Nontoxic antiperspirants:

Our physically active reader last week is tired of changing his t-shirt twice a day. He’s looking for an effective antiperspirant that is also nontoxic as he’s just recovered from cancer. Do any of our readers have any advice to help him out, he wondered? No sweat. Several readers point out that there is a difference between antiperspirants that, as the name suggests, stop you perspiring, and deodorants, which make the sweat smell sweeter. As perspiring is the body’s way of getting rid of toxins, it’s not a process with which to interfere. Most of our readers’ recommendations are deodorants, they don’t contain aluminium, and they don’t stop you sweating. One reader says that her two active teenage boys have put a sports deodorant called Thursday Plantation through its paces, and it has worked well. Its base is tea tree oil, and it contains no aluminium. It’s available from Wellbeing (Tel: 0121 444 6585). Several readers recommended Forever Living’s aloe Evershield deodorant, which came out top on a recent Richard and Judy show. You can hope for no higher accolade. Another tea tree-based deodorant is suggested by one reader, who swears by one made by a company called Melaleuca. Even a drop of tea tree oil placed on a wet hand and then rubbed on the underarm area should do the trick, another reader suggests. Or you can pop into your local trust Boots Pharmacy and buy some Bionsen, or they will make some up for you, says another reader. Forget Boots and go instead to your local health shop and buy a crystal such as Rok, or PitRok. This can be applied to wet skin, or you can wet the crystal first. If it’s not effective straight away, have a bowel/liver cleanse, after which it should work fine. It’s a point made by several other readers, who were surprised that our questioner found the Neways product was not effective. Perhaps the lymph system needs to rid the body of toxins first, which the Neways product allows to happen, so it might just be a matter of time. If the problem persists, our reader may need to detox. Another reader always drinks up to two litres of water a day with the Neways deodorant, and it seems to be effective. A natural alternative is bi-carbonate of soda, which should be dabbed on after showering, or there’s a product called Dry By Nature, from Desert Essence, the Deodorant Stone from Tools for Energy Balance and Health (Tel: 0845 658 0012), or Green People’s Deokrystall, which won top marks for natural deodorants from our sister publication Proof. Then there’s Crystal Spring’s deodorant, which is made from mineral salts.