women using chemicals hair straighteners Often women may be at higher risk of developing uterine cancer than women who never used the products, according to new findings from a national study that followed nearly 34,000 American women for more than a decade. Is.
The study didn’t establish a cause-and-effect relationship between hair straighteners and uterine cancerA form of reproductive cancer that has increased in incidence in recent years among women, especially black women.
For women in the study who had never used a hair straightener, their risk of developing Uterus The research found that by age 70, cancer was 1.64%, while those with frequent use of straighteners more than doubled the rate to 4.05%.
While an increased risk was found among women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, black women may be disproportionately affected: Sixty percent of participants reported using hair straighteners, identifying as their own. black womenAccording to the study.
“We don’t want people to panic,” said study lead author Alexandra White, head of the Environmental and Cancer Epidemiology Group at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. “Anyone can decide to reduce this chemical exposure, but we also want to acknowledge that there is a lot of pressure on women, especially black women. Straight hair, Not doing so is not an easy decision.”
The research, using data from the institute’s Sister Study, appears to be the first epidemiological study to report a link with uterine cancer, but the researchers caution that the findings need to be confirmed with more studies. Previous studies have also linked hair straightener use to a higher risk of ovarian and Breast Cancer,
The study was published Monday in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Uterine cancer rates among all women in the United States have been rising recently, but black women die at twice the rate than white women, according to a report by an expert panel in March.
The researchers noted that several chemicals found in straighteners, such as parabens, bisphenol A, metals and formaldehyde, may play a role in increased risk of uterine cancer, and some of those chemicals have endocrine-disrupting properties. .
(This article originally appeared in The New York Times.)
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