According to a study, using cosmetics that contain parabens during pregnancy can lead to overweight and obesity in children.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousUse in pregnancy cosmetics they contain parabens, can lead to overweight and obesity in children.
This is what emerges from a recent study that examined the effect ofprenatal exposure to parabens on childhood overweight.
Researchers from the Helmholtz scientific society in Leipzig monitored 629 mothers who were previously subjected to a questionnaire to find out what cosmetics the women had used during the 34th week of gestation.
After that, they found that mothers-to-be who had used cosmetics preserved with parabens had high concentrations of butylparaben in the urine.
The boys, and especially the girls, born to these women showed one increased tendency to be overweight in the first eight years of life.
Parabens are preservatives widely used in various products, especially cosmetics, such as shampoos, creams, deodorants.
Potentials have been widely discussed in recent years negative health effects related to exposure to low doses of parabens.
As childhood obesity is now alarmingly widespread in most developed countries and continues to increase globally, researchers have long been committed to studying the environmental factors that affect weight gain in toddlers.
Overweight and obesity affect around one third of children in Europe and North America. Clearly, the factors that contribute most to weight gain are a high calorie intake through foods and by one sedentary lifestyle, as well as a genetic predisposition.
However, according to the researchers, these factors alone cannot explain such a rapid increase in obesity rates globally, so the study of other environmental factors has attracted growing attention in the scientific community.
Among the environmental factors, the researchers focused on parabens, as chemicals capable of interfering with the endocrine system during fetal development, disrupting fetal development with long-term health effects.
Parabens can enter the body through the skin, cross the barrier between blood and placenta and alter the mechanisms that regulate appetite, predisposing the future born to overweight and obesity.
How to defend yourself? By carefully reading the product labels before buying them and choosing cosmetics that do not contain such compounds. Many cosmetic companies have decided to give up the use of these preservatives, replacing them with other less dangerous substances. In cosmetics, preservatives are generally indicated at the bottom of the INCI list, mandatory for all cosmetics on the market: parabens are recognizable by the suffix -paraben.
Reference source: Nature Communications
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