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Health

Your own sweat could be used to produce a natural antiperspirant

By Ibrahim Sawal

16 November 2020

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

There may be another way to deal with sweat

Tara Moore/Getty Images

Your sweat could help stop you sweating, thanks to naturally occurring minerals such as salt and calcium that could block sweat ducts to act as an antiperspirant.

Jonathan Boreyko at Virginia Tech was inspired to investigate the potential antiperspirant properties of sweat after an intense game of squash, when he noticed that salt crystals had formed on his skin.

“If you could evaporate the sweat when it’s still inside the sweat duct, then maybe that sticky white salt deposit might clog the duct,” he says.

Commercial antiperspirants…

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