You Must Know Guide To Paraben Free

Parabens have had bad press even though they have been around for a very long time. Almost a century now. They were introduced in the 1920s and they were very useful for keeping cosmetic and personal care products from going moldy.

If anyone had mentioned paraben-free then, they would have been laughed out of court. Anything was better than a mouldy product with a very short shelf life.

But now research is pointing up some alarming results which were not even thought about a hundred years ago.  The number of products with these parabens in them is still around the 20,000 marks so you would have thought that they must have passed all the safety tests and that they are harmless.

Instead, it seems they are not if tests reported in the Journal of Applied Toxicology are anything to go by. Similar tests from the University of Reading show comparable results. Both studies looked at women with breast cancer and in 99% of the cases, they found that the women had these parabens in the breast tissue.

This is not to say that this was the cause of cancer.  But would not such a large percentage make you at least suspicious and persuade you to seek a safer alternative?

Let us look at the culprits which are:-

  • methylparaben
  • ethylparaben
  • butylparaben
  • propylparaben
  • benzylparaben

Pick up any moisturizer, hand cream, face wash, or body lotion and there is a very high chance that some of these ingredients will be listed on the label.  Why are they dangerous? These actually mimic estrogen which is one of the causes of cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, estrogen seems to be responsible for about 50% of all breast cancer cases.

Did you know that there is an ingredient called Diindolylmethane which is present in those healthy vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower? By eating lots of these, we can assist the liver to get rid of these parabens. We can take supplements if we are too busy to eat all those greens.

But what about paraben-free and can we buy them easily so that we can protect our health?  The key to finding these is to look for the organic label and you can easily check if this is true by looking to see if any of the culprits I have mentioned above are listed there.

There are natural preservatives that can easily take the place of the parabens but they are not that popular because this means a shorter shelf life for the product. But why should you care about that?

Look out for Euxyl PE9010 (Phenoxyethanol/Ethylhexyl glycerin) and natural Vitamin E. Also, choose a company that packages its products in tubes which means that they can last two years if these natural preservatives are used.  They should also be following GMP practices.

If you want to enjoy great health and superb skin you should be prepared to put some effort into finding the paraben-free lotions.

William Colbert is passionate about natural, organic skincare and has written countless articles to prove that!  Visit his blog to learn more about great natural skincare.

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