Beware of your cosmetics !

Do you use every day the same cosmetics and skin products like moisturizing cream, anti wrinkle cream, foundation, mascara, lipstick, sunscreen, tanning cream, shaving gel, hairstyling gel? If so, maybe it would worth a shot to take a look of what’s inside your bottles and search for these ingredients :

• PROPYLPARABEN
• METHYLPARABEN
• BUTYLPARABEN
• ETHYLPARABEN
• PROPYL P-HYDROXYBENZOATE
• BENZOIC ACID
• 4-HYDROXY- PROPYL ESTER
• SODIUM 4 – PROPOXYCARBONYLPHENOXIDE
• PARAHYDROXYBENZOATE

If you find any of these in your products, I strongly suggest you to start looking for a new cosmetic brand, because paraben has been shown to be harmful to your health.

What are these parabens?

They are chemicals used as preservatives in personal care products. You could even find some in your toothpaste ! The efficacy as preservatives combined with the cheap production cost makes them an ideal choice for cosmetics companies that don’t care much about your health.

Why should we be worried ?

Parabens can pass through your skin without alerting your body, therefore the hydrolase enzyme called esterase cannot seperate the molecule to excrete it. It has been shown that this toxin has estrogen properties. In fact, it acts like estrogen in your body and can attack your genes. (1) They also inhibit sulfotransferase enzymes that are essential for phase II detoxification in your liver. (1) They actually make you worse at detoxifying toxins like parabens ! It has also been shown that parabens reduce testosterone in males and can activate genes responsible for prostate cancer. (2) As for females, studies show that parabens activates breat cancer genes. (3)(4) A recent study has observed in breast cancer patients different tissue samples and they found one paraben ester in 99% of them and at least 5 parabens in 60% of the samples. (6) This study confirms potentially the genotoxic activity of these toxins.

We should ask us serious questions concerning companies that use parabens in their sunscreen products since studies show a strong synergy between UV waves and parabens leading to an accelerated skin aging, cells destruction, genetic damage and oxidative stress ! (5)

The solution ?

Some companies care for our health and therefore make organic products without any form of paraben.

Here’s a few of them :

• Eminence
• Organic Skin Care Online
• Lavera
• Miessence
• Kibio
• Weleda

Use these kind of companies if you want to improve your health. Good shopping !

References
1- Philippa D. Darbre, Philip W. Harvey. Paraben esters: review of recent studies of endocrine toxicity, absorption, esterase and human exposure, and discussion of potential human health risks. Journal of Applied Toxicology Volume 28, Issue 5, pages 561–578, July 2008.
2- S. Oishi. Effects of propyl paraben on the male reproductive system. Food and Chemical Toxicology Volume 40, Issue 12, December 2002, Pages 1807-1813.
3- Darbre PD: Environmental oestrogens, cosmetics and breast cancer. Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab 2006, 20:121-143
4- Govindaraj Shanmugam, Babu Rajendran Ramaswamy, et al. GC–MS method for the determination of paraben preservatives in the human breast cancerous tissue. Microchemical Journal Volume 96, Issue 2, November 2010, Pages 391-396.
5- Osamu Handa, Satoko Adachi, Tomohisa Takagi et al. (3 October 2006). “Methylparaben potentiates UV-induced damage of skin keratinocytes”. Toxicology 227 (1-2): 62–72.
6- Philippa D Darbre. Underarm antiperspirants/deodorants and breast cancer. Breast Cancer Research 2009, 11(Suppl 3)

Vincent Paradis
JFT International