Body odor is actually a by product of the sweat coming into contact with the bacteria normally present on your skin. Eliminate the sweat or bacteria, and you have eliminated body odor. However, it is very unhealthy to try to stop your body from sweating. In fact, your body needs to sweat to rid itself of toxins and to regulate your body's temperature. Most commercial deodorants are also anti-perspirants too, and here lies the important difference.
Deodorants mask the smell of body odour, which is actually bacteria.
Anti-perspirants block the pores of the skin to stop you from perspiring, but the problem here is that, especially with your underarms, this stops your glands from excreting toxins from your system. Apart form the nasty amounts of aluminium these products contain, there is also a growing amount of evidence to support the theory that anti-perspirants could cause a build up of toxins in your system that can aggravate and possibly cause such serious things as breast cancer. Most antiperspirants contain aluminum chlorohydrate or aluminum zirconium, both of which are highly soluble and readily absorbed into the skin. Once in the body, the aluminum passes freely across cell membranes and is absorbed by the liver, kidney, brain, cartilage and bone marrow. It is this concentration of aluminum that has been the source for concern in the medical community and has prompted extensive research into aluminum-based blood poisoning and other conditions.