What I read
In More evidence essential oils 'make male breasts develop' (2018) written that there might be a relationship between abnormal breast growth in boys and the use of essential oils such as lavender oil and tea tree oil because they have found some chemicals that can interfere with hormones. These oils can be found in a various kind of products. From the study, exposure to the oils might relate to gynaecomastia and also affect puberty and growth. The researcher said that not everyone exposing to such oils has adverse effects, it may depends on sensitivity and dosage of exposure. On the other hand, some researcher said that the study was done in cancer cells in laboratory which may not represent the situation in human. So, further studies are required
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My response
After i read the article, i rush into a bathroom to check for those essential oils, which I surprisingly found at least 2 products that contained lavender oils and tea tree oils. If I spend more time searching i guess there will be more for sure. This information about the relationship of using particular essential oils and breast growth in male is really new to me. I used to think about such oils in a positive way that they are nature-based, organic and healthy , but now i have to be more careful about using them even though the researcher mentioned that they need to conduct more study to conclude that essential oils can cause gynaecomastia. what is gynaecomastia? Fortunately, i can recognize this technical terms from the class in Vet school. It is the hormonal imbalance which can cause estrogen level to rise up and inhibit testosterone. Estrogen is a hormone for females that supports female characteristics like breast and testosterone is the same for males. So, the effect of imbalance can cause the female characteristics to be boosted.
Thinking about those essential oils, I think i have watched some body lotion ads that putting lavender oil and claimed for its benefit. All I can remember, that the lavender oil can keep you calm and relax and also sooth your skin. I don't think that they know about this effect. How could it be if they put too much concentration of these oils and if the study finally discover the truth of their effect to hormone level. But if you use the cheap product they might add just a little bit of essential oils which I have known that it's quite expensive for each ml , but also depends on their purity and concentration. So, using cheap brand might have less chance to be exposed to it.
Thinking about those essential oils, I think i have watched some body lotion ads that putting lavender oil and claimed for its benefit. All I can remember, that the lavender oil can keep you calm and relax and also sooth your skin. I don't think that they know about this effect. How could it be if they put too much concentration of these oils and if the study finally discover the truth of their effect to hormone level. But if you use the cheap product they might add just a little bit of essential oils which I have known that it's quite expensive for each ml , but also depends on their purity and concentration. So, using cheap brand might have less chance to be exposed to it.
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My question
After reading this, do you concern about using essential oils and why?
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I like his suggestion in Fung's response that it can be a mistake to think that if something is natural or organic that it is better than non-natural or inorganic products. In fact, I have a problem with the way people divide things into "natural" and "not natural" categories: if two products are exactly the same chemical, then it doesn't seem to me to make sense to say that one is better than the other because of what they consist of. And often things that are natural and organic are very poisonous, such as opium and belladonna. Rotting food is also perfectly natural, but that doesn't make it good to eat!
ReplyDeleteI also like my veggies clean and bug free, so I'm not convinced that it's worth spending more money to buy organic products that also use up more natural resources to produce the same amount.
The trend of using natural products gains attention and spreads widely. Product advertisements harness this point to make their products more interesting. As Fung did, I checked some products in my bathroom too and it leads to new question: How much of it that can cause adverse effects? The scientists in the article conducts experiment on immortalized cell line that not really represents normal physiology. So my question can not be answered yet.
ReplyDeleteBack to Fung's question, I'm not concern much about it but I aware of using it. If I develop gynecomastia, I will surely stop using it (In this case, remove the cause of hormonal imbalance would restore the gynecomastia to normal within months or years hence It is not dangerous as it may seem to be). If there is more evidences in the future related to cancer or something more dangerous, I will toss it away.