Most people rarely read labels. Do you have any idea what’s in your toothpaste, shampoo or sunscreen? What about your antiperspirant or deodorant? Be honest, now. Have you ever checked your antiperspirant label? Does it contain magnesium or aluminum? We’ll bet you a month’s salary that your antiperspirant contains aluminum!
Do NOT take that bet! You’d lose! That’s because no underarm product can claim to be an antiperspirant unless it contains aluminum. That’s an absolute FDA rule. There are no exceptions!
Magnesium-Rich Deodorants:
If you are in a hurry and don’t care about the latest science, here’s a quick announcement about a 20% sale on our body care products, especially Magnesium-Rich (formerly MoM or milk of magnesia) Aluminum Free Roll-On Deodorant. The discount code for this sale is Fall2025 when you checkout.
Can You Pronounce These Chemicals?
If you do check out your antiperspirant, you will discover tongue-twisting ingredients. Some contain Aluminum Zirconium Trichlorohydrex GLY. Others have Aluminum Zirconium Octachlorohydrex GLY. Then there are the relatively pronounceable aluminum chloride and aluminum chlorohydrate ingredients. If you see aluminum on the antiperspirant label, you know there is aluminum in your arm pit.
What’s the Big Deal?
So what? Presumably the FDA is looking out for us, right? In the case of aluminum, we’re not so sure.
Most people assume that the skin is a great barrier. We smear all sorts of things on our bodies, from sunscreen and moisturizer to soap and shampoo. For decades triclosan was widely distributed in soaps, body washes, mouthwash, toothpaste and deodorants. It is a preservative and antiseptic. Then the FDA effectively banned triclosan from soap. This antimicrobial agent is absorbed into the body and has hormone disrupting activity.
A couple of years ago the independent testing laboratory Valisure discovered benzene in some hand sanitizers, sunscreens, antiperspirant body sprays, dry hair conditioners and topical acne products. Benzene is considered a carcinogen. Exposure to this chemical has been linked to leukemia and cancers of blood cells.
As a result of these discoveries, many companies announced recalls. For example, Procter and Gamble (P&G) pulled a number of familiar brand name products off shelves. And the FDA notified consumers which hand sanitizers and antiperspirant aerosols contained benzene.
We conclude that the agency was concerned enough about consumers breathing or absorbing a carcinogen into the body that it issued announcements about the problem. So on the one hand, the FDA acknowledges that people may absorb unwanted chemicals through the skin. On the other, the agency insists that aluminum must be included in all antiperspirants.
Is Aluminum Toxic?
If you go to the National Library of Medicine’s website: PubMed and put aluminum toxicity into your search box, you will be astonished at how many articles come up. At the time of this writing there were over 9,500 citations with with those key words.
Let’s narrow the search to aluminum and Alzheimer’s disease: That’s a more manageable number. There are over 1,600 citations at this link.
Aluminum and Alzheimer’s?
Most health professionals have assumed that the old “aluminum and Alzheimer’s” story disappeared without a trace long ago. Au contraire. Neuroscientists continue studying a link between aluminum and “neuropathology.” A “systematic review” in the journal Brain Science (Aug. 8, 2025) offers some insights:
“Aluminum is commonly used in processed and packaged foods, pharmaceutical products, such as vaccine adjuvants, and antacids, as well as in food additives, skin care products, cosmetics, and kitchenware. Moreover, it can be present either as a natural component or as a contaminant in several foods, like infant formula, milk, juices, tea, wine, vegetables, and seafood. Drinking water is another common source, where aluminum may be introduced naturally from soil and rock erosion or through water treatment processes
“Aluminum enters the body through different routes, such as the skin, gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts [11]. Once it enters the body, its bioavailability makes it toxic [13,14]. It accumulates in the liver, kidneys, bones, spleen, blood, testis, heart, muscles, and brain. The brain is most vulnerable to aluminum neurotoxicity. Studies report that the half-life of aluminum in the human brain is almost seven years. Once entered, it has all these years to show its toxic effects.
“Aluminum, a widely distributed environmental element, has been implicated in neurotoxic outcomes, including, in particular, its impairment of cognitive functions, such as learning and memory. Certain cognitive domains, including memory, working memory, and processing speed, are severely impaired by aluminum exposure. It exerts neurotoxic effects by inducing oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and neuronal degeneration and disrupting neurotransmitter metabolism and cytoskeleton integrity.”
Aluminum in the Brain?
Researchers have known for years that aluminum accumulates in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. How and why it gets there has been a mystery.
We found this article in the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology (March, 2017) particularly intriguing:
“…we do not know the cause of Alzheimer’s disease and environmental factors may yet be shown to contribute towards its onset and progression. One such environmental factor is human exposure to aluminium and aluminium has been shown to be present in brain tissue in sporadic Alzheimer’s disease. We have made the first ever measurements of aluminium in brain tissue from 12 donors diagnosed with familial Alzheimer’s disease. The concentrations of aluminium were extremely high…
“…The unique quantitative data and the stunning images of aluminium in familial Alzheimer’s disease brain tissue raise the spectre of aluminium’s role in this devastating disease.
“…Aluminium is neurotoxic and the concentrations of aluminium found in these familial AD [Alzheimer’s disease] brains are unlikely to be benign and indeed are highly likely to have contributed to both the onset and the aggressive nature of any ongoing AD in these individuals. These data lend support to the recent conclusion that brain aluminium will contribute towards all forms of AD under certain conditions.”
What to Make of This?
We would be the first to admit that there is no definitive proof that using an aluminum antiperspirant increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. That said, most people rely on such products daily (and sometimes multiple times a day) for years or decades. We do not know the impact of such regular use on the body or brain. We do know that researchers have been calling aluminum a neurotoxin for years.
Is Aluminum Absorbed Through the Skin?
This is a very controversial topic. A study published in Clinical and Translational Science (Nov. 2018) revealed that 2 out of 12 healthy women tested with an “extremely rare isotope of aluminum (26 Al) chlorohydrate” had detectable levels in their blood.
The authors of this study cited previous findings published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology (Feb. 2001):
“In selected blood samples, 26Al could be detected at very low levels by AMS [accelerated mass spectroscopy]; however, the concentrations found were too low to provide solid quantitative data. In urine, 26Al was detected in the first day and continued for at least 44 days. Most of the urinary excretion occurred over the first 2‐week postexposure.”
Following up on that research, investigators also used radioactive labeled aluminum chlorohydrate. They found low levels of aluminum in 2 out of 12 blood samples and in 31% of urine samples.
A more recent study published in Toxicology Research (June 2022) also employed a radioactive aluminum antiperspirant formulation. The authors used a more powerful radiolabel 26Al form of aluminum. They concluded that the study “…shows that an extremely small amount [of aluminum] crosses the skin barrier.”
There was some evidence of radioactive aluminum in blood, urine and feces…though the authors minimized the importance of those observations. Their conclusion: “…the majority of the aluminum in the formulation was associated with the external layers of the skin without penetration through the skin.”
We do have one concern about this research, though. The authors seem to admit that there is some skin absorption of aluminum, but downplay its significance.
Under the “Conflict of interest statement” there is acknowledgement that five of the authors:
“are employed by their respective companies, each of which use Aluminium compounds in cosmetic products.”
The bottom line seems to be that aluminum is absorbed through the skin in small quantities. If people only used an antiperspirant occasionally, that might not be worrisome. But, as pointed out previously, people use these products daily for decades.
An article titled “The Postulated Innocuity of Lifetime Exposure to Aluminum Should be Reappraised” was published in Frontiers in Oncology (July 24, 2023).
The authors note:
“The debate on a potential role of aluminium in human carcinogenesis currently mainly concerns breast cancer, due to the presence of high concentrations of aluminium salts in cosmetics frequently applied to the breast area such as antiperspirants and sunscreens.”
The authors go on to raise some intriguing questions and concerns about chronic exposure to aluminum.
To balance the controversy, though, here is a link to an article published in Plastic and Aesthetic Nursing (Oct-Dec, 2023). The authors write:
“The safety of antiperspirants has been a subject of intense debate, with conflicting perspectives and research findings. This study aimed to contribute to the discussion by investigating the distribution of aluminum chloride (AlCl 3 ), a common ingredient in antiperspirants, within the sweat glands.”
“These results are consistent with previous research, which suggests that aluminum compounds do not enter the apocrine glands [sweat glands]. Consequently, concerns regarding the potential absorption of aluminum into the human body appear to be unfounded, particularly regarding cancer risks such as breast cancer.”
It was unclear from the abstract how long the 10 subjects used the aluminum chloride before surgical removal of the sweat glands.
Aluminum vs. Magnesium:
Aluminum is not necessary for human biology. As far as we can tell it serves no essential purpose. Magnesium, on the other hand, is absolutely essential for human health. We could not function without magnesium. It is good for our bones, our heart and our blood vessels. Many people are deficient in this mineral.
When a reader told us that liquid milk of magnesia (magnesium hydroxide) was a great deodorant we were fascinated.
She wrote:
“I want to share a remedy I learned about when traveling in Brazil. Just apply milk of magnesia to your armpits. It is the best underarm deodorant!”
Several years after we heard that milk of magnesia was especially helpful against body odor, we decided to try and come up with an easy applicator. We worked hard to eliminate the aluminum and the bleach (that used to be found in most drugstore milk of magnesia products) and find a roll-on system that would make MoM easy to apply.
Here is a video to explain more about this product.
Eventually our brilliant natural products chemist created a terrific unscented formulation. He also helped us develop an Aluminum-Free Men’s and Women’s MoM formula with a fresh herbal and floral fragrance.
As mentioned, MoM is now Magnesium-Rich Aluminum-Free Roll-On Deodorant. The discount code is Fall25. It only applies to our Magnesium-Rich Aluminum-Free Roll-on 2 oz Deodorant and our Men’s and Women’s MoM (Milk of Magnesia) Aluminum-Free Roll-On Deodorant. This sale will only last for one week. Don’t forget the discount code Fall25 when checking out! It gets you a 20% discount!
Check out the user reviews at these links:
Urea Skin Relief Intensive Skin Therapy with 20% Urea 6 fluid Ounces
