So some of you may have read recently that there has been some 'research' in relation to the estrogenic potential of Lavander Oil and Tea Tree Oil. You may come across it on FB or in one of the News Ltd tabloids or what have you. Put simply, some compounds are known to be implicated in mimicking the hormone Estrogen or at least creating a potential for it's up-regulation. The source of this nonsense is a regurgitation of a piece from 2007.
The gist of it is that this increase of Estrogen in men can lead to Gynecomastia (Man boobs, Man Cans, Moobs, etc) I won't explore this too much further as it wades into qualified medical practitioner territory fairly easily but prior to this nonsense spreading any further I thought I would mention the work of Robert Tisserand and his published work on Essential Oil Safety.
I don't buy into aromatherapy or other 'woo woo' for even a second, but I do buy into empirical critiques of research that are founded on hard science referencing reputable journals.
Robert has previously addressed many of the underlying assumptions and research relied on in 2007 study and you can read his referenced blog post here and another post he made here. You are bound to find other independent published works with a little pub-med searching or similar.
By way of reference, the research behind the recent 'scare' article is
Henley D, Lipson N, Korach K, Bloch C. Prepubertal Gynecomastia Linked to Lavender and Tea Tree Oils. New England Journal of Medicine, Feb. 1, 2007.
I will do some further searching and reading of the published literature in relation to Tea Tree Oil and post further information when I locate something that specifically addresses the Tea Tree component of the claims made.
The gist of it is that this increase of Estrogen in men can lead to Gynecomastia (Man boobs, Man Cans, Moobs, etc) I won't explore this too much further as it wades into qualified medical practitioner territory fairly easily but prior to this nonsense spreading any further I thought I would mention the work of Robert Tisserand and his published work on Essential Oil Safety.
I don't buy into aromatherapy or other 'woo woo' for even a second, but I do buy into empirical critiques of research that are founded on hard science referencing reputable journals.
Robert has previously addressed many of the underlying assumptions and research relied on in 2007 study and you can read his referenced blog post here and another post he made here. You are bound to find other independent published works with a little pub-med searching or similar.
By way of reference, the research behind the recent 'scare' article is
Henley D, Lipson N, Korach K, Bloch C. Prepubertal Gynecomastia Linked to Lavender and Tea Tree Oils. New England Journal of Medicine, Feb. 1, 2007.
I will do some further searching and reading of the published literature in relation to Tea Tree Oil and post further information when I locate something that specifically addresses the Tea Tree component of the claims made.
So I'll apologize first for the both of us.
