Medical Xpress / HealthDay / Environmental Health Perspectives ^ | Aug. 14, 2024 | Dennis Thompson / Julia R. Varshavsky et al
Chemicals commonly found in sunscreen, makeup and other personal care products could be putting pregnancies at risk, a new study warns.
Phenols and parabens in these products increase a pregnant woman's risk of high blood pressure by 57%, particularly at 24 to 28 weeks of gestation, researchers reported.
Phenols and parabens are used as UV filters in sunscreens, and to prevent the growth of harmful mold and bacteria in makeup and cosmetics, researchers said.
Parabens alone are used in about 80% of personal care products, the research team said in background notes.
For the study, researchers tracked the health of more than 1,000 pregnant women in northern Puerto Rico.
Urine tests showed the levels of 12 phenols and parabens for each expecting mom, whose blood pressure was tested early and later in their pregnancy.
“Overall, we found that exposure to phenols and parabens during pregnancy is associated with maternal blood pressure differences and, further, that exposure to these chemicals, both separately and together, increases the risk of hypertension during pregnancy, especially later in pregnancy,” the researchers concluded in the study.
Phenols and parabens are known to increase inflammation and oxidative stress in humans, which has been linked to high blood pressure, researchers noted.
The chemicals also are known to disrupt hormones in humans, and these hormones also play a role in regulating blood pressure, they added.
Varshavsky's advice: Women who are pregnant (and even when they are not) may want to consider cutting back on certain products.
Varshavsky also noted that, “the good thing about phenols and parabens are that these chemicals have short biological half-lives, which basically means that we metabolize them relatively quickly. So, if we reduce our exposure, the levels in our bodies go down pretty quickly.”
Thanks for this post. Pinging the list again to an informative article about chemicals in makeup and sunscreen that are really bad for pregnant women. ConservativeMind posted this at my request, and he has an interesting health related ping list people may want to join.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3735908/posts?page=1966#1966