The overall risk for Alzheimer's was 60 percent greater than normal among persons using aluminum-containing antiperspirants "with a trend toward a higher risk with increasing frequency of use"óa risk as high as 320 percent among those who reported greatest use of aluminum-containing antiperspirants. Obviously, more studies are required to reach a definitive conclusion on the link between antiperspirants and Alzheimer's disease. Case-control studies are notorious for misleading researchers.

But we also have to look at the totality—the weight—of the evidence. When we do so, we realize that aluminum is potentially hazardous to our cognitive well being simply because it is a neurotoxin, and certainly the epidemiological evidence doesn't clear aluminum as a cause of Alzheimer's disease. In the case of antiperspirants, something else should be considered: many people use aerosol antiperspirants, meaning that inhalation of the very fine particles deep into the lungs and respiratory tract becomes a highly viable route of absorption that bypasses the gastrointestinal tract.

"Further evidence that aluminum fosters the development of Alzheimer's dementia comes from a scientific (placebo-controlled) trial of desferrioxamine, a drug that removes aluminum from the body by binding with it," notes Werbach. "While regular administration of the drug failed to stop the disease from progressing, desferrioxamine did significantly reduce the rate of decline in the ability of a group of people with Alzheimer's dementia to care for themselves." We also know that serum aluminum concentrations increase with age. Aluminum may accumulate slowly over our lifetimes or we may absorb it more easily as we age, says Werbach. "Moreover, there is evidence that people with probable Alzheimer's disease have serum aluminum levels that are often significantly higher than those of people with other types of dementia, as well healthy people of similar ages."

Safe Shopper Choices

Fortunately, shoppers have choices when it comes to personal hygiene. If you want to avoid aluminum-containing antiperspirants and desire a wide range of products, visit your local health food store or natural pharmacy where you will find plenty of good product brands.

The company with some of the gentlest, yet most effective, deodorants is Aubrey Organics. We have been consistently impressed by both the safety and gentle nonirritating effectiveness of Aubrey's deodorants such as E Plus High C (a roll on) and Calendula Blossom Natural (which uses a pump spray). These contain herbs such as calendula and aloe vera that sooth underarm skin and provide a mild antibacterial action.

This is in direct contrast to the many brands of deodorants today, which rely on triclosan as an antibacterial agent. Triclosan indiscriminately kills virtually all bacteria on your underarm skin. We don't want that. Your skin should not be turned into a wasteland. Like your gastrointestinal tract, your skin has its own delicate balance of beneficial and pathogenic bacteria. Your skin needs that balance. Triclosan destroys this balance and with it go the protective benefits of having your beneficial skin flora.

The Aubrey Organics' deodorants work by combining antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and herbs known to be less toxic and more selective when it comes to destroying odor-causing bacteria.

The Doctors' Prescription

Aubrey Organics' deodorant products are available from natural health centers nationwide. We consider Aubrey's E Plus High C to be the gentlest most effective deodorant available today. If you need help in finding an outlet in your community, call them toll free at (800) AUBREY-H (282-7394).

References

Exley, C. "Does antiperspirant use increase the risk of aluminium-related disease, including Alzheimer's disease?" Mol Med Today, 1998;4(3):107-109.

Flaten, T.P. "Aluminium as a risk factor in Alzheimer's disease, with emphasis on drinking water." Brain Res Bull, 2001;55(2):187-196.

Graves, A.B., et al. "The association between aluminum-containing products and Alzheimer's disease." J Clin Epidemiol, 1990;43(1):35-44.

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