Formaldehyde-releasing ingredients in cosmetics can change our epigenetics and increase our chances of cancer

In personal care products, formaldehyde can be added directly, but most often, it can be released from preservatives such as quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea, polyoxymethylene urea, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate, bromopol and glyoxal. Why are these ingredients so bad? For a number of reasons, including that they’re cancer causing.

Here I’ll discuss how these ingredients can cause cancer. Let’s think about epigenetics. Epigenetics involves chemical processes (including proteins produced by our bodies) that regulate gene activity, not by changing the DNA structure, rather by regulating the expression of mRNA from our genes. This enables our cells, tissues, and organs to adapt to environmental changes. However, this plastic and adaptive benefit has a downside because epigenetic regulation is more susceptible to disruption by toxins than the relatively stable genetic sequence of DNA.

A new study led Prof. Dr. christopher Chang, Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, demonstrates that formaldehyde, commonly present in various household and cosmetic products, in polluted air, and widely used in building materials such as particleboard, plywood, and other pressed-wood products is a powerful modifier of normal epigenetic patterns. Formaldehyde has been associated with an increased risk of developing cancer, such as nasopharyngeal tumors and leukemia.

Mechanistically, Dr. Chang’s study discovered that formaldehyde is an inhibitor of the MAT1A protein, the main producer of S-Adenosyl-L-Methionine (SAM), which is the universal donor of the chemical group “methyl” that regulates epigenetic activity. Specifically, the scientists found that exposure to formaldehyde induced a reduction in SAM content and caused the loss of methylation of histone proteins, that package our DNA and control the function of thousands of genes.

In summary, these scientists have discovered that formaldehyde has the capacity to modify the epigenetic properties of our cells, contributing to the well-documented carcinogenic properties of formaldehyde. Check the ingredient label of your personal care products to be sure they don’t contain these formaldehyde-releasing ingredients. BTW, people often confuse “urea” for “imidazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea, or polyoxymethylene urea,” all of which can release formaldehyde because they are reaction products of urea and formaldehyde. Products labeled with “Urea” are not formaldehyde-releasing because the “urea” has not been reacted with formaldehyde. “Urea” is naturally occurring in the skin and other areas of the body, and is a natural moisturizing factor (NMF) that is essential for the adequate hydration and integrity of the stratum corneum.