Is Deodorant Bad For You? Deodorant Ingredients to Avoid.

The first deodorant came out in 1888. It was known as "Mum". Before then, people solved body odor by two mechanisms - bathing and dousing themselves with copious amounts of perfume. Probably would still work today, right? 

In 1912, a woman by the name of Edna Murphy came along with a product that would completely change how people felt about body odor. Edna's father was a surgeon and he had invented a product that essentially served as an antiperspirant for his hands while performing surgery. Ambitious and entrepreneurial spirited Edna decided that this product might also help women stop sweating from their armpits and therefore experience less body odor. She called the product Odorono and it became the deodorant that would change how people viewed body odor. It became heavily advertised and convinced American's that they needed to do something about their body odor problems.

While Odorono has created a solution to a problem that nobody even knew existed, it wasn't without its own set of problems. The aluminum used in antiperspirants at that time had to be suspended in acid. As we know, acid isn't the greatest thing to be exposed to and people were encouraged to put the product on at night to give it time to dry first before it had a chance to damage clothing. The other downside to Odorono was that it was an unsightly red color! You see, deodorant has always had its set of problems, even from the beginning.

So, is deodorant bad for you? Not all of them are but, it all depends on what they're made out of. Universally, commercially made deodorants have a strong case to be made against them and, while the evidence against them continues to be denied or redirected by commercial companies, we can assess the ingredients they're made out of.

When asking the question "is deodorant bad for you", I would challenge anyone to take a look at their commercially processed deodorant and ask them to tell me how many of the ingredients in them that they actually know what they are or what they do. They're made of chemicals and a lot of them are toxic, carcinogenic and disruptive to hormones and natural processes.

You can find read our other blog post about the chemicals in your commercial deodorants here for more in depth knowledge. As a short summary however,  commercial deodorant very well may be bad for you.

A study in 2004 found that 18 of the 20 breast cancer tumors examined had parabens in them. Parabens have also been shown to disrupt hormones Not exactly a good case to be made there.

Another ingredient commonly found in commercial deodorants is "triclosan" which, despite being registered with the Environmental Protection Agency as a pesticide IS actually allowed to be put in deodorants and even other personal care products! Triclosan has been linked with allergies, weight gain, inflammatory responses and thyroid dysfunction, and there are concerns it may interfere with fetal development in pregnant women. 

When considering antiperspirants, the main ingredient in them is aluminum chlorohydrate. Just a quick fact on aluminum: it is the most prevalent metal in the Earth's crust and yet not one living thing uses it for any biological function! Our bodies use gold, silver and a bunch of other metals but have zero use for aluminum. Its a neurotoxin and interferes with the nervous system.

So, you've asked yourself "is deodorant bad for you"? You get to make the final decision but, the facts don't look very good for the commercial ones. Say goodbye to your Old Spice and Arrid because it's making you sick.

What you can do is make the switch to a natural deodorant such as Green Theory that uses only 100% natural ingredients, odor fighting probiotics and detoxifying bentonite clay that actually pulls the commercial deodorant toxins out of your body and makes you healthier! It's the smart choice, the healthy choice and the best choice if you care about what you're putting on your body everyday. 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-advertisers-convinced-americans-they-smelled-bad-12552404/