Benzoyl Peroxide: Safe Or Not Exactly ?
Acne is one of the most common skin concerns, affecting more than 17 million people in the US only. When it comes to treating it though, the skin care market, basically, offers 2 solutions (or at least these are the most popular ones) – salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide. While both have proven to be effective in the treatment of acne vulgaris, benzoyl peroxide’s safety is still questionable. Let's see why..
What Is Benzoyl Peroxide?
Benzoyl peroxide is a topical antibacterial agent that controls the growth of acne-causing bacteria and at the same time causes the skin to peel, reducing the risk of formation of scars and appearance of dark spots. Though it’s proven to indeed suppress outbreaks and keep acne at bay, the use of products containing benzoyl peroxide has its downsides.
The Side Effects Of Using Benzoyl Peroxide
The most common safety concern when it comes to benzoyl peroxide is that even low concentrations can cause redness, itchiness and irritations. And this doesn’t apply only for individuals with hypersensitive skin. The chemical itself is pretty aggressive and not all skin types can tolerate it.
Another fact worth mentioning, is that regular use of benzoyl peroxide, especially in high concentrations, causes oxidative stress to the skin, resulting in sun-burn like red spots, flakiness and dryness. Just like any other peroxide, benzoyl peroxide is a free radical-generating component. And what do we know about free-radicals? They damage the cells, slow down the natural healing processes, break down collagen (making your skin less firm and elastic) and cause wrinkles and hyperpigmentation. Do we want any of these? Nope. If the price of getting rid of acne is premature aging, I am not willing to pay it. Plus, I know there are better and safer ways to help your skin heal!
La Mav Purify & Clean Range is designed to prep, cleanse and exfoliate combination,oily or normal skin types, prone to acne. It effectively detoxifies & purifies without stripping your skin of the sebum it naturally produces. Our Purify & Clean range is formulated with potent bio-active ingredients to achieve balance in blemish-prone skin without the harshness of strong chemicals, leaving it fresh, clean and without excessive dryness.
While it is true that benzoyl peroxide aids in the prevention of scarring and appearance of marks/spots, by destroying the upper epidermal layer, it also makes the skin more susceptible to infections and sun damage, hence more likely to become victim of the monster we all fear - photo-aging. Apart from that, even though benzoyl peroxide controls outbreaks, hence reduces the risk of getting spots, the ones that you have from already healed blemishes will stay on your face much longer than they would normally do, because of the fact that benzoyl peroxide suppressed skin’s own regenerating abilities.
Is Benzoyl Peroxide Cancerogenic?
In 1995, after the publication of several studies, investigating the cancerogenic effect of benzoyl peroxide on skin cells, the FDA changed the compound's "status" from Category I (safe) to a Category III (safety is uncertain). After reading most of these articles I got to the realization that none of them actually claimed benzoyl peroxide was carcinogenic by itself. All studies were investigating the tumor promoting tendency of benzoyl peroxide on already cancerous tissues i.e tissues where cancer has been initially caused by certain chemicals. Nevertheless, knowing that it affects the cells in such way makes me doubt its safety (despite all that I've read). And If I have to choose whether to take the risk of putting it on my skin, without being 100% sure it's not going to do any harm, I’d prefer to stay away from it.
At the present moment FDA classifies benzoyl peroxide as GRAS (generally recognized as safe). Is it going to keep its “safe status “in the next 3-5 years? We’ll see...
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