Skin Care Ingredient May Inhibit Fertility

• Core Facts

Natural skin care products with non-toxic ingredients are becoming so sought after that even the cosmetic mainstream is coming out with product lines that strive to be non-toxic. And with good reason – research has shown that some of the chemicals we put on our skin are absorbed into our bodies and can accumulate to dangerous levels. In fact, a recent study now confirms that women using moisturizers with certain chemicals may even have trouble getting pregnant.

What are these chemicals? They’re the latest on a long list - perfluorinated chemicals, aka, PFCs - and they’re in just about everything. They’re used to package foods, they’re in our clothing, carpets and upholstery, in our non-stick pots and pans, fast food containers and even in some skin care products – especially traditional moisturizers.

According to UCLA researcher Chunyuan Fei, the first author of a new study published online in Human Reproduction, PFCs were not considered dangerous until recently when animal studies showed a variety of toxic effects on the immune system, the liver, and the developmental and reproductive organs.

Recent human studies, of which there have been very few, have confirmed at least some of the animal study results and have shown that certain types of PFCs may impair fetal development.

Fei’s latest study, the first to investigate the effect of PFCs on fertility, also found that women with moderate to high PFC levels are from 60 to 154% more likely to be infertile than those with low levels.

Those who make the effort to live without chemicals have been found to have lower toxicity levels than those who don't. How can you protect yourself? By doing an inventory of your household and removing anything with PFCs, and limiting future purchases to safe products.

When it comes to moisturizers, one of the worst culprits, your best bet is a shielding lotion – a real breakthrough in skin care technology. A good shielding lotion bonds with the outer layer of the skin to form a new protective layer that keeps out chemicals. It is now recommended by thousands of doctors to relieve and help heal dry skin, eczema and other skin conditions that are exacerabated by the chemicals in traditional moisturizers, household and skin care products, and pollution.

It is possible that labels of products containing PFCs will have warnings on them in the future about the health effects, and they may eventually be banned altogether – as have so many other chemicals we once thought were safe.

Until that time, protect yourself as best you can. And don’t forget the shielding lotion – in a toxic world, it’s the one skin care product you can’t do without.
 

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