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Parabens are widely used as preservatives in cosmetics, toiletries, pharmaceuticals and even foods.
Parabens are a group of the alkyl esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid which include methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, isobutylparaben, isopropylparaben, and benzylparaben.
You’ll be surprised to find a few of these under the ingredients on the labels of most products in your home. They are chemically produced in a laboratory using ethyl acetate-petroleum solvent along with alcohol and silica gel making them very inexpensive.
Parabens have been around a long time which explains why they are found in so many personal care products, foods, and drugs. Parabens are basically “plastic” and are often sprayed onto fruits and vegetables to decrease their spoilage time. Imagine how often people are exposed to parabens without even knowing it!
Parabens have been under extreme scrutiny in recent years by the health conscious based on latest research pointing to negative effects on the human body.
Parabens are present in:
- Deodorants
- Antiperspirants
- Shampoos, moisturizers
- Shaving gels
- Pharmaceuticals
- Toothpaste
- Food additives
- Makeup (just to name a few).
Deodorants and antiperspirants are the leading sources of paraben absorption. Breast cancer is believed to be related to frequency and use of antiperspirants and deodorants containing certain parabens. Consider how close fatty breast tissue is to the armpit. Why? What are the parabens doing after they get absorbed?
In the health industry, we call these chemicals “endocrine disruptors”. In layman’s terms let’s just say they “mess up our hormones”. They bind onto estrogen receptors. As they try to act like estrogen, (mimic) they have an estrogenic effect, while reducing estrogen uptake by the cells. They reduce the function of an important enzyme called estrosulferase (what researchers call SULTS). Women with breast cancer or a high breast cancer risk should read labels on their body care products and never use a product line that uses parabens as a preservative. Parabens have actually been found in breast tissue of women with breast cancer.
What about young girls?
These same estrogen-mimicking parabens are alleged to be instrumental in the early onset of puberty in young girls.
What about women trying to get pregnant?
Parabens reduce the size of the ovaries and can cause DNA damage so therefore are being researched for their possible contribution to infertility.
What about men?
Parabens reduce sperm count and cause DNA damage to sperm which can contribute to infertility.
What about the babies?
The more a mother and father are exposed to parabens the greater chance their baby boy is going to be born with a horrifying birth defect called hypospadias, defined as malformation of the opening of the male genital. Poor baby! Hypospadias is a congenital birth defect, occurring in up to 4 out of every 1,000 boys and is on the rise. They are born with the urethral opening in the wrong place. Instead of at the tip of the penis it is farther back. Sometimes so far back that it requires surgery. Poor baby again!! Sometimes it also causes a curvature. Let’s do something about this. No more parabens!
What about food?
Go out of your way to buy organic fruit and vegetables. (I have to drive 20 minutes to find a Whole Foods grocery store!). Have you ever seen a waxy coating on red apples? Stay away. Parabens are found in and on some foods; however, stomach acid and the body’s ability to conjugate and change them (metabolize the parabens) is completely different than putting them onto the skin (no ability to metabolize). Parabens have been found to be readily absorbed by both the dermis (skin) and the digestive tract. Parabens can end up anywhere in the body by traveling through the bloodstream as indicated by them being found in breast tissue as well as in the urine.
Plasticizers on food to improve quality and stability
These facts should cause us to think and to ask some very important questions; what am I doing to be exposed to these chemicals and what am I doing to allow them access to my physical body? Some people think when they don’t take care of their own health that it is only affecting THEM. But this isn’t true because it affects their offspring, and THEIR offspring, and THEIR offspring, and so on.
Our goal at AMG Naturally is to inform people like YOU. We believe the more informed you are, the better decisions you will make especially when it comes to your health. AMG has the dedication to education. Therefore, we must begin by reading the ingredient labels on not only our foods but also on every lotion, serum, shampoo we use; anything we rub on us from head to toe.
What we put on our skin DOES matter because the good and the bad – it ALL gets absorbed.
AMG Naturally products use a proprietary stabilization system involving organic moringa oil and powerful compounds found in lemons, there are no parabens found in any of our products.
What is the shelf life of AMG products?
24 months unopened (why aren’t you opening it?)
12 months opened (why aren’t you using it?)
AMG Naturally keeps its commitment to being synthetic chemical-free, artificial preservative-free, and all-natural. They are “Medical Grade” products trusted and prescribed by healthcare practitioners around the entire United States...because they work. You, the consumer, deserve no less, and we plan to keep our commitment. So, get ready for the best product on the market--- AMG Naturally!
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As a nutritionist, I dedicated my past 20 years to designing top-quality nutritional supplements and educating health care professionals. I took great care in what was put in the bottles of my nutrition formulas and now I do the same for AMG Naturally, Inc. The rewarding result was improving millions of peoples’ lives via improving their health. We have little without our health.
After turning 50 and successfully raising 3 healthy children, I proudly bring to you a pure, all-natural, chemical-free, plant-based skin system designed to cleanse and nourish the skin, protect it from outside assaults and restore it to make it look and act younger. The lotions and serums absorb quickly as if the skin is starving for this nourishment.
You will see and feel a difference, if used daily, with the goal of turning back the clock. All of us will age, but why not Age More Gracefully (AMG)…as naturally as possible? There is no need to buy skin products for your “skin type”. Your “skin type” should be “flawless”. Use AMG Naturally skin-care products daily, and proudly...and then spread the word by sending us your testimonial.
How pure are AMG Naturally products?
- 100% plant derived ingredients
- No animal ingredients
- No animal testing
- No parabens
- No phthalates
- No GLUTEN, no wheat proteins
- No PEG (propylene glycol)
- No SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate)
- So natural you could practically eat it
- Scented by nature only
Sincerely, in health,
Linda Lizotte, RD
Founder/President
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Do you realize how important your skin is?
It is not just something that covers the beauty within you. Do you realize your skin has clock genes? What does this mean? According to the two studies below, the skin is involved in circadian rhythm control as if it is connected to the environment and tells the body what to do.
When I think of circadian rhythm I think of the book written by Dr. Sidney Baker from Weston, CT. He talks about how light goes through the eyes to the base of the brain where lies the pituitary gland. When the pituitary gland senses a decrease in light, as in darkness, it produces melatonin which tells the body it is time to go to sleep. Do not mistake this for melanin. Melanin is produced in the skin while exposed to sunlight and results in tanning. You will learn about this in another blog.
Can you turn back the clock by keeping your skin healthy?
So, back to the clock. Can you turn back the clock by keeping your skin healthy? According to the studies below the answer is YES!
As a nutritionist, what did I learn from the studies below?
Don't mess up your oscillators. Don't be putting chemicals on your skin whether it be your shampoo, your body lotion, your supposedly anti-aging creams. Please read the labels on everything you put on you even if it's your hormone cream. See, this is yet proof that what you put on you DOES get absorbed: estrogen cream, progesterone cream, nicotine patch....they WORK because they get absorbed through THE SKIN. What happens if you BLOCK your skin with SUN BLOCK? How will your oscillators work? This is yet to be determined. The moral of this blog is...what you put on your skin DOES MATTER.
J Drugs Dermatol. 2014 Feb 1;13(2):130-4.
Therapeutic implications of the circadian clock on skin function.
Luber AJ, Ensanyat SH, Zeichner JA.
Abstract #1
The human circadian clock ensures that biochemical and physiological processes occur at the optimal time of day. In addition to a central pacemaker in the body, recent evidence suggests that peripheral mammalian tissues also possess autonomous circadian oscillators, which are regulated by genes linked to distinct tissue-specific functions. The skin is situated in a position naturally exposed to diurnal environmental changes. The skin's chronobiological functioning influences skin aging, cell repair and development of skin cancers, as well as optimal timing of drug delivery to the skin. An understanding of circadian skin-related functions and the impact of their disruption allow clinicians to improve therapeutic decision-making and maximize the effectiveness of prescribed treatments.
Cell Mol Life Sci. 2012 Oct;69(19):3329-39. doi: 10.1007/s00018-012-1026-1. Epub 2012 May 25.
Human skin keratinocytes, melanocytes, and fibroblasts contain distinct circadian clock machineries.
Sandu C, Dumas M, Malan A, Sambakhe D, Marteau C, Nizard C, Schnebert S, Perrier E, Challet E, Pévet P, Felder-Schmittbuhl MP.
Abstract #2
Skin acts as a barrier between the environment and internal organs and performs functions that are critical for the preservation of body homeostasis.
In mammals, a complex network of circadian clocks and oscillators adapts physiology and behavior to environmental changes by generating circadian rhythms. These rhythms are induced in the central pacemaker and peripheral tissues by similar transcriptional-translational feedback loops involving clock genes.
In this work, we investigated the presence of functional oscillators in the human skin by studying kinetics of clock gene expression in epidermal and dermal cells originating from the same donor and compared their characteristics. Primary cultures of fibroblasts, keratinocytes, and melanocytes were established from an abdominal biopsy and expression of clock genes following dexamethasone synchronization was assessed by qPCR. An original mathematical method was developed to analyze simultaneously up to nine clock genes. By fitting the oscillations to a common period, the phase relationships of the genes could be determined accurately.
We thereby show the presence of functional circadian machinery in each cell type. These clockworks display specific periods and phase relationships between clock genes, suggesting regulatory mechanisms that are particular to each cell type. Taken together, our data demonstrate that skin has a complex circadian organization. Oscillators are present not only in fibroblasts but also in epidermal keratinocytes and melanocytes and are likely to act in coordination to drive rhythmic functions within the skin.
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AMG Naturally products are naturally clean, naturally green, pure nutrition for the skin. They are so potent in antioxidants that the products are self-preserving which means no need for chemical preservatives and stabilizers.
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I am very proud of what I have created with the help of a beautyceuticals expert, our team of chemists and our graphics experts. I did not want a website up until my product line was perfected. This is where my time and mental energy has been directed along with browsing medical libraries for research on the fascinating phytonutrients in AMG plant ingredients. Some of them are newly discovered, most from the amazon (NOT AMAZON) and therefore very new to the nutriceutical and beautyceutical world.
