These toxic beauty ingredients are not worth dying for

Here’s the skinny on a rather touchy subject: The ugly truth is that there are harmful chemicals hidden in beauty products, which a lot of us may not be aware of. While the incurable romantics swear that beauty is not skin-deep, our skin is our largest, thinnest organ. According to health activist Dr. Joseph Mercola, “less than 1/10th of an inch separates our body from potential toxins. Your skin being highly permeable, just about anything you put on your skin will end up in your blood stream, and will be distributed throughout your body.”

Which is why Dr. Mercola likes to say, “Don’t put anything on your body that you wouldn’t eat if you had to…”

In the billion-dollar beauty industry, notes Mercola, money reigns supreme. And who’s watching out for consumers? The FDA? Well, think again! “It’s caveat emptor — ‘buyer beware.’ You need to be the captain of your own ship and know what’s in the products you use.”

Mercola adds, “Currently, there are estimated to be more than 10,500 cosmetic and personal care products on the North American market. Of those products, the Environmental Working Group estimates that 99% contains one or more ingredients that have never been evaluated for safety.”

Check your beauty products and see if they contain these harmful ingredients:

• Parabens: Heavily used preservatives, they are found in 13,200 cosmetic and skincare products. Studies linked them with cancer because of their hormone-disrupting qualities which mimic estrogen and can disrupt the body’s endocrine system.

• Mineral oil, paraffin, and petrolatum: They coat the skin like plastic, thus clogging pores and creating a toxin buildup. They can slow cellular development, creating earlier signs of aging. Worse, disrupting hormonal activity, they’re suspected to cause cancer.

• Sodium laurel or lauryl sulfate (a.k.a. sodium laureth sulfate: Found in over 90 percent of personal care products, they break down the skin’s moisture barrier, causing dry skin and premature aging.

• Acrylamide: Found in many facial creams, it’s been linked to mammary tumors.

• Propylene glycol: Found in common cosmetic moisturizers and fragrance oils, it may cause dermatitis and skin irritation. It’s been associated with kidney and liver problems.

• Phenol carbolic acid: Found in many lotions and skin creams, it can cause paralysis, convulsion, coma, and even death from respiratory failure.

• Dioxane: Hidden in ingredients like polysorbates and laureth, it’s common in personal care products. Easily absorbed through the skin, it’s carcinogenicity was first reported in 1965 and confirmed in studies, such as that of the National Cancer Institute, in 1978.

• Toluene: Made from petroleum and coal tar, and found in most synthetic fragrances, it may be very poisonous. Chronic exposure to toluene has been linked to anemia, lowered blood cell count, liver or kidney damage. Warning to pregnant women: It may affect a developing fetus.

Just as you probably take care of what you put in your mouth, you should beware of what you put on your skin. Because it’s “absorbed into your bloodstream and integrated into your body’s tissues. A number of these potential toxins have estrogen-mimicking effects that can wreak havoc on all your good health intentions,” Mercola warns.

So, what’s the key to beauty minus harmful toxins?

Mercola gives these top beauty tips:

• Eat according to your nutritional type with plenty of fresh raw organic foods in your diet, and get enough omega-3 fats.

• Exercise. Through exercise, your skin detoxifies impurities from your system — what you know as perspiration.

• Clean your skin — just like keeping your internal organs clean and healthy. Every day of your life, pollution, grime, and dust attach themselves to the surface of your skin.

And now, take the Hippocratic oath for skin care (“First, do no harm”) and take to heart these tips:

• Avoid or minimize damage from hot water and chlorine. Although taking baths and showers may seem like it’s health-promoting and relaxing, your skin may disagree — especially if you have chlorinated water, which is almost certainly the case (unless your water comes from a well).

Chlorine causes oxidative damage. The hotter the water, the more potential for damage (because the rate of chemical reactions increases with temperature. Take double note: Hot water may cause your skin to age faster.

• Use gentle and safe skincare products — organic whenever possible. Your skin absorbs it all. Be very sure to remove your makeup each evening. It’s a really bad idea to flop into bed, leaving makeup — not to mention environmental grime — on your face while you sleep.

• Sleep on your back. Gravity creates a downward drag on your skin all day. Give your skin a break at night. By sleeping on your back, you reduce gravitational pull on your face. If you press your face to your pillow, you will likely experience increased puffiness in the morning.

Now, isn’t that beautiful? –Ching M. Alano (The Philippine Star)

* * *

We’d love to hear from you. E-mail us at ching_alano@yahoo.com