Do the estrogenic results of tea tree oil get absorbed by the pores and skin?
Concern has been raised a few “potential hyperlink between gynecomastia, topical lavender, and tea tree oil.” As I talk about in my video Does Tea Tree Oil Have Hormonal Facet Results?, gynecomastia is the irregular growth of breast tissue. (You may see a photograph at 0:14 in my video.) You could recall that I’ve talked about lavender earlier than, however what about tea tree oil?
It began with a case sequence printed in The New England Journal of Drugs. The researchers described three younger boys in whom breast progress “coincided with the topical utility of merchandise that contained lavender and tea tree oils.” How do we all know the merchandise have been accountable? “Gynecomastia resolved in every affected person shortly after the usage of merchandise containing these oils was discontinued. Moreover, research in human cell traces indicated that the 2 oils had estrogenic and antiandrogenic actions,” that’s, pro-female and anti-male hormone actions. The researchers concluded that “repeated topical publicity to lavender and tea tree oils in all probability prompted prepubertal gynecomastia in these boys.”
A tea tree oil firm consultant identified that “solely one in all three boys (Affected person 2) was uncovered to any quantity of tea tree oil,” whereas all three topics have been uncovered to lavender oil. So, lavender oil could have been accountable in all three instances. How did the researchers reply? “There could also be a legitimate argument that it was the lavender oil that prompted the gynecomastia. Nonetheless, the tea tree oil had exercise much like that of lavender oil with respect to the in vitro estrogenic and antiandrogenic results.”
Let me stroll you thru that. As you possibly can see under within the graph and at 1:24 in my video, for those who drip a tiny quantity of estrogen on human breast most cancers cells in a petri dish, you possibly can spike their progress greater than twelve-fold. In case you add an estrogen blocker together with the estrogen, although, it abolishes the impact. However, including rising quantities of tea tree oil to the breast most cancers cells causes their progress to extend. The rationale we all know it’s an estrogenic impact is as a result of the expansion decreases if you add the estrogen blocker. This seems to be fairly convincing, however natural proponents argue that “in vitro testing alone is just not satisfactory grounds for indicting historically used merchandise and will elevate public worry.”
The Tea Tree Oil Business Affiliation particularly argued “that solely 3 of greater than 100 compounds” of pure tea tree truly make it by the pores and skin, so the researchers ought to have simply measured the hormonal results of these three compounds—which they did later that yr.
As you possibly can see within the graph and at 2:25 in my video, dripping rising concentrations of entire tea tree oil on breast most cancers cells in a petri dish can improve their progress when in comparison with an oil with no estrogenic impact, like eucalyptus oil. Nonetheless, for those who solely take a look at the three parts of tea tree oil that truly make it into your bloodstream if you apply them in your pores and skin, none seems to have any estrogenic results. Not one of the parts that penetrate the pores and skin seems to behave as an estrogen, “neither alone nor together,” so you possibly can’t extrapolate the petri dish results of the entire oil to what one may see when it’s utilized on the pores and skin. What you see within the petri dish is probably not equivalent to what you see in an individual.
This new information led European client security officers to conclude that “the hypothesized correction…of gynecomastia to the topical use of Tea Tree Oil is taken into account implausible.” The truth is, if the anti-male hormone parts of tea tree oil stay on the pores and skin, why not use it to deal with girls who really feel they’re affected by hirsutism, or extreme hairiness? A examine was carried out on such girls who have been instructed to spray themselves with a dilute lavender/tea tree oil spray versus placebo twice a day, morning and night, on “areas affected by hirsutism” for 3 months. Earlier than and after the remedy, “hairs have been taken from 4 totally different physique areas: chin, chest, thigh and higher arms.” After three months, no change was detected within the hair diameter of the placebo group, as anticipated. However, within the lavender/tea tree oil group, all of the hairs ended up thinner, as you possibly can see within the graph and at 3:46 in my video.
This confirmed that the mixture of lavender and tea tree oils utilized regionally on pores and skin might be efficient in lowering gentle extreme hairiness, doubtlessly representing “a protected, financial, and sensible instrument within the remedy of this illness.”
For added info past potential hormonal results, see my video Is Tea Tree Oil Protected?. I proceed so as to add new tea tree movies, so keep watch over the subject web page.
To study extra about lavender particularly, see Lavender for the Remedy of Generalized Anxiousness Dysfunction.
