Crazy Ideas (that might actually make sense)

[Shomas]

I would be all for us as a culture just getting less queasy about a little BO, but that is very unlikely to happen.

[ianr]

I would be all for us as a culture just getting less queasy about a little BO, but that is very unlikely to happen.

I live in an area where a large subculture of people really, really don't care. I used to think it was no big deal as well until I lived among people who actively did not care... now I am all for smell control.

[Shomas]

I live in an area where a large subculture of people really, really don't care. I used to think it was no big deal as well until I lived among people who actively did not care... now I am all for smell control.

I think you're conflating what I suggested with generally poor hygiene. To be clear, I'm not advocating giving up on caring about how one smells at all or foregoing regular bathing.

[KantStopDario]

The aluminum exposure from antiperspirant is probably pretty significant. Even some of the "no convincing evidence" papers agree it's a lot of additional exposure. A stick of Degree antiperspirant is 18% aluminum compound. How much of that is elemental aluminum I don't know, but that seems like a lot of aluminum to me.

Yes! It does!

I would be all for us as a culture just getting less queasy about a little BO, but that is very unlikely to happen.

I've been saying that for years and totally agree!

I think you're conflating what I suggested with generally poor hygiene. To be clear, I'm not advocating giving up on caring about how one smells at all or foregoing regular bathing.

And definitely two different things!

However, I think natural ways of improving odor is fine, and even nice to a degree!

I think of deodorant kind of like Joe thinks of Cologne. Remember the axe phase? I could smell that miles away and would stick with me after I smelled it on someone. I thought it was disgusting.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[ianr]

The aluminum exposure from antiperspirant is probably pretty significant. Even some of the "no convincing evidence" papers agree it's a lot of additional exposure. A stick of Degree antiperspirant is 18% aluminum compound. How much of that is elemental aluminum I don't know, but that seems like a lot of aluminum to me.

It doesn't seem like a lot. If a 3 oz stick contains 18% aluminum by weight, that's ~15 grams aluminum. Let's say it lasts 60 days or about 250mg applied per day. How much of that 250mg is actually absorbed into the body? I would guess this would be in micrograms. If skin absorbed metals at a higher rate than that, we'd be in serious trouble.

Googling this... it looks like at least one preliminary study of absorption was done:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11267710

"Results indicate that only 0.012% of the applied aluminium was absorbed through the skin"

In my example, 0.012% × 250mg = 0.03 mg or 30 micrograms per day.

As per the CDC statement on aluminum:

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=1076&tid=34

One antacid ~ 20 years of deodorant use in terms of aluminum ingestion.

[dpark]

[MENTION=14805]ianmichaelray[/MENTION], I question the accuracy/telecast l relevance of that study. If the concern with antiperspirants is that the aluminum absorbs through the skin and accumulates in breast or lymph tissue, measuring urine and blood will not reveal the level of accumulated aluminum. That would require biopsy. If it does accumulate in those tissues, even moderate exposures could have disproportionate effects.

To be clear, I'm firmly in the camp of "no significant evidence" here. But I don't think it's necessarily a given that the aluminum hypothesis has no merit. It's clearly suspect though.

[ianr]

Inches the waist can be let out. I would like a number value for coats letting me know how much they can be altered assuming X seam allowance.