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Discussion » Questions » Health and Wellness » How can what you put on your body, that you can't eat, be for you if it still enters your body absorbed through the skin?

How can what you put on your body, that you can't eat, be for you if it still enters your body absorbed through the skin?

Lotions, creams, deodorants and perfumes for example. "Be good for you" correction.

Posted - May 18, 2017

Responses


  • 6477
    Easily... as if it's absorbed through the skin it's likely that it was designed to nourish, moisturise or in some way help the skin or work in such a way that it is able to be absorbed and enter the blood stream and thus have beneficial effects that way.. I am thinking of sun cream.. pain med creams, antihistamine creams.. transdermal patches, and lotions as you said...  Just because we cannot eat  them doesn't mean that they aren't helpful per-se.. most of them we *could* eat, without harming us - it's just they are not foods and we wouldn't want to eat them.. Most products, even skin creams are tested so that they are not highly toxic if eaten... 
      May 18, 2017 8:08 AM MDT
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  • 44520
    Most of them AREN'T absorbed through the skin.
      May 18, 2017 8:09 AM MDT
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  • 6477
    True... I wondered about that.. some of the meds that you can get - I do wonder about their efficacy.. but assume and hope that they are proven?  Lotions etc aren't absorbed through the skin as such they are absorbed into the skin's top layers or smooth and moisturise the surface of the skin.
      May 18, 2017 8:36 AM MDT
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  • 44520
    There are substances, the most common being Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) that readily penetrates the skin and can carry medications with them.
      May 18, 2017 2:28 PM MDT
    1