A recent research was carried out on lab rats and showed that moisturizing skin creams boost skin cancer and the quantity of tumors in mice, however the effects of the moisturizers on human skin is still to be studied.

The research was carried out at the Rutgers University and the results were published recently. According to the revealed information, widespread moisturizing lotions and creams spurred skin cancer and tumor growth in laboratory mice that underwent sun rays exposure.

Doctor Conzuela Hammock reports that these skin moisturizers have tumor-causing capability.

However, Dr. Hammock stresses the fact that the research was carried out on mice and the implications in humans are unknown, if any. Nevertheless, the results draw attention to the issue and suggest further investigation in humans.

A group of hairless mice were exposed to the UV radiation during a period of time. The exposure boosted skin cancer in animals. After the UV radiation, one half of the mice were treated with four different types of renowned skin moisturizers during a period of twenty weeks. The rate of tumor quantity increased considerably in animals treated with the lotions. Moreover, these mice showed the growth of the tumors a lot more than the mice that were not treated with skin moisturizers after the UV exposure.

The moisturizing products they used were Dermabase by Patrick Laboratories, Minneapolis; Dermovan by Galderma Laboratory Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas; Eucerin Original Moisturizing Cream by Beiersdorf of Hamburg Germany; and Vanicream by Pharmaceutical Specialties Inc., in Rochester, Minn.

The researchers have found the specific substances in the creams that provoke cancer growth.

The scientists took several ingredients of the given lotions and succeeded in creating a non-tumorigenic moisturizing lotion that did not increase the cancer growth rate in UV radiated mice.

Dr. Hammock emphasizes the importance of the further research and stresses that the producers of such moisturizers must be obliged to carry out a series of tests in order to clarify if there is a problem or not.

Hammock believes the producers can change some of the ingredients to remove the tumorigenic effect. Doctor also suggests that there are creams that don’t have that harmful effect and even have the anti-tumorigenic action.

Other dermatologists find the results of the research interesting, but believe they may eventually turn out useless for humans.

The history shows numerous examples when some of the drugs were implicated in causing harm to animals, and eventually caused no harm to people. This can also be the case. However, while the effect on humans is still to be studied, the best advice is to keep yourself protected from any extensive UV radiation, and first of all use good sun protection and sunscreen.