Can antiperspirants cause breast cancer?

Before rushing to conclusions, let's consider the reasons why antiperspirants found their names linked to breast cancer in the first place. It all started with an English study that found parabens in the breast cancer tissue samples. And then it continued with another, English again, research showing that aluminum hydrochloride can bind to the estrogen receptors. Why is this significant? It is an axiom in human physiology that estrogen results in tissue proliferation, in other words rapid cell division. Overexposure to estrogen, as in hormone-replacement therapy for example, may result in higher risk for breast cancer. It is not a secret that some types of breast cancer are directly estrogen-related. Thus, any chemical that resembles estrogen can have the same effects as the actual hormone.

According to the above-mentioned studies, both parabens and aluminum hydrochloride can bind to the estrogen receptors and cause the transcription of the estrogen gene, resulting in the body's production of more estrogen. Parabens and aluminum hydrochloride are not the only known xenoestrogens, or foreign, external estrogens; there are around 70,000 of them, and virtually all of them have been introduced into our organism in the past 70 years by the industrial and agricultural processes. Estrogen-like substances are known to be potent endocrine system disruptors, contributing and possibly causing a variety of disorders, from breast and prostate cancer to low sperm counts, that according to the recent studies have dropped by as much as 65% for men in America.

So the question remains: can antiperspirants cause cancer? The truth is we do not have enough data to point to that conclusion. What we do know for sure is that xenoestrogens mimic the effects of estrogen in our bodies, resulting in tissue proliferation and altered immune responses.

To read more about the metalloestrogen research visit: http://www.cancerpage.com/news/article.asp?id=9466

The original article is available here in the Journal of Applied Toxicology: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/112438172/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

Paraben research links: The following article cites and references 13 studies that showed paraben's estrogen-like properties. http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/pp.asp?c=kwKXLdPaE&b=1203361