What is breast cancer? Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in the United States for women (after skin cancer). It is also the second cause of death from cancer in the United States for women (after lung cancer). About 1 in 100 cases of breast cancer happen in men. When a woman gets breast cancer, the cancer does not distribute equally throughout the breast. A disproportionate number of breast cancers happen in the upper outer part of the breast, which is near the armpit.
What is aluminum? Aluminum is a light-weight metal that is very soft and easy to shape. People can get exposed to aluminum through cans, cookware, utensils, toasters, baking trays, foils, beer kegs, cheese (which is one of the highest food sources), antacids, cosmetics, cookware, coffee pots, cake mixes, sunscreens, toothpaste, vaccines, cigarettes, shellfish, and antiperspirants (something applied to the skin). Aluminum can cause cancer (most commonly, breast cancer) and can also cause brain problems such as Alzheimer's Disease.
Shaving the underarm can increase the amount of aluminum that enters the body through the skin. This could be from either little cuts in the skin or thinning of the skin. Could this be why most breast cancers happen in the part of the breast near the armpit? Some say it's because there is more breast tissue near the armpit. Unfortunately, it didn't use to be this way so this theory doesn't explain it. Cancers in this part of the breast increased as the sale of aluminum-containing antiperspirants increased over the past 50 years.
Could the aluminum-containing antiperspirants be the reason why these breast cancers are increasing? Aluminum can get through the skin and to the breast near it fairly easily. When a woman's breast is surgically removed for cancer, there is more aluminum found in the part near the armpit than in the rest of the breast.
How can aluminum cause breast cancer? Prolonged exposure to estrogen (which is a female hormone) can cause breast cancer. It has been shown that aluminum can have estrogen-like effects in the laboratory. When normal breast tissue cells are exposed to aluminum in the laboratory, they start changing into cancer cells. Cancer cells exposed to aluminum in a laboratory become more aggressive and more likely to spread - this makes them more deadly.
What about in real life, not a laboratory? A study in 2002 compared 800 breast cancer survivors to those without cancer and found no difference in their underarm antiperspirant use. Underarm shaving and antiperspirant use did increase risk and how soon a woman got breast cancer. They found that if you shave and use underarm antiperspirant more than 3 times per week, you can get breast cancer almost 20 years earlier!
Why does shaving matter? Shaving removes hair and also the outer layer of skin along with a couple of nicks in the skin (possibly). This allows 6 times more aluminum to enter the body compared with intact unshaven skin.
We get a lot of aluminum from our diet -- pancake mixes, cheeses, meat and gravy thickeners, baking powder, and candy. We can still even get poisoned through our shaved armpit skin! Now we know that women with breast cancer have twice as much aluminum in their breasts as those without cancer. This doesn't prove aluminum caused the cancer, but when combined with the rest of the information, it seems very likely.
What can you do to prevent aluminum poisoning and breast cancer? We know aluminum is bad for us and we know that we don't need aluminum to live. So, reducing or removing it from antiperspirants is a great place to start! You can use organic antiperspirants!
We use antiperspirants so we don't smell. Using antiperspirants allows more bad bacteria on your skin which actually makes you smell MORE. So, the move you use antiperspirants, the more you need them! This is great for the antiperspirant companies that are trying to make a lot of money, but bad for the consumers. Perhaps we can reduce body odor through our diet and better skin care instead of toxic aluminum-containing antiperspirants.
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