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Allergen Barrier

Miracle II - Soap - Allergens And Dermatitis

Do you find it daunting when you look at a bottle of liquid soap or at a bar of soap? Well these bubble producing body cleaners could be causing you dermatitis.

What is this condition called dermatitis? In fact it's not a disease at all, but rather a symptom of a large number of skin problems. Dermatitis is basically inflammation of the skin and can cause small liquid filled blisters, itching and redness. Dermatitis can have any number of causes, from fungal infection to fleas, but allergic contact dermatitis occurs when our bodies take in an allergy through our skin and, as a result, become inflamed. Most people who aren't allergic will have no harmful effect when these particles are ingested, however, there are also many plants such as poison ivy that will effect most of the populace. Strangely, the most common contact allergen comes from nickel and not a plant.

You are guaranteed to rapidly develop contact dermatitis when your skin comes into direct contact with an item that you are allergic to. Something we rub on our skin on a regular basis is soap. Ironically, a product that's supposed to cleanse your skin can end up causing you a lot of pain and aggravation. The following will show 5 allegerns found in soap that will trigger dermatitis.

SLS or sodium sulfate is a frequent element you ill find in soap and shampoo. SLS does a great job of removing grease and oil because it is a detergent. It's also the substance that makes soap get frothy when you rub it on your body.

In what way will SLS impact contact dermatitis? When it comes to skin care there is one particular myth that the oil our skin produces is dirty, however, a sensible amount of oil is needed to protect our skin. While SLS is useful for breaking up greasy foreign substances, it also breaks up the layer of oil that keeps our skin from drying out. And while it's not technically an allergen because it doesn't provoke a reaction from the immune system, SLS can cause contact dermatitis and aggravate eczema by weakening that oily barrier on our skin. This means that SLS can usher other allergic elements into your body. Following repetetive subjection to the foreign elements, you would more than likely react to things you were never allergic to before.

Although most people don't have allergic reactions to eating coconuts, it's been found that quite often there is an allegeric reaction by touching a coconut . You'd think that it would be harder for your body to deal with things you put in your mouth than stuff that just touches your skin, but coconuts are an exception. What's more, they show up in all kinds of skin care products, both for their delicious scent and their ability to moisturize and soften skin.

However, coconuts can also be made into coconut diethanolamide, a detergent that helps create a stable lather when you're washing with soap. Similar to SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate), coconut diethanolamide breaks down the oil barrier on our skin, however, in some people ot triggers an intense allergic reaction. Since coconut diethanolamide is a common ingredient in skin care products such as barrier creams and hand protection foams, sensitizing can happen rapidly. It is not surprising to develop allergies of some sort after using a product 2 to 3 months. Regular rinse-off soaps, however, take much longer to produce a reaction -- more like five to seven years. When checking ingredients in products check for the following coconut oil acid, witcamide, ninol, cocamide DEA and calamide as all are the same as coconut diethanolamide.

Paraben is both an industrially produced and naturally occurring ester. When looking through the ingredients listed on items such as deodorant, soaps, toothpaste and shampoos you will see paraben towards the bottom, it's main use is as a preservative. Even though it's very common allergic reactions are rare, at the same time a variety of parabens are used in the same products making the odds of experiencing an allergic reaction higher .

In 2004 a study done in the UK found methylparaben in cancer tumor biopsies and linked them to breast cancer. Although further research has produced no conclusive evidence that parabens cause cancer, many consumers are still worried, preferring to take a better-safe-than-sorry approach to skin care. Whether or not the claims about the dangers of parabens are true, cosmetics companies have compensated for the backlash and now offer a wide variety of paraben-free products.

If you believe you have an allergy to parabens, check your soaps and skin products for the ingredients, paraben or parahydroxybenzoic within them.

Balsam of Peru, also known as myroxylon, is a sticky sap that smells like vanilla and cinnamon. It's used as an ingredient in soaps, perfumes and shampoos both for its smell and for its quality as a fixative, which helps slow down evaporation. It's also added to certain medications and food, showing up in everything from calamine lotion to cough medicine and cola.

Balsam of Peru is largely made up of (60 to 70%) of Cinnamein which is considered a potential allergen, the other 30 to 40% of Balsam od Peru is made of unknown resins, that can also trigger an allergic response. A great number of people who have an allergy to fragrance have a reaction to balsam of Peru, it is a common cause of contact dermatitis. When it's ingested the usual reaction is a rash around the mouth and the most predominant symptom of skin contact is hane eczema.

Hold on, scent? Isn't that a little general? Sadly, without a doubt. Soap companies are highly competitive, they don't devulge their ingredients that create just the right scent. When products show fragrance as an ingredient on products for skin care, my friend you are viewing a mix of top secret ingredients such as aldehydes, amines, ketones, esters and much more. Particularly in North America it's very hard to create an allergy test for fragrance, due to the fact that the ingredients in most fragrances are unknown.

Even though fragrance doesn't actually contribute to skin cleansing, it's one of the most common contact allergens in soap. Fragrance allergens are used in almost all cosmetic products except for those that have a "fragrance free" label on it. And because the cosmetics industry (which is largely self-regulated in the United States) is pretty secretive about its formulas, the estimated range of cosmetic products that contain the fragrance allergens used for skin patch testing is anywhere from 15 percent to all of them.

If you're having a problem with dry, itchy skin, check your soap for sodium lauryl sulfate. It also appears in toothpaste and bubble bath -- pretty much anything that foams up to get you clean.

About the Author

Nelson is an accomplished health niche website developer and author. To learn more about Miracle II Soap, and the benefits that allergen free liquid soap or bar soap can have on skin conditions such as dermatitis and more visit: http://www.miracleii-4u.com

Epsom Salts good for You?

It seems that taking magnesium has some of the following effects:
-Flush toxins and heavy metals from the cells
- A magnesium-deficient brain is also more susceptible to allergens
-Excess adrenaline and stress are believed to drain magnesium

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_Epson_salt_work

Is there any peer reviewed evidence of these effects? I didn't think the brain was particularly susceptible to allergens because they can't cross the blood-brain barrier and an allergy was caused by the immune system.

Are there any papers to support the claims of the web site cited above or is it just hyperbole?

It's just hyperbole. (Nice choice of words, BTW!)

"Epsom Salt" is just magnesium sulfate, the primary ingredient in "Bath salts", and typically the chemical agent used to curdle soy milk when making tofu...

Fabric Allergen Barrier Test - With Airflow

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 6:18 pm and is filed under bedding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.