Aluminum Salts
Aluminum chlorohydrate, aluminum chloride, and aluminum zirconium are some of the aluminum salts used in antiperspirants. They alter the skin’s pH and its ability to produce sweat. Aluminum salts keep you dry but they do so by irritating your sweat glands causing them to swell. It is this swelling that blocks your sweat from reaching the skin’s surface when you use antiperspirants.
Concerns have been raised that the long-term use of antiperspirants and aluminum-containing personal care products can lead to breast cancer, Alzheimer’s, and kidney diseases. The US Food and Drug Administration has acted on some of those concerns by issuing a directive that compels manufacturers to include on their antiperspirant labels, ‘Ask a doctor before use if you have kidney disease.’
It’s not exactly clear how aluminum is absorbed through the skin and how it impacts the body once it is absorbed. However, there’s one clear thing: that aluminum is a neurotoxin which alters the functioning of the blood-brain barrier responsible for regulating exchanges between the central nervous system and the peripheral circulation.
According to Professor Exley who’s been conducting research on aluminum for decades, ‘If aluminum is in the brain, it can produce neurodegeneration and problems associated with the brain. If it is in the bone, it can produce bone disease. Wherever it ends up in the body, it has the potential to cause toxicity, whether it is in humans, fish or any other living organism.’