The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances by Julie Gabriel Read Free Book Online

heavy metals, but there is evidence that aluminum from hygiene products and antacids does contribute to two serious diseases: breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
    what
science
           says
    Aluminum is suspected to increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disorder and the most common cause of dementia, affecting millions of men and women worldwide. Scientists have found that plaques in the brain of AD sufferers contain aluminum. While AD origins are still a mystery to many doctors, evidence is accumulating to show that aluminum may be involved in the formation of the plaques in the human brain (Shcherbatykh, Carpenter 2007) and is therefore a prime and, most importantly, avoidable risk factor for this devastating disease.
    Every day we rub aluminum-loaded antiperspirant in underarm areas where many lymph nodes are located close to the surface of the skin. Recent evidence has linked breast cancer with aluminum-based antiperspirants. In research published in the Journal of Applied Toxicology , Dr. Philippa D. Darbre of the University of Reading in England has shown that aluminum salts increase estrogen-related gene expression in human breast cancer cells grown in vitro, which makes aluminum a powerful metalloestrogen (Exley et al. 2007). The new 2008 study found that aluminum content of breast tissue in the outer regions (closer to the underarms) was significantly higher than the inner regions of the breast (Gee et al. 2008). This happens because aluminum works as a strong genotoxin, capable of causing both DNA alterations and gene mutations, according to numerous studies that link breast cancer to various common chemicals, from aluminum to Triclosan and parabens (Gee et al. 2008).
    “Lifetime exposure to estrogen is the risk factor which is tied most strongly to breast cancer,” Dr. Darbre toldWebMD in 2006. “If the aluminum salts in antiperspirants enter the body and mimic estrogen, it stands to reason that constant exposure over many years may pose a risk” (full article: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/524555 ).
    Opponents of the use of aluminum in personal care products agree that this metal is not the sole cause of breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, but that it may play a role. Both diseases are caused by multiple factors, and aluminum is just one of them. Still, this factor is easily avoided. All it takes is a small change in consumer habits.
    Propylene Glycol: Beauty Dissolved
    Do you know what baby wipes and aircraft deicing fluid have in common? Both have glycols as a main ingredient. Members of this family of multitasking chemicals are used in many cosmetic products, including baby washes, bubble baths, deodorants, shampoos, hair dyes, and personal lubricants (where propylene glycol works to deice the passion, most likely). All members of the glycol family are easily biodegradable and do not accumulate in soil or water, which is the only good thing about them.
    There has been a lot of confusion between propylene glycol (PG), diethylene glycol, ethylene glycol, and polyethylene glycol (PEG). While all of them have similar-sounding names, these chemicals have different safety ratings. Propylene glycol is a popular humectant (an ingredient that helps draw moisture from the air to the skin) and a penetration enhancer used in many cosmetic products. It helps products such as stick deodorants retain their solid form and prevents melting. The FDA considers propylene glycol to be “generally recognized as safe” for use in food, cosmetics, and medicines. However, it banned this chemical from cat food in 2001.
    Ethylene glycol is considered less safe. Apart from its use in antifreezes and deicing fluids, ethylene glycol is found in photographic developing solutions, hydraulic brake fluids, and in inks used in stamp pads, ballpoint pens, and print shops. There is a higher dose of ethylene glycols in children’s shampoos and baby washes, to make them