Tuesday, 9 February 2016

Antiperspirant May Boost Variety of 'Bugs' Living on Your Armpits

by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor

Woman putting on deodorant.If you're an antiperspirant user, you probably slather on the stuff in order to wipe out odor-causing bacteria. A new study suggests that your methods work. But they also make your underarms a more diverse place to be.

The use of antiperspirants and deodorant alter the skin microbiome, according to a new open-access study published in the journal PeerJ on Tuesday (Feb. 2). Antiperspirants reduce the total number of bacteria dramatically, but seem to leave a more diverse group of survivors than what is seen on the underarms of people who use just deodorant or nothing at all.

There's no known health effect of this alteration. Antiperspirants and deodorants have been subject to suspicion for causing cancer, but the National Cancer Institute has found no evidence of a link. Nor have studies backed up speculation of a link between the aluminum in antiperspirants and Alzheimer's, another popular concern.

"Ultimately, we want to know if any changes in our microbial ecosystem are good or bad, but first we have to know what the landscape looks like and how our daily habits change it," study researcher Julie Horvath, who heads the genomics and microbiology research lab at North Carolina's Museum of Natural Sciences, part of NC State University, said in a statement.
 
Antiperspirants versus deodorants
As many as 90 percent of Americans use antiperspirants or deodorants, according to a 2001 article published in the journal Clinics in Dermatology. Antiperspirants use aluminum salts to block sweat glands, reducing perspiration and depriving odor-causing bacteria of the nutrients they need to survive. Deodorants use antimicrobial substances to kill off bacteria directly.

Given the bacteria-killing goals of these products, it was no surprise to see changes to the underarm microbiome with their use. Researchers asked 17 people to undergo armpit swabs for eight days straight. On the first day, they were instructed to follow their underarm routine as usual. Some participants used antiperspirant, some deodorant and some nothing at all. On days two through six, the participants were instructed to use nothing at all. Finally, on days seven and eight, all participants applied an antiperspirant (Secret Powder Fresh for women and Old Spice Fiji for men).

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