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Shaklee has used aluminum chlorohydrate in Desert Wind Roll-on Antiperspirants and Antipersprant Cream because we have found it to be the safest and most effective compound in reducing underarm wetness. Our decision to use this ingredient was a carefully considered one and based on years of safe testing on human volunteers under medical supervision. The aluminum utilized in our antiperspirants is not absorbed into the body because the aluminum molecule is too large for this to occur. This holds true for all of the Shaklee products containing aluminum.
Concerns about aluminum chlorohydrate generally center on the long-held, but errant beliefs that the use of aluminum cholorhydrate causes Alzheimer's disease or breast cancer. These claims do not square with sound scientific and medical data. Assertions about aluminum and Alzheimer's disease started in the mid-1970's, when a published report indicated that the brain tissue of Alzheimer's victims contained significantly higher concentrations of aluminum than normal brain tissue. The primary concern was for ingested forms of aluminum, although some people questioned antiperspirant deodorants containing aluminum.
Subsequent research has shown that the brain tissue of Alzheimer's victims contains pockets of aluminum, while aluminum is distributed uniformly in normal brain tissue. Normal human brains, as well as diseased brains, have the same amount of aluminum. The cause for the "pocketing" of aluminum is not known.
Aluminum is, actually, a naturally occurring, abundant element that is pretty much everywhere-in the air, water, soil, and food that we eat. It has been estimated that foods contribute perhaps more than 2000 mg daily, while less than 4mg are typically obtained from aluminum cookware. There is just no data showing that aluminum, particularly the very minute amount, if any, that might be absorbed via deodorant, causes Alzheimer's or any other neurological disease.
Another unfounded assertion about aluminum in antiperspirant deodorants is that it causes breast cancer because it prevents toxins in the lymph system from escaping the body. This contention has no scientific support, either. The lymph system is the body's second circulatory system. It takes things out of the body, not into the body, and flows from the breasts to the armpits and into the blood stream. Consider, also, that breast cancer typically travels from the breast to the lymph nodes, not vice-versa. While the myth about breast cancer and deodorants is alarming, it is not true. The National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, and the FDA also find no scientific or medical evidence linking aluminum chlorohydrate to breast cancer.
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