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Beauty Without Harm from Healthy Living by David Steinman
Who would have thought that the simple choice of a shampoo could affect your breast cancer risk?
Yet, when it comes to breast health, cosmetics and personal care products could be a tipping point for improving or worsening your risk profile. Choose the right products, and you can nurture beauty without causing harm.
Estrogen in shampoo?
The latest science shows clearly that altogether too many of the most popular cosmetics and personal care products—from shampoos to skin lotions—contain ingredients that act just like the female hormone estrogen. As many women now know, exposure to highly persistent toxic forms of synthetic estrogenic chemicals, or even estrogen drugs, can increase breast-cancer risk. Among those consumer products known to contain synthetic estrogenic substances are cosmetics. This suggests that a large number of cosmetic and personal care products could increase women's breast cancer risk.
Think of it this way. In the last few years, women have been advised to avoid long-term estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) because estrogen drugs can stimulate breast cancer as well as ovarian and uterine cancers; yet, because the information about the dangers of cosmetics is relatively recent, women have been told practically nothing about avoiding cosmetics that also contain estrogenic chemicals.
Supermarket Roulette
I went to the local upscale supermarket to look at the most popular cosmetic and personal care products women use today—from shampoos to skin lotions. Examining their labels, it became very clear that most companies continue to use suspect ingredients, despite growing evidence of their potential harm.
Take, for example, Jergens skin lotion, available at almost any supermarket. The product contains paraben preservatives (methyl-, ethyl-, propyl-, and butyl-paraben). Paraben preservatives have been identified as clear-cut xenoestrogens (substances that have the potential to act like the female hormone estrogen in women's bodies). Revlon Flex Shampoo, Redken All Soft Shampoo and St. Ives Advanced Therapy Lotion contain parabens. The list goes on. Just look at the product labels in your own home and you will probably see many products containing parabens (unless of course you purchase paraben-free products, such as those from Aubrey Organics).
See No Evil?
But this is just the beginning of what women should watch out for. At least parabens are listed on product labels, and savvy shoppers can avoid them.
On the other hand, phthalates, which also imitate toxic forms of estrogen, are not listed on labels. Yet many cosmetic and personal care products contain phthalates (pronounced thalates), in particular, dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), and dibutyl phthalate (DBP), because they deliver benefits that are difficult to otherwise achieve, according to the Phthalate Information Center, an industry-sponsored website. Phthalates provide flexibility to products like hair sprays (making them less stiff on the hair) and nail polishes (so they don't chip as easily). Phthalates also extend the scent release of perfumes.
Every American and European fragrance the nonprofit Environmental Working Group tested contained phthalates. European deodorants EWG recently tested also all contain phthalates. When testing 72 name-brand, off-the-shelf beauty products for the presence of phthalates, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics lab found phthalates in nearly three quarters of the products tested, though the chemicals were not listed on any of the labels.
More Than Skin Deep
Why should these two ingredients be of concern to women? These chemicals go only skin deep, right? In fact, because phthalates aren't always strongly bonded to the materials to which they are added, they can be absorbed into the human body either through inhalation or through the skin. Parabens are also extremely well absorbed via the skin. Leave-on products, such as facial make-up and skin lotions, are of greatest concern because of the long exposure time and opportunity for migration via the skin into the bloodstream. Their use in cosmetics is particularly troubling because their absorption into the bloodstream bypasses the gastrointestinal tract where they might be broken down. In other words, cosmetic products likely deliver one of the most potent dosages of these toxins.
What's a Woman to Do?
Because the federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act does not require pre-market safety testing for cosmetic products, cosmetic safety is left largely to the industry itself. Experts for the Cosmetic Ingredient Review board have long concluded that topical uses of parabens and phthalates are safe. Unfortunately for consumers, the CIR is composed of industry scientists who are paid by the same industry they oversee for the safety of its cosmetic products. The potential for conflicts of interest is enormous.
There is a better way.
It is called the Aubrey way. Aubrey Hampton founded Aubrey Organics in 1967 as the first truly natural cosmetic company in the United States. Aubrey Organics has never used parabens or phthalates in their cosmetics or personal skin care products. Women never have to worry with Aubrey's cosmetics and personal care products. They are always safe. Aubrey Organics has avoided the use of any other suspect ingredients, such as triethanolamine, diethanolamine, sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, synthetic fragrances, and all other carcinogens or carcinogen precursors. 
In contrast to a skin lotion with parabens, take a look at Aubrey's Rosa Mosqueta® Luxurious Hand & Body Lotion, which contains certified organic aloe vera, plus sunflower, Rosa Mosqueta (rose hip seed), jojoba, geranium and lavender oils. The product uses safe citrus seed extract and vitamins A, C and E as a preservative system.
Their GPB Glycogen Protein Balancing Shampoo contains certified organic ingredients, such as aloe vera, orange pith juice, shea butter, evening primrose oil, jojoba oil, rosemary oil, and Aubrey's preservative complex (citrus seed extract and vitamins A, C and E).
Their hair spray products and perfumes are also phthalate-free.
Aubrey is perhaps the safest and most environmentally green cosmetic line in the world today and also perhaps the very best for delivering great beauty results. Aubrey Organics' organic herbs and nutrients with powerful antioxidant properties replenish your body and nourish your appearance instead of inadvertently attacking your body. That's good.
A Closer Look
Parabens—In a 1998 report in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, researchers from the Department of Biology & Biochemistry, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, found that paraben preservatives are estrogenic. In an estrogen receptor-binding assay, butylparaben was able to compete with the female hormone estradiol and was not much less potent than diethylstilbestrol (DES, a highly carcinogenic synthetic estrogen). In addition, administration of butylparaben into the skin produced a positive estrogenic response on uterine tissues. The researchers conclude, "Given their use in a wide range of commercially available topical preparations, it is suggested that the safety in use of these chemicals should be reassessed..."
In 2005, researchers reported that parabens not only cause human breast cancer cells to proliferate but that they activate estrogen-responsive genes. Offering further evidence for parabens' disturbing effects on breast cancer risk, British researcher Dr. Philippa Darbre and colleagues at the University of Reading carried out tests on samples of 20 different human breast tumors taken from cancer sufferers. Writing in the Journal of Applied Toxicology, they say they found traces of parabens in 20 out of the 20 tumors. Levels of parabens that had been absorbed in four of the tumors were so high that they could have had a damaging biological effect on cells.
Phthalates—Puerto Rico has the highest known incidence of premature thelarche (premature breast development) ever reported, according to researchers reporting in Environmental Health Perspectives.
An investigation was designed by researchers at the University of Puerto Rico and San Juan City Hospital to identify pollutants in the blood serum of Puerto Rican girls with premature thelarche. Forty-one serum samples from thelarche patients and 35 control samples were analyzed. No pesticides or their metabolite residues were detected in the serum of the study or control subjects. However, significantly high levels of phthalates were identified in 28 (68 percent) samples from thelarche patients. Of the control samples analyzed, only one showed significant levels of phthalates. The researchers conclude, "This study suggests a possible association between plasticizers with known estrogenic and antiandrogenic activity and the cause of premature breast development in a human female population."
The phthalates found at significantly elevated levels in the blood serum of young Puerto Rican girls with premature secondary sexual characteristics were dimethyl, diethyl, and dibutyl phthalates-all widely used in cosmetic products.
References available at www.freedompressonline.com.
September 2005
Back to Aubrey Organics
(Resources: the above information was taken from the www.aubrey-organics.com website)
Aubrey's References:
Available at www.freedompressonline.com.
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