Put Away the Lavender
Posted by Cottontimer on 03 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: Health
The idea of using lavender is so appealing - peace, calm, tranquility. Perfect for the little monster that lives within four-year-old boys. But maybe lavender’s effects are a little more than what we’d planned for.
A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine describes a few isolated cases of boys who developed breasts after using lavender and tea tree oils on their skin. Later, laboratory tests found these oils to promote estrogen (female hormone) and inhibit androgen (male hormone) activity. Once they stopped using the oils, their bodies returned to normal.
I would have been inclined to think they were using highly concentrated oils but according to the report, the boys were using lavender-scented skin lotions, soap, shampoo, and/or hairstyling gel. Very odd.
More at MSN Health & Fitness
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I guess I wouldn’t worry about it, given that it was only “a few isolated cases” and that after the products quit being used the kids returned to “normal”. LOL. There has to be some other additional factor involved, that explains why those few boys were affected, instead of most boys being affected, ya know?
With my kids’ sensitive skin, I don’t even have products that could cause alarm. Most things either caused eczema flares or excessively itchy skin. :/
I am baffled by this article. Three boys is a large enough sample size to start drawing conclusions? Also, if those products they were using were conventional body care products they also contained a suite of chemicals which could be contributing to the problem. I hardly think the lavendar and tea tree oil are the obvious culprits here.
That’s just me, maybe.
Deb: Awww. Poor kids. Hope they outgrow it!
Abigail: Well, I would have blown it off too except for the cellular data. In any case, it’s nothing to worry about but it was very weird! And I’m inclined to give it a little more credibility because it was published in NEJM.
I am going on line to buy some of this lavendar shampoo right now! I was thinking about implants, but this sounds much cheaper……
Andrea: lolol Tell me which one has the greatest effect. I may indulge as well.