Lavender & tea tree oil

[zen]

Lavender EO & TTO linked to abnormal breast development in boys

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060701/fob8.asp


Week of July 1, 2006; Vol. 170, No. 1

Lavender Revolution: Plant essences linked to enlarged breasts in boys
Ben Harder

Two ingredients common in many hair- and skin-care products have been linked to abnormal development of breasts in boys. Lavender oil and tea tree oil contain compounds that act like female sex hormones and interfere with male hormones, researchers have determined.

Enlarged male breasts, or gynecomastia, result from an imbalance between the activity of estrogens, which stimulate breast growth, and estrogen-inhibiting androgens. The condition is extremely rare before puberty, says Denver-area pediatric endocrinologist Clifford Bloch.

Nevertheless, since the mid-1990s, Bloch has treated gynecomastia in a series of boys age 10 or younger. Most had normal ratios of sex hormones in their blood, indicating that theirs wasn't a problem of hormone production.

From the youngsters and their parents, Bloch learned that at least five boys had been using a shampoo, hair gel, soap, or another topical product that listed lavender oil among its ingredients. One of the products also contained tea tree oil. "A couple of patients were putting pure lavender oil on their skin," he says.

Bloch recommended that the boys stop using lavender-containing products. When they followed his advice, gynecomastia disappeared within a few months.

To verify his hunch that the plant oils were hormonally active, Bloch contacted Derek Henley and Kenneth Korach of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C. In their lab, the two investigators exposed human-breast cells to lavender oil and, separately, to tea tree oil. They found that each oil turned on estrogen-regulated genes and inhibited an androgen-regulated gene.

"These oils possess both estrogenic and anti-androgenic properties," Henley reported at the Endocrine Society meeting in Boston this week. He adds that the finding is the first to implicate "essential oils" from plants in gynecomastia.

Young boys should avoid the oils, Bloch advises. Many personal-care products contain them. Other plant products act like estrogens in the body (SN: 5/25/02, p. 325: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020525/fob5.asp).

Pediatric endocrinologist Edward Reiter of Tufts University School of Medicine in Springfield, Mass., applauds Bloch for his "impressive, Sherlock Holmes" performance in unearthing what the boys had in common. While similar patients probably trickle in to other endocrinology clinics, he says, the cause of their enlarged breasts could escape diagnosis because doctors don't make the connection to personal-care products.

"If I had seen [just] one of those kids, I'm sure I would have missed it," he says.

The rapid reversal of gynecomastia that Bloch accomplished is a rare achievement in medicine, comments Ken Ong, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, England. As such, it strongly suggested a link between the products and the boys' problem.

The plant essences presumably have similar potential effects in young girls, Reiter says. Studies show a recent rise of early breast development in girls (SN: 9/9/00, p. 165: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20000909/fob3.asp). Prepubertal children have low sex hormone concentrations, so relatively small amounts of hormone-mimicking compounds might upset their physiologic balance at that age, says Reiter.


References:
Henley, D.V., C.A. Bloch, and K.S. Korach. 2006. Components of health care products associated with male prepubertal gynecomastia possess estrogenic and antiandrogenic activities. Endocrine Society meeting. June 24-27. Boston.


Further Readings:

Harder, B. 2002. Look Ma, too much soy: Hormone in infant food reduces immunity in mice. Science News 161(May 25):325. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020525/fob5.asp.

Raloff, J. 2000. Girls may face risks from phthalates. Science News 158(Sept. 9):165. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20000909/fob3.asp.


Sources:

Clifford A. Bloch
Pediatric Endocrine Associates
499 E. Hampden Avenue, Suite 290
Englewood, CO 80113-2792

Derek V. Henley
Receptor Biology Section
Laboratory of Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology
MD E4-01, P.O. Box 12233
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
National Institutes of Health
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

Ken Ong
MRC – Epidemiology Unit
Strangeways Research Laboratory
Worts Causeway
Cambridge CB1 8RN
United Kingdom

Edward O. Reiter
Baystate Medical Center
Tufts University School of Medicine
759 Chestnut Street
Springfield, MA 01199

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060701/fob8.asp

From Science News, Vol. 170, No. 1, July 1, 2006, p. 6.

Copyright (c) 2006 Science Service. All rights reserved.
     

[bioa2153]

Are these the only things they found linked to gynecomastia in boys?

[Paa_Paw]

This is interesting, but not shocking.

Many plant extracts contain Phytoestrogens. So many, in fact, that it would be nearly impossible to avoid them all.

Unfortunately, the effect was noted after the fact.

Most Phytoestrogens (in foods at least) are so weak that they have little to no effect especially since they are simply digested and/or neutralized by the liver. In this case the Phytoestrogens were in topical preparations and absorbed through the skin, bypassing the digestive system and the liver in the first pass.

[bioa2153]

 Well I heard on other websites that other minerals are linked to gynecomastia but I don’t know which to believe, on a weightlifting site I heard that zinc that is in many multivitamin pills could prevent and help gyne. But I also heard that calcium supplements are bad to take when you have gyne. Because it can bock the zinc from being absorbed. I am not sure how true any of this is but I am wondering if anyone has heard this before???

[headheldhigh01]

i think caution is in order.  phytoestrogens are not what are at issue here, since they can in fact work against gyne effects by competing for estrogen receptors.  

this is a case of the oils activating genetic elements which then produce results.  

it's important to keep different things distinct instead of mistakenly thinking anything distantly plant connected must be bad, when the truth is probably the reverse.  

interesting to see the rest of the story; merle posted something on this a week or two back.  

[unisys]

During my early teenage years, my mom forced me to use tea tree oil deodorant instead of normal deodorant because she was wary of the chemicals in normal deodorant.

I don't recall exactly when I got the glandular gyne because I didn't realize it was a condition until I was 15, and it became extremely noticable only after I got in shape at 19.  I do know for a fact that I didn't have gyne before I used these products, so there is a possibility that the tea tree oils were the cause of my gyne.  I'm 21 now and hoping to have the surgery done before the end of the year.

[Paa_Paw]

It is also possible that there is not a cause and effect relationship but simple coincidence