Are Body Creams Healthy?

Author: Joan Gosselin

What if I told you that your body creams might be harmful to your health? The chemical additives contained in most of the popular body lotion and creams might not cause you any problems directly, but they are not the only chemicals that you’re exposed to every day. It’s the way that these components interact which may present the greatest health risk.

Body creams and other cosmetic products should not contain possibly harmful ingredients, but they do. It should be mandatory by law that the cosmetics companies stop using chemicals in the products that we put on our bodies. These chemicals enter our bodies through our skin, and can then cause a myriad of problems.

The same chemicals found in body lotion and creams have been found in breast milk, and in the children who ingested the milk. Some of these chemicals have been linked to birth defects, and even cancer. If nothing else, there should be some kind of moral obligation on the part of the manufacturers to not include ingredients that could be harmful to their loyal customer’s health.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the state of California list Phthalates, Formaldehyde, Ethylene Oxide, and Acrylamide as both known carcinogens and as reproductive toxins. These problems are sharply on the rise in the human population. These poisons have been seen to have an effect on animal and aquatic life as well.

All of these ingredients can be found in most of the body creams found on the cosmetics shelves today. You can also find Mercury in mascara, and Lead in lipstick. There are also Dioxins, which are chlorinated chemical derivatives known to increase the likelihood of cancer.

Since the use of chemicals is such a prevalent part of our daily lives, it would be next to impossible not to receive at least a measure of exposure. You shouldn’t have to expect that contact to come from your body lotion and creams though.

One way to be sure of the purity of the ingredients found in your body creams is to find a cosmetics company that has signed the “Compact for Safe Cosmetics”. This is an agreement brought about by the European Union as a way to guarantee the quality of cosmetic products. Europe’s regulations on chemical use in body creams are far stricter than those in the United States.

Some other ingredients that are not advisable for body lotion and creams are liquid Petrolatum (Mineral oil) and alcohol. Petrolatum will make your skin feel moister initially, but it is not absorbable by the skin and will result in clogged pores. You should avoid products containing alcohol simply because of the drying effect.

Instead, you should look for body lotion and creams containing organic ingredients such as jojoba wax, olive oil, and grape seed oil. These ingredients all are high in antioxidant properties, and contain vitamins like B5. These qualities will offer you protection from free radical damage, and will help to protect your skin from the damaging rays of the sun.

If you look hard enough for your body creams, you can find the health and purity that you deserve.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/skin-care-articles/are-body-creams-healthy-515674.html

About the Author:
Joan is a natural health enthusiast and researcher with a keen interest in skin care. She is a regular contributor to www.good-healthy-skin-site.com, a site dedicated to natural anti-aging skin care treatments.