Apocrine glands
Presence of apocrine glands sets armpits, anal-genital area and ears apart from the rest of the body surface. In addition to the watery eccrine sweat, apocrine glands produce yellowish milk-like composition. It does not smell much, but, allegedly, provides food for the actual odor producers. The stinky substances are believed to be their excrements.
Teleologically speaking, seems like it is not known what apocrine glands are for. Some authors assume their function is to create body odor. There are speculations that it may play certain role in social and sexual interactions. If so, it may be against the Nature's intention to cancel it.
How strong body odors might be evolutionary beneficial, and if they were, why people do all sorts of things to get rid of them (even consider suicide)? If armpit secretion plays some role in socialization, do odor producing organisms broadcast the message or jam it? And do deodorants make it any clearer? Let's not pretend we may have answers to those questions. Kill your body odor and see. If you don't like living without it, you can always get it back.
Note that (except for the specialized form producing earwax) apocrine glands are located in places where body parts rub together when we walk or run. It is only natural to suppose that apocrine secretion provide lubrication and protects the skin from infections.
Discovered lately has been anomalous apoeccrine gland (the name reflects that it reminds both eccrine and apocrine glands). You may want to look for this keyword on your own.
Antiperspirant rash
- skin condition occurring after occasional antiperspirant use, commonly diagnosed as contact dermatitis (see in Antiperspirants and deodorants). In our experiments ceased to happen in the absence of bad armpit odor.
Apparently antiperspirant rash reflects dramatic changes in underarm community. We have no idea what exactly going on, but, clearly, once you get all those guys on your skin, you have to feed them, or kill them. Antiperspirant destroys their habitat. They struggle for life, etc. It is unusual, cruel and ineffective technology.
Seems like antiperspirant rash also reveals infection and maps it in a way Wood's lamp does. Unfortunately, there are not so many people prone to it. It may serve as an important diagnostic tool otherwise.
Antiperspirants and deodorants
Antiperspirants and deodorants are the major modern technology of body odor control.
Deodorants fight (or mask) the odor itself. Some of them are also claimed to suppress bacteria, without being able to exterminate them.
Antiperspirants attack the problem from another angle: they block sweating. This seems to be not a good idea to many. Rumors blame antiperspirants for skin and breast cancer. Medical sources fiercely deny the worst, but sometimes admit connection between antiperspirants and "harmless" skin lumps.
There are other concerns, too, including allergy. Scientifically this group of problems is often called contact dermatitis. Specialist, however, may express very different opinions about it. Compare that The Internet Dermatology Society and The American Academy of Dermatology have posted regarding the same issue.
The government is represented by US Food and Drug Administration. Antiperspirants and deodorants fall into the scope of its Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CSFAN), being considered cosmetics. FDA's documents library is searchable, and contains lots of interesting data. Consider their publication on contact dermatitis, for example.
The most relevant industry alliance seems to be Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association (CTFA).
Safety considerations
No significant safety concerns have been found so far. This, of course, does not guarantee that you are not going to be the first to encounter one.
The following issues are currently under consideration. Your questions and suggestions are welcome. Please feel free to submit your message using any of our contact tools.
1 Drug use
We stay away from new or problematic drugs, using only field-proven non-prescriprion products, namely undecylenic acid, clotrimazole, miconazole, tolnaftate (Schering-Plough Tinactin, or the like), terbinafine (Lamisil of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, also sold by this company under the older brand name DesenexMax, not to be mixed with other Desenexes).
Some substances are believed to be absorbed much faster in armpits, than through the "normal" skin - we can only wonder about vagina, or places between fingers and toes, where antifungal medicines are often applied. Anyway, the following calculations may bring at least some peace of mind.
Topical LamisilAT cream contains 1% of terbinafine, and, even using it very liberally, one can hardly consume a 24 g tube in 1 week of armpits treatment. This gives, say, 30 mg of active ingredient per day, or 210 mg per course.
Terbinafine is also produced in a prescription-only form (Lamisil), as 250 mg tablets, for curing fungal infections of nails. Systemic treatment lasts from 6 (for fingernails) to 12 (toenails) weeks, one tablet per day. So, in overall a patient consume 250 mg daily (8 times more than it is applied to the skin in case of topical treatment), and from 10 to 20 g per course.
The only oral form of clotrimazole found in governmental databases is Mycelex Troches (or lozenges). This is not a systemic drug. Clotrimazole is supposed to pass through gastrointestinal tract, being only partially absorbed to the body. Each troche contains 10 mg of clotrimazole. The typical dose is 5 troches a day for 14 days. This makes 50 mg daily, 700 mg altogether. Let’s suppose that in topical use we bring to the skin the same 30 mg a day, 420 mg per two weeks course.
Tolnaftate and miconazole are for topical use only. Worst side effect reported on tolnaftate is skin irritation. Miconazole may also cause rapid heartbeat. Find out what is high blood pressure range
Safety data are easy to misinterpret. Good example is ethylene glycol, commonly used as car antifreeze. If you request information regarding toxicity of this substance, you’ll think it’s a terrible poison, so huge the threat seems to be. In fact, ethylene glycol is very little toxic. An adult human must drink a glass of it to die. The problem is (1) that antifreeze is found in large quantities in obscure places, and (2) kids and pets like it because it is sweet to taste.
Undecylenic acid is labeled highly toxic in cosmetology, and low toxic in medicine. Although officially it is for topical use only, it is said to cause fever, headache, nausea and vomiting. The most probable explanation is that the folks suffering from gastrointestinal candidiasis inofficially eat undecylenic acid with tablespoons. A dose of 20 g per day is believed to be safe. By the way, undecylenic acid is also approved as a pesticide for cats and dogs.
Drug profiles now found in many places on the Web often look copycatted from each other, and, when it gets to the side effects, are not specific on how the information has been received. Ubiquitous horror stories like rapid heartbeat after vaginal miconazole use, or blistering from clotrimazole (hopefully occurred somewhere else), might have been reported only once. Some observations may also have to do with heavy doses typical for AIDS-related administration of drugs.
There are few universal precautions we follow: perusing drugs manuals and other sources, paying attention to minor details like drying the skin before applying the cream, and trying any medicine on a small spot first.
2 Special conditions
Since topical fungal infections are not life threatening, it is not known if the medicines we use are safe during pregnancy and breastfeeding (even though some of them are proven to be harmless on mice, and are administered to young children).
It is also not advisable to treat your armpits when you are taking another medication, although only minor interactions of this kind have been reported.
3 Other infections
Once the primary odor-producing factor has been exterminated, some other microorganisms may take this opportunity and occupy the niche. Nothing is certain (and little is certainly good or bad) in this area. Only time can tell how stable the odorless condition achieved through medication can be, and what other conditions can arise from it.
Phenomena like presumable Candida albicans proliferation in the gastrointestinal tract when competing bacteria got suppressed with antibiotics are rather rear. To the best of our knowledge Coryneform bacteria inhabiting armpits are not considered to be our symbionts. We could not find anything particularly good about them, except for their ability to sell antiperspirants and deodorants. Historically we humans have cleaned our skins from many perils. Armpit malodor producers may very well become another one.
We keep looking for reliable evidences that now, or at any moment in the past there are, or were people susceptible to armpit malodor, but living without it for a while. We are also trying hard to create such evidences.
Before medication it makes sense to save "mugshots", or backup copies of your armpit biocenosis on shirts or cloth pads. Safety measures taken after medication are: checking the odor several times a day, checking the skin condition (visually) at least once a day, and avoiding surfactants on armpits.
4 Antimicrobial resistance
The following "definition" is borrowed from Antimicrobial Resistance Glossary of federal governmental Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Antimicrobial resistance is the result of microbes changing in ways that reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of drugs, chemicals, or other agents to cure or prevent infections.
First of all, it make sense to mention that mutagenic properties of drugs are now routinely tested. Tests results are published by drug producers, and approved by FDA. We have not found any evidences that the drugs we use have ever shown mutagenic effect on microbes (or laboratory animals).
With that in mind we try to limit a number of medications even for experimental purposes, make each of them as complete as possible, and exclude transmission of microorganisms after treatment to other persons.
Antifungal medicines (same as Fungicides)
Fungicides or Antifungal medicines
(fungi killers)
Over-the-counter (or OTC) antifungal drugs are not specific to particular fungal infections. Since fungi are different from us biochemically, and, as far as we know, none of them are considered our helpers or friends, the strategy of antifungal treatment is "kill them all, let the god sort them out".
OTC fungicides do not kill every living cell around. They specifically target fungal cells. Clotrimazole and other azoles, as well as tolnaftate and Lamisil essentially do the same. They deplete ergosterol, the substance playing the same role for fungi that choleste rol plays in our bodies. This leads to deterioration of fungal cell membranes.
Some doctors recommend antifungal medicines against certain bacterial skin infections too, although we could not find out how they are supposed to work. If the official bacterial theory of armpit odor is correct, fungicides may be considered as safe and effective bactericides available without prescription.
Marketing is a different issue. Checking with local pharmacies and groceries we have found, for example, orange-labeled Schering-Plough's Lotrimin cream in feet hygiene section. The label says: Lotrimin AF, Cures athlete's foot, ACTIVE INGREDIENT: Clotrimazole 1%, INACTIVE INGREDIENTS (let us skip those).
Usually there is another yellow-labeled Lotrimin nearby. The label says it cures jock itch (another instance of fungal infection). Predictably, active and inactive ingredients are exactly the same.
There also is Gyne-Lotrimin in femine hygiene sections. This one is supposed to cure vaginal infections. The packaging is very special, but the content has been changed very little. Specifically, water is replaced with purified water - probably, out of respect to the place.
Additionally, the same clotrimazole under the name of Lotrimin comes in different forms, like liquid, powder, etc. And it can be shop-branded too, just let us tell you that we had unsatisfying results with some shop brands.
Depending on the brand, some other common fungal infections may be mentioned in drug directions, like so-called ring worm (it's a fungus, not a worm). Still there are tens of those not mentioned. Apparently, they are not supposed to be recognized by lay people. OK, we just wanted to give you some idea of how this market operates in the US.
Here goes the list of non-prescription fungicides available here in central Ohio.
| Active Ingredient | Brand | Use |
| Clotrimazole | Many | Both |
| Miconazole | Many | Both |
| Econazole | Many | Both |
| Tioconazole | Many | Both |
| Undecylenic Acid | Many | Topical |
| Terbinafine Hydrochloride | Lamisil | Topical with restrictions* |
| Tolnaftate | Many | Topical |
*Among other reservations it is mentioned that Lamilis should not be applied to nails and scalp.
Filling the 3rd column (Use) we did not pay attention to labels, checking with National Institute of Health database of drugs instead. It provides actual names of active ingredients, brand names, description, directions to use, precautions, possible side effects, etc.
OTC fungicides come in a variety of forms. You may find the same active ingredients in different compositions packaged as liquids, sprays, powders, tissues, and so forth.