Long use of skin lightening creams may damage your organs – Experts

Despite warnings from health experts on the dangers of using skin lightening products such as creams and pills, more and more people still crave for these products.
Nowadays, the craze for having a lighter skin has increased amongst Nigerian women and some men, especially those who see themselves as celebrities, being in the limelight.
The trend has gone worse such that even the social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and others have set a myopic standard for women who have lighter skin to feel superior to their counterparts because they are referred to as being “ fresh or creamy”. This development has increased the number of women subscribing to skin lightening creams and pills, even without doctors’ prescription.
However, medical experts have warned that the continuous use of these skin lightening products may damage internal organs, aside from destroying the skin itself.
A dermatologist with the University of Nigeria, Nsuka, Dr. Uche Williams, noted that skin bleaching was popular with darker-skinned people in their bid to obtain a more even skin tone.
He added that many chemicals or agents, including, hydroquinone, the most commonly used, were part of the ingredients for producing these lightening products. Ohers are Kojic acid and Alpha Hydroxy Acid, which act by blocking melanin production in the body.
He said these ingredients not only contained corticosteroids, but also mercury, “which is a poison that can damage the nervous system due to long term use.”
”Although some people have the intention of using skin bleaching creams to lighten sun damage and age spots on their skin, that should be done under the supervision of a trained dermatologist. But too often, hydroquinone cream, the most common type of skin bleach, is used without any supervision, and this can result in uneven lightening of the skin and a few other undesirable effects,” he said.
A skin care specialist at Golden Ark Laser Spa, Surulere Lagos, Mrs. Maureen Alordia, noted that the application of skin lightening creams made the user to have an impaired skin healing.
Alordia said, “If you use bleaching cream on your skin, you could be impairing your skin’s ability to heal when suffering from an injury, lesion or rash. The ingredient in bleaching cream, like the hydroquinone, is a fairly caustic substance and some of the known side effects for hydroquinone include redness, peeling, rash, dryness and burning, where you’ve applied the cream. That’s why bleaching cream should be purchased and used under the strict supervision of an expert.
“In most cases, people go to beauty shops to buy creams to make them fair and beautiful, and after using it for some time, they start to see the results. Instead of them to stop those lightening creams and use some milder ones to maintain their skin, they continue with the lightening creams and by the time they realise it, their skin has become damaged; that is when they now rush down to skin care specialists.”
She added that long-term use of those lightening products made the skin to become so thin that the capillaries under the skin would become visible such that a touch on the skin might result in bruises, “which are the side effects of prescription-strength steroids in some of the creams sold over the counter in beauty supply stores.”
A clinical psychologist with the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ms. Tosin Aluko, said it was wrong to assume that skin lightening was a cultural anachronism or an effort to negate one’s racial
heritage.
She noted that for about seven to 10 years, the misuse of skin lightening products had been on the decline because of the public sensitisation and awareness on radio and television about its effects, but now “It’s happening more because the Internet has been a great source for these patients to get physician-strength or prescription-strength
products.
“In fact, it’s a growing practice that has been stimulated by the companies that produce these lightening products because their advertisements connect happiness, success and romance with being lighter skinned, which is wrong.”