- Hey everyone, I'm
Lauren, this is Brain Stuff
and you stink!
I mean, okay, don't take it personally.
Pretty much everyone stinks
and pretty much everyone
sweats too.
There's nothing inherently
wrong with these natural
bodily processes but in
modern society, we don't want
to be at the whim of evolution.
If you want to avoid excessive
sweating or if you're a
naturally heavy sweater,
then you probably use
an antiperspirant, but what is this stuff
and how does it actually work?
First, we need to make a
distinction between deodorant
and antiperspirant.
Deodorant targets bacteria
under your armpits
making the skin there
too salty or too acidic
to support the microscopic
critters responsible
for your body odor.
Antiperspirants can cut
down on body odor too
but they're primarily
made to prevent sweating.
You have two types of sweat
glands all over your skin
though they're most concentrated
in your underarm area.
First there are eccrine
glands, that's most of them,
and they kick in to cool
you off when you're hot
which means that heat,
physical exertion, stress
and nervousness can stimulate them.
Eccrine glands excrete water
and salt and for the record,
have nothing to do with body odor.
Apocrine glands, on the
other hands, carry secretions
of fat and proteins along with your sweat.
Once this hits the exterior
surface of your skin,
those fats and proteins
are a buffet for bacteria
which excrete, I think the
technical term is, stank.
Antiperspirants have an active
ingredient that gives them
their sweat blocking powers,
usually an aluminum-based
compound like aluminum chloride
or aluminum chlorohydrate.
When this stuff get into
the duct leading into
an eccrine gland, aluminum
ions enter the cells
lining the walls of the duct.
Water molecules pass
into the cells with them.
The cells around the duct
begin to swell with the water,
enough to squeeze the ducts closed.
At that point, sweat can't get out
and you're stain free for awhile.
But each cell can only draw
in a certain amount of water
so eventually the
concentrations of water outside
and inside the cells, reach equilibrium.
When this happens, water
inside the cell begins to pass
back out of the cell through
osmosis and the swelling
goes down, reopening the duct.
This is why people have
to reapply antiperspirant.
Antiperspirants aren't perfect.
Some studies have claimed
a link with breast cancer.
Although for now, that
link remains inconclusive.
There's another concern too.
People without fully
functioning kidneys should be
wary of using antiperspirant.
If you're not comfortable
using antiperspirant,
then no worries.
Just go for an aluminum free deodorant.
It won't stop the sweat but
it will knock out that odor.
So thanks for tuning in.
Do you feel like you
sweat more than average?
What do you think about antiperspirants?
Let us know in the comments.
And as always, you can
check us out on our website,
which is brainstuffshow.com.
