Your skin plays a major role in keeping you healthy. It?s time to start protecting it.
Some people may not have given it any thought but your skin plays a vital role in keeping your body in top working condition. It acts as your first level of defense against harmful environmental factors such as germs, bacteria, and UV radiation, protects your cells by preventing excessive moisture loss, and regulates your body temperature. It also allows you to sense touch, pressure, pain and temperature, and acts as a storage for water and lipids. Needless to say, your skin works hard to keep you healthy. In turn, you need to take good care of your skin so it can keep doing its job well.
There are a number of ways to keep your skin healthy. Aside from eating a healthy diet, getting enough sleep, managing stress, and avoiding unhealthy habits such as smoking and drinking alcohol, you can also keep your skin healthy by keeping it clean and protecting it against sun damage.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of skin care products that can actually do more harm than good. Some skin care products contain harmful ingredients that may cause acne breakouts, premature aging, hormonal imbalance, infertility and even cancer. And since the skin has the ability to absorb anything you put in your body, you may be putting your health in jeopardy without even knowing it.
Top Skin Ingredients to Avoid
How do you know which skin care products to use and which ones to avoid? To help you make a more informed decision, here is a list of some of the most harmful skin care ingredients and the reason why you should avoid using products containing these chemicals.
Parabens. Most manufacturers use parabens to prevent the growth of molds, yeast and bacteria in their products. However, research indicates that these chemicals may increase your risk of reproductive problems, endocrine disruption and breast cancer. Parabens are mostly found in body washes, deodorants, shampoos, facial cleansers and makeup.
Phthalates. This group of chemicals are mostly used to increase the flexibility of plastics but they can also be found in nail polish (as dibutyl phthalate), hair spray (as dimethyl phthalate), perfumes and lotions (as diethyl phthalate).? Phthalates are known to increase the risk of reproductive birth defects and certain cancers (including breast, kidney, liver, and lung cancer).
Synthetic colors and fragrances. Be wary if your skin care product lists ingredients such as FD&C or D&C followed by a number since this indicates the presence of synthetic colors which may increase your risk of skin irritation as well as ADHD in children. On the other hand, synthetic fragrances have been shown to cause allergies, dermatitis and respiratory distress. Using products containing synthetic fragrances can also cause a serious negative effect on the reproductive system.
The list of harmful chemicals found in skin care products does not end here so it pays to do your research to make sure you are not using anything that may compromise your health and general well-being.
