What’s the fuss over paraben-free cosmetics?

In brief, parabens are cheap and found everywhere.

They mimic hormones in the body, in particular oestrogen and studies suggest that they increase cancer. The problem is that they are the second most common ingredient in cosmetics after water!

 

Yes they are commonly found in nearly all cosmetics – shampoos, moisturizers and make-up. They have been used as a cheap way to prevent bacteria, mould and fungus. But parabens are bad preservatives. Cheap, convenient and all pervasive does not mean healthy.

 

Like high fructose corn syrup, the price has made their use ubiquitous. In a study in the United Kingdom,  released in January 2012 in the Journal of Applied Toxicology (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jat.1786/abstract),  the authors found parabens in 99% of the women with breast cancer. This is an incredibly high rate for a man-made compound that is not naturally found and is known to mimic oestrogen.

 

The actual way that parabens impact the body is still not known and their toxicity is still a subject of debate. An European Scientific Committee argued that methyl paraben and ethyl paraben are not “subject of concern”, but that propyl and butyl paraben still needed to be reviewed (http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_risk/committees/04_sccp/docs/sccp_o_138.pdf).

 

But it is clear that they all have weak oestrogenic activity and have been shown to induce the growth of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells in vitro (http://www.altmedrev.com/publications/15/3/190.pdf). Dr S Oishi showed that parabens impact the secretion of testosterone in new-born male mammals in 2002 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12419695) in Japan. .

 

Walter Crinnion notes that while the current consensus is that parabens’ effect on health is due to more than oestrogen mimicry, it is also recognized that methyl and propyl parabens are potent inhibitors of the mitochondrial function (http://www.altmedrev.com/publications/15/3/190.pdf). Mitochondria are the energy factories of the cells. Their correct functioning is crucial to life itself and not something to be tampered with lightly.

 

It can take the body years to get rid of parabens. We have the knowledge and ability to avoid them, so let’s do just that.

4 thoughts on “What’s the fuss over paraben-free cosmetics?

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