Ladies who use chemical hair straighteners incessantly might have a better threat of growing uterine most cancers than girls who’ve by no means used the merchandise, in keeping with new findings from a nationwide examine that has adopted almost 34,000 U.S. girls for greater than a decade.
The examine didn’t set up a cause-and-effect relationship between hair straighteners and most cancers of the uterus, a type of reproductive most cancers that has been rising in incidence amongst girls in recent times, particularly amongst Black girls.
For girls within the examine who had by no means used hair straighteners, the danger of growing uterine most cancers by age 70 was 1.64%, the analysis discovered, whereas the speed for frequent customers of straighteners was greater than doubled at 4.05%.
Whereas the elevated threat was discovered amongst girls from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, Black girls is perhaps disproportionately affected: Sixty per cent of individuals who reported utilizing hair straighteners self-identified as Black girls, in keeping with the examine.
“We don’t wish to panic folks,” mentioned Alexandra White, head of the setting and most cancers epidemiology group of the Nationwide Institute of Environmental Well being Sciences and the examine’s lead creator. “One might decide to scale back this chemical publicity, however we additionally wish to acknowledge that there’s a lot of stress on girls, particularly Black girls, to have straight hair. It’s not a simple resolution to not do that.”
The analysis, utilizing information from the institute’s Sister Examine, seems to be the primary epidemiological examine to report a hyperlink with uterine most cancers, however researchers cautioned that the findings must be confirmed with extra examine. Hair straightener use has additionally been tied in earlier research to a better threat of ovarian and breast cancers.
The examine was revealed Monday in The Journal of the Nationwide Most cancers Institute.
Charges of uterine most cancers have been rising lately amongst all girls in the USA, however Black girls die of uterine most cancers at twice the speed that white girls do, in keeping with a report from an knowledgeable panel in March.
The researchers famous that a number of chemical substances which have been present in straighteners, equivalent to parabens, bisphenol A, metals and formaldehyde, might play a job within the elevated uterine most cancers threat, and that a few of these chemical substances have endocrine-disrupting properties.
(This text initially appeared in The New York Occasions.)
📣 For extra way of life information, observe us on Instagram | Twitter | Fb and don’t miss out on the most recent updates!