The Scary Truth About Some Skin Care Cream

Let me let you in on something a lot of people don't like to talk about: the skin care cream you use may in fact be a hazard to your health. Now, I don't mean that it is poisonous, or that it could hurt you through short term contact...but more and more data is being released that suggest that some skin creams are way more dangerous over a period of long term application that anyone thought.

How could something as innocuous as a skin care moisturizer cream be harmful, you might wonder? The problem lies in the chemicals that constitute it, that are used to make up the full range of the product. Many skin care creams, for example, utilize parabens - chemical compounds that are very cheap to produce, and are found within a wide variety of products, from toothpastes to skin creams.

Although when coming into temporary contact with the body, parabens do not remain, and are avoided easily enough, when included in a skin care cream something very different happens...it's easy to think of your skin as being only the surface of your body, but the fact is, the epidermis is incredibly porous. Think about staying in a bath for too long...your body actually sucks up moisture into your skin like a sponge.

Now consider further that your skin will do that to anything it comes into contact with, effectively drinking it into your body! In terms of just your skin, there is no problem...what is on or in the skin can be shed through dead cells, as part of a regenerative process of the body. But when it comes to chemicals like parabens in some skin care moisturizer cream, they may be absorbed into your body outright.

The European Scientific Committee on Consumer Products has announced that as much as 50% of the parabens that are absorbed into the body may not be removed through the epidermis, and may in fact remain within the deep tissue of the body permanently! As it turns out, there is no way to excise these harmful chemicals, and when they increase.. Say, through repeated uses of a skin care cream...They build up...And up...And up...

So, you might think, what's the harm in having these chemicals in my body? And that's fair: there are a lot of chemicals that we come into contact with that are not directly harmful. But in the case of parabens, there is a whole slew of effects that are coming to light. Effects such as imbalances in levels of estrogen, and negative reactions to other toxins, as well as the most dangerous potential of all, the trigger of cancer. Yes, studies have found a link between the parabens in misuse of skin care cream and the formation of various types of cancer. Scary stuff!

Now here is what disturbs me. The data on parabens is not brand new. In fact, The European Scientific Committee on Consumer Products released information regarding the potential danger of parabens in 2006. Skin care companies know what parabens are, and what they do, but they are simply too cheap and too efficient to remove them from their products! Instead of relying on the data that has come to light on skin care cream, they say that they will wait on more research to come to light before they will even discuss removing them!

This makes me sick, and worried for my health. Why, with the risk of cancer being known for years, do these companies insist on putting more and more people in harm's way? I thank goodness for initiatives like the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, whose signatories swear to avoid all chemicals known to have negative effects on the human bodies. It's nice to know that there are a brave few companies taking a stand against all of this!

Discover important facts on skin care cream at http://www.healthy-skin-answers.com.

Lauren Masters is a passionate researcher of skin care health products. She articulates her opinion at Healthy Skin Answers. To learn about effective skin care products that Lauren recommends after extensive product comparison, visit www.healthy-skin-answers.com.