You might have heard about the dangers of parabens but still wonder how bad they could be.
Are parabens bad or are they perfectly safe? They're in so many of the skin products we use every day, so how could they be dangerous? The answer is all about what these chemicals can do to your body and how little it costs to use them in skin products.
If you've ever read about parabens and why people avoid them, you might have heard about them being thought to cause cancer.
You might have heard that they are artificial chemicals that shouldn't be placed on the skin.
What you might not have heard is what recent studies have said about the dangers of parabens.
While people have been wary of parabens for quite a while, it wasn't until fairly recently that studies started to show how these substances are negatively affecting the people who use them.
If you use a skin care product that contains them, you are putting something on your skin that will mimic the effects of estrogen.
That chemical is then absorbed through the skin and enters the rest of the body.
As you may know, being exposed to estrogen is a major cause of breast cancer in women.
Parabens are now thought to have this same kind of impact on the body, increasing the chances of getting breast cancer.
Some scientists also think it may be harmful for pregnant women to use anything that contains parabens because of the effects then can have on the baby.
In male babies, having something that is acting like estrogen on their bodies can be especially harmful.
Some are starting to make a link between parabens in skin care products and the declining fertility of men.
If babies are getting parabens in their bodies just as their bodies are forming, these chemicals may cause problems that are difficult if not impossible to reverse.
Are parabens bad in small doses? Parabens are preservatives that are used in makeup, lotions and skin products of all types.
There are other things that can be used to keep products fresh, but some companies simply aren't bothering to use them.
This means that the parabens can build up in your body from many different sources.
If you've ever wondered why products use then when the dangers of using them are becoming known, there's a pretty simple answer.
They're cheap.
They are used far too often as fillers to save money for skin care companies who don't want to use more expensive ingredients that would be better for you.
Most companies care a lot less about what goes on your skin than they do what goes in their bank accounts.
It isn't just the cheap products that use parabens, unfortunately.
Many of the pricier products also use them to keep their costs down.
So, if you want to avoid parabens all together, look for products that specifically tell you that they don't use parabens.
A company that goes through the trouble of using something more expensive and more difficult to get is a company that cares about what's going into its products.
Are parabens bad? More and more studies are saying that they are.
Do you really want to use something on your skin that might cause cancer, especially when there are alternatives? Find a company that takes the dangers of parabens seriously and you've found a company you can trust with your skin as well as with your health.