Every day, 5 billion people around the world reach for deodorant, seeing the management and concealment of sweat as an absolute necessity — and not only under the arms.
But do we really know what sweat is for and what deodorants and antiperspirants actually do?
The main reason is simple: to keep the body’s temperature stable.
When body temperature rises because of heat, exercise or fever, the sweat glands produce sweat. As it evaporates from the skin, it removes heat and helps prevent the body from overheating.
Put simply, sweat is the body’s natural “air-conditioning system”.
No. The body has two main types of sweat glands.
Eccrine glands: These are found across almost the entire body and are responsible for regulating temperature.
Apocrine glands:These are located mainly in the armpits and groin. Their sweat is thicker and, when broken down by bacteria on the skin, produces the characteristic smell of body odour.
The two terms are often used as though they mean the same thing, but they do not.
Deodorant does not reduce sweat production. Its purpose is to control odour, either by masking it with fragrance or by reducing the bacteria that cause it.
Antiperspirant, by contrast, reduces the amount of sweat produced. It usually contains aluminium salts, which create a temporary “barrier” in the sweat ducts so that less sweat reaches the surface of the skin.
In practice, no.
The armpits account for only a very small part of the body’s total surface area and do not play a decisive role in temperature regulation. Most cooling takes place through the eccrine glands found across the body.
So reducing underarm sweat does not meaningfully affect the body’s ability to cool itself.
If you sweat far more than the body needs in order to regulate its temperature, you may have hyperhidrosis.
This condition can significantly affect everyday life, causing anxiety or difficulties at work and in social situations.
In such cases, effective treatments are available, ranging from clinical-strength antiperspirants to medication, Botox or other medical interventions, always following an assessment by a dermatologist.
The claim that aluminium in antiperspirants causes breast cancer or Alzheimer’s disease has been studied extensively and repeatedly rejected by scientific research.
