Is deodorant necessary for good hygiene? Is it bad for health? Can we do without it? Dermatologists take stock.
- The smell of sweat is odorless. The unpleasant smell actually comes from the breakdown of perspiration by the bacteria on our skin.
- Skin health and microbiota, gut health, and diet can all influence our body odor.
- A certain enzyme, called the BO enzyme, is particularly responsible for bad odors coming from the armpits, according to a study.
It is a gesture that is part of our daily life: the deodorant ritual seems to us to be an obligatory step in order to have good hygiene. But do we really need it? Dermatologists questioned by CNN challenge this assumption. According to them, this habit of putting deodorant under your arms is above all a matter of our individual decisions and the influence of our culture.
Antiperspirant deodorants can be counterproductive
“We live in a society where body odor is not accepted, which puts deodorant at the heart of our hygiene routine. There is also a stigma around sweat on clothes, which has caused antiperspirant sales to skyrocket”analyzes associate professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, Joshua Zeichner, on CNN.
In reality, the use of antiperspirant deodorants can be counterproductive. Indeed, according to dermatologists, depriving our body of the regulation of body temperature provided by perspiration at the level of the underarms risks, paradoxically, increasing the production of sweat in other parts of the body. Remember that if it is not well perceived socially, perspiration has a vital function when it is hot. When temperatures rise, sweat production increases and the evaporating water draws heat from the skin, cooling the body to maintain it at around 37 degrees.
Aluminum salts: their carcinogenicity has not been proven
However, dermatologists want to be reassuring about the products contained in these deodorants, such as aluminum salt: “The carcinogenic nature of inorganic ingredients such as aluminum salts in skincare products has not been proven in humans. It is best to avoid them, but there is no cause for alarm yet. ”
But if you prefer to do without it out of caution, mistrust or ecological conviction, without starting to give off an unpleasant smell for your colleagues, the best thing is to wash your face, armpits and intimate areas every day. “These are parts that tend to sweat more than others. This can therefore promote the proliferation of microorganisms such as yeasts and bacteriasays Joshua Zeichner. Having an unusual odor may be a sign that you are not cleaning your skin as you should.”
