Deodorants and antiperspirants: It’s the pits!

Most of us can’t live without it, we just can’t leave home without it. We’re not talking about the cell phone. We’re talking about deodorants/antiperspirants that are a vital part of our daily hygiene lest we end up like that poor girl in an old commercial ("It’s you they’re talking about," remember?). This fear of smell (sometimes, the sweat can be caused by the "smell of fear," as when one is caught in a fight-or-flight trauma) has launched many a deodorant/antiperspirant product on the market.

We live in a "sanitized" society (our government tends to sanitize the truth, too) and are so obsessed with smelling sweet that tons of money are spent on all sorts of deodorants (for the armpits, the feet, and even the genitals), say Joe and Teresa Graedon in their book The People’s Pharmacy (available at National Book Store). With their guarantee of all-day protection against body odor, deodorants/antiperspirants won’t let us down vis-a-vis simply bathing with soap and water.

Are deodorants and antiperspirants the same?

The People’s Pharmacy gets under the skin in this short (but) sweat talk: "An antiperspirant contains a chemical capable of reducing perspiration by decreasing flow from one of the two types of sweat glands. (We normally produce one pint of sweat daily.) This is the antiwetness approach. Interestingly, the FDA considers this process a physiological change; ergo, antiperspirants are classified as drugs and come under agency review. Deodorants, on the other hand, are intended to mask odor either by adding a perfume or killing germs. They are classified as cosmetics and avoid careful FDA scrutiny."

Now, do you smell the difference? But the trouble is, there are a lot of products on the supermarket shelves today that claim to be both a deodorant and an antiperspirant. Sweat deal, isn’t it?

The essential ingredients in antiperspirants are the aluminum salts – like aluminum chlorohydrates, aluminum zirconium chlorohydrates, etc. The profuse sweaters (the heavy-duty drippers, so Joe and Teresa call them), should look out for the ingredient aluminum chloride in the antiperspirant that they buy. Sad to say, the book does not answer the health concerns regarding aluminum.

That takes care of wetness. What about odor? According to Joe and Teresa, while a deodorant supposedly decreases odor by decreasing the bacteria, "the problem is that it’s hard to know just which bacteria, in just what quantity, actually cause an odor problem." Well, this doesn’t seem to alarm manufacturers (or make them sweat), as they continue to add many different germ killers, including the controversial triclosan, in their deodorants.

Whether you opt for a deodorant or an antiperspirant, the book shares these top tips:

• Apply only to clean, dry underarms. These products are useless if applied to pores that are already sweating.

• Never apply soon after shaving the area, or if there’s any kind of cut or open sore.

• People react differently to different chemicals. Find out what works for you.

• No over-the-counter antiperspirant (not even the industrial-strength variety) will shut off sweat from the "nervous" pores (as when you see the boy/girl of your dreams or it’s your first day on the job). Don’t expect the impossible.

Now that’s easy to remember. No sweat!

Neem it, they herb it!

Taking center stage at the recently concluded Bio-Search 2003 of the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) was the neem tree (an evergreen tree which can grow up to 30 meters and live for over 200 years). This much researched herbal plant has also been called "the village pharmacy" because of its many medicinal uses. Some 5,000 years ago, it was said to have been used by ayurvedic healers in India as tea, ointment or oil. One of its ingredients, nimbin, has been found to have anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and anti-histamine qualities. Another ingredient, nimbidin, has antibacterial, anti-ulcers, and analgesic properties. And now, German expert Dr. Dietmar Rummel has found another use for the neem tree: As a household insecticide. Happily, neem has been found to be effective against pests without harming beneficial organisms.

According to the CITEM consultant, this should inspire Filipinos to look to their backyard gardens as their own personal (green) pharmacies. Dr. Rummel is also optimistic that his efforts will bring increased awareness on Philippine medicinal plants and herbs that are just waiting to be explored and cultivated for local consumption or for export.

Remember the neem!