You’ll find parabens in many health and beauty products. They’re chemicals that are added to the products to preserve them and make them last longer. They basically kill things like bacteria and fungus that would otherwise spoil the product. But there’s been increasing discussion and concern that parabens may be bad for you. So let’s take a look at why parabens may be bad for you.
Why are parabens bad for you?
There are a number of reasons that parabens may be bad for you.
Firstly, many people have allergies to them and so they can cause skin irritation and rashes. This is particularly true for those with sensitive skin. And this can be a big problem because obviously many beauty products have to come into contact with your skin.
Parabens have also been shown to affect your hormone balance and mimic oestrogen. This is a special worry as oestrogen is thought to be involved in the causing of breast cancer. While there’s no definitive proof of a certain link between parabens and breast cancer, many women choose not to take the risk and so they avoid products containing parabens.
Parabens can also result in lower testosterone levels in men.
Alternatives to parabens
Nowadays, there are many products available that are paraben-free. They contain only natural ingredients instead. There used to be a problem with the effectiveness of such products in the past, but many of them now work just as well as their chemical-based equivalents.
Whether or not you opt to avoid parabens and use more natural products is really an individual choice until there is further proof of parabens link to cancer. Of course, if the parabens cause problems for your skin then you’ll probably want to avoid them anyway.
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