Chemical Compound In Personal Care Products Linked To Early Puberty?
Most people are already concerned about the chemicals they’re exposed to daily, but new research shows that young girls may have the biggest reason to worry. Scientists now believe a chemical compound known as musk ambrette found in many everyday items is causing girls to start puberty early. These chemicals, found in everything from makeup and air fresheners to body wash, may be sending a signal to the area of the brain responsible for triggering the start of menstruation.
Early Puberty Can Be Caused By Personal Products
While the age at which puberty hits is still somewhat determined by DNA, Dr. Natalie Shaw, a pediatric endocrinologist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Durham, North Carolina, feels that the growing amount of girls experiencing early puberty is “100 percent” due to “environmental factors,” such as chemicals in beauty products.
Shaw and her team sifted through 10,000 compounds from a library of licensed pharmaceuticals, environmental chemicals, and dietary supplements, finding many that could possibly be responsible for triggering early puberty. Afterward the team narrowed it down to the one chemical compound children were most likely to come in contact with: musk ambrette.
Musk ambrette is a synthetic fragrance found in most inexpensive or counterfeit perfumes and other scented toiletries. Researchers hypothesized that it may be latching onto puberty-related receptors in the hypothalamus, causing the premature release of GnRH. GnRH, in turn, is linked to the production of estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone and the maturation of sexual organs.
Ruling Out Other Factors
The age when the average girl hits puberty has been plummeting at an alarming rate for decades, leaving scientists scrambling to figure out why. Dr. Shaw says this new research marks the first time scientists considered the possible impact of environmental chemicals on the brain to figure out this alarming rise in early onset puberty. Previously, researchers offered varying causes for this drop, such as obesity, diet, growth hormones in dairy products, and even socioeconomic status.
Obesity Isn’t The Smoking Gun
Shaw, the co-senior author of this new study, does believe that there’s a link between early puberty and childhood obesity in girls, but doesn’t consider being overweight a smoking gun. In Shaw’s experience, it’s not just “those who are overweight or obese” experiencing puberty early. This discrepancy is one of the things that led Shaw and the other researchers to investigate the possibility that outside chemicals were causing early puberty in girls.
Early Puberty Leads To Complications Later In Life
Early puberty can significantly impact a child’s life, and discovering these chemicals’ role is a giant step toward understanding why it happens. When girls younger than eight start puberty, it can cause health problems that last well into adulthood. Hitting “adulthood” this early puts children at a higher risk of breast cancer, diabetes, and heart disease later in life.
On top of that, early puberty can wreak havoc on the pituitary gland, leading to below-average heights for those unlucky enough to go through it. A Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health study from May found that over 15 percent of girls start to experience puberty before the age of 11. Even worse, 1.4 percent start getting their periods before nine.
Testing The Hypothesis On Other Mammals
Once the researchers narrowed it down to musk ambrette, they tested the compound on human hypothalamic cells and zebrafish larvae. The musk ambrette caused both the fish larvae and the human cells to start producing GnRH. The next step will be for researchers to study the effects of the chemicals on rodents to determine if musk ambrette has the same early puberty effects on other mammals.
Until then, Shaw urges parents to check the ingredients of any household products their children might come in contact with for musk ambrette. As far as the chemical’s possible effect on early puberty is concerned, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Source: Oxford Academic
