Most Womens Websites and magazines will bombard the reader with pushy titles such as this:
Moisturize often
Apply moisturize over your entire face and neck twice a day. Dry aging skin loses its elasticity and wrinkles form around the eyes and mouth. Look for skincare products with special anti-aging ingredients such as Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, retinol, peptides, coenzyme Q10, alpha hydroxy acids and EGCG"What these articles FAIL to mention and even AVOID mentioning is that most non prescription (over the counter) moisturizers contain high amounts of estrogen a substance that a study from August 2008 had shown that induced skin cancer in mice. This has opened the pandoras box of questions about their safety for humans. Four commonly used moisturizers Dermabase, Dermovan (a wholesale-only product discontinued in 2006), Eucerin Original Moisturizing Cream, and Vanicream were tested by researchers at Rutgers University, New Jersey, in the United States and found to be questionable if not poisonous to the human skin.
Allan H. Conney, PhD, the Director of Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research said that sun related skin cancer was shown in the mice and frequent applications of each product resulted in more skin tumors as well as faster tumor growth.
"This was unexpected. We really did not expect to see the tumor-promoting activity of these creams," said Professor Conney. (Pictured left).
Four common skin creams were tested on gene-altered hairless mice exposed to heavy doses of cancer-causing UV light. The study leader, however, felt this could be as rodent skin is more sensitive than human skin while other experts said they had reservations about the relevance of the study's conclusions.
The study found that the rate of non-melanoma skin cancers increased between 24 and 95% when compared to mice not treated with creams.
Surgically curable, non-melanoma skin cancer is very common in humans, and only in very rare cases it can prove to be fatal. The findings published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, part of the Nature Publishing Group in Britain, reported that follow-up experiments with a made-to-order cream missing several suspect ingredients which included mineral oil and sodium lauryl sulfate saw the cancer rates dropping sharply.
Further tests would be needed to test the effect of these creams on human skin as rodent skin which is usually fur covered is thinner and more permeable than human skin.
Brian Diffey, an emeritus professor at Newcastle University in Britain felt the dose the rodents received exceeds what most people would experience in a lifetime. The UV source used to pre-sensitize the mice is a very poor surrogate for sun exposure.
As moisturizers are classified as cosmetics, the stringent checks that drugs have to undergo by FDA ruling, do not apply to them and experts feel that this should change.
Dermatologist Keyvan Nouri, MD, director of dermatologic surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and author of the best-selling book on Skin Cancer, said, "This study could definitely be a warning to alert these companies to consider testing moisturizing creams with some sort of assay. These creams need to be tested first before they come to market."
The four creams analyzed in the study were: Dermabase, manufactured by Paddock Laboratories in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Dermovan, made by Healthpoint Ltd. in Fort Worth, Texas; Eucerin Original Moisturizing Cream, made by Beiersdorf Inc. in Wilton, Connecticut; and Vanicream, made by Pharmaceutical Specialities, Inc. in Rochester, Minnesota.
Later in December 2008 further research conclusively found that when a Doctor of Pharmacology, Adrienne C. Olson of Breastlink in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, reported that lab analysis confirmed the presence of powerful estrogens - known to cause cancer - in a half-dozen non-prescription skin moisturizers. EVEN THOUGH NONE of the products listed estrogen among their ingredients on labels or packaging.
Dr. Olson, a breast cancer survivor, had found that an OTC skin moisturizer she was using was working almost too well. She suspected it might contain estrogen, which is capable of producing what most women would call 'a youthful appearance'.
She bought 16 non-prescription skin moisturizers in all price ranges and sent samples to a research laboratory for testing. The estrogen hormones estradiol, estrone, and estriol were found in six of the products; the other moisturizers may contain these or other estrogens, but the tests weren't sensitive enough to detect them, Dr. Olson says.
Estrogen can cause breast cancer. That was established in a major clinical trial that was reported in 2002. It was called the Women's Health Initiative study, and it proved that breast cancers increased among women getting Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), which involved the taking of pills containing both estrogen-like and progesterone-like female hormones. The results, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found an amazing 30% increase in the risk of breast cancer among females taking combination HRT pills.
Estrogens that are applied to the skin are more dangerous than estrogen pills (left), because the chemicals are absorbed into the body more rapidly and efficiently. Applying estrogen-laced moisturizers on a daily basis is basically dosing your body with cancer-causing drugs, raising your risk of breast cancer in particular.
Dr. Olson herself has stopped using moisturizers completely - she's switched to baby oil 'and nothing else'.
Some of the other products might contain lower levels of the hormones that were not detected by HPLC, she added. Moreover, the product analysis did not include testing for customized or designer estrogens.
Whether this transdermal exposure to estrogenic hormones can influence the behavior of ER-positive breast tumors is unclear.
"Until the late 1970s, the intact epidermis was thought to be impermeable to medications in creams and ointments," said Dr. Olson. "We now know that the skin is much more porous than we previously believed."
Enforcement of FDA regulations pertaining to cosmetics is based on the outdated concept of the skin as an impermeable barrier, she added.
For now, consumers have no one to protect them. Moisturizers are classified as 'cosmetics' by the FDA, therefore they are entirely unregulated and are sold WITHOUT ANY WARNING LABELS as to the possible health risks to women.
"We're just concerned," said Dr. Olson. "We want women to be informed. I personally use baby oil on my skin and nothing else."
Of course one the best known all natural ways to moisturize the skin without expensive creams has been used since ancient times is with Aloe Vera. The plant extract is 100% organic, usually contains little or no other chemicals or additives and is one of the best ways to stay naturally moisturized in the skin using a completely organic compund. The amazing thing also it costs 1/10th the price of leading brand moisturizers in fact a good herb garden will always have an aloe vera plant growing in it somewhere. Such plants are the miracles on planet earth from the plants that grow here naturally these plants are Real Cancer Solutions that assist the body to regrow cells and fight off bad cells.
A lot of plants on earth like Aloe Vera are actually naturally occuring working cancer cures that heal the human body and bring vitality and life back to dry dead and aging cells. When you consider that using chemicals to moisturize your skin can cause cancer, and using organic plant matter can CURE the cancer and rejuvenate the body. I sure know what I will be advising my girlfriend/wife to buy, to try, and to use on her skin.
