Antiperspirant Alters the Microbial Ecosystem on Your Skin

Hannah Beldotti

Current Event 8

November 16, 2017

Mr. Ippolito

“Antiperspirant Alters the Microbial Ecosystem on Your Skin”

North Carolina State University. "Antiperspirant alters the microbial ecosystem

on your skin." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 Nov. 2017.

<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/160202090529.htm>.

Bacteria can live on the skin of the human body and more commonly in the armpit. The cause of this bacteria in this region of our bodies is deodorant or antiperspirant. To further prove the point that the use of antiperspirant/deodorant can cause more bacteria, scientists and researchers performed a study. Seventeen people were gathered and the participants consisted of; three men and four women who used antiperspirant products; three men and two women who used deodorant and; three men and two women who used neither of the products. This experiment took eight days, where each day the participants would have swabs taken of their armpits between 11 a.m. and 1 a.m. The following sentences explain what scientist Julie Horvath, co-author of the paper, assistant head of the genomics and microbiology laboratory at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, and adjunct professor of entomology at NC State, observed, “We found that, on the first day, people using antiperspirant had fewer microbes in their samples than people who didn't use product at all -- but there was a lot of variability, making it hard to draw firm conclusions," Horvath says. "In addition, people who used deodorant actually often had more microbes -- on average -- than those who didn't use product. By the third day, participants who had used antiperspirant were beginning to see more microbial growth. And by day six, the amount of bacteria for all study participants was fairly comparable.However, once all participants began using antiperspirant on days seven and eight, we found very few microbes on any of the participants, verifying that these products dramatically reduce microbial growth.” Later in the article, the authors explains a comparison between humans now and primates. They found that the microbial ecosystems found in the armpits of humans were less diverse than those of the primates. The following sentence said by scientist Julie Horvath perfectly sums up the study. “Over evolutionary time, we would expect our microbes to co-evolve with us," she says. She then continues to say, "But we appear to have altered that process considerably through our habits, from bathing to taking steps to change the way we look or smell." I chose this article because I thought the study was interesting and could relate to life.

This study discussed in this article is important to society because some the author also states that some deodorants contain carcinogens. Carcinogens are, “substances capable of causing cancer in living tissue.” One thing people can do to prevent the use of these products is research to find that some deodorants such as Native are paraben free. The author does a great job of incorporating evidence to further her statements made. For example, she says, “The participants who had been regular antiperspirant users coming into the study had wildly different results. Sixty percent of their microbes were Staphylococcaceae, only 14 percent were Corynebacteria, and more than 20 percent were filed under "other" -- meaning they were a grab-bag of opportunistic bacteria.” This allows the reader to interpret the experiment and understand how it relates to the study. Also, not only does the author provide explanation on the experiments conducted, he also references a published paper,  Proceedings of the Royal Society B. He says, “the researchers, in addition to collaborators at Duke and the University of Pennsylvania, examined the diversity and abundance of microbes found in the armpits of humans, compared to other primates: chimpanzees, gorillas, baboons and rhesus macaques. In that paper, the researchers found that armpit microbes have evolved over time in conjunction with the primates they live on. But the microbial ecosystems found in the armpits of humans are vastly different -- and far less diverse -- than those found in our primate relatives.” It is important when discussing a study to have multiple examples of evidence to support what you are arguing. One thing the author could have included is how this affects society and what we could use as alternatives.

Overall, I thought this article was interesting as it directly related to us as human beings. I learned that one part of my morning routine can potentially have lousy affects.