Dear Beauty Conscious Reader,
Not long ago, I discovered I was poisoning my baby.
It wasn’t intentional. In fact, I thought I was doing everything right.
But then she developed a rash…
At first, I thought it was an allergy, but it wouldn’t go away.
I suspected it was eczema, so I took her to the pediatrician. He confirmed my diagnosis and recommended heavy ointments and creams to keep her moisturized.
The creams would improve her condition a little bit for a couple of days. But the rash kept coming back and getting worse.
I knew I had to become a detective and figure out what was causing the problem.
So I took a close look at all the baby care items I had been using. Those sweet-smelling baby lotions, shampoos, and diaper ointments.
That’s when I began to figure it out…
They all contained parabens. And parabens are bad news!
Had I continued using these products, I would have been leading my daughter down a path toward early puberty, fertility problems, and, even worse, breast cancer.
The worst thing about it is that parabens are found in almost all personal-care products. You’ll find them in shampoo, lotion, shaving cream, deodorant, and more.
You probably use them on your body every single day of your life. And since your skin is the largest organ of your body, these nasty chemicals go straight into your bloodstream.
Once they get inside of you, they mimic estrogen, disrupt your endocrine system, and throw your hormones out of whack.
So I’ve been warning my patients about them. Especially since so many of them have come to me with hormonal issues.
Most of them are already aware that they need to stay away from hormone disruptors like plastics and pesticides. They also know to eat hormone-free chicken and eggs.
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Types of Parabens Parabens show up on ingredient lists under any of the following names.
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But nobody has ever told them that what they put on their bodies is contributing to the problem and increasing their risk of breast cancer.
Here’s what you can do right away to stop poisoning your body with these estrogen mimickers and reduce your chances of getting breast cancer:
1) Read the ingredients in your skin-care products just as carefully as you do your food labels. Avoid anything that has the word “paraben” at the end of it.
2) Look for products with natural preservatives. Some of the best are grapefruit seed extract, citrus seed, potassium sorbate, sorbic acid, phenoxyethanol, and vitamins A, C, and E.
3) Don’t trust the “all-natural” label. Just because a product says it’s natural, it doesn’t mean there aren’t parabens in it. So be sure to check the ingredient list even if the front of the label makes it look safe.
Best Wishes for Health and Beauty,
Tara Smith, ARNP, NP-C