Back in November 2017 we published a blog post where we summarised research on hair dyes, relaxers and breast cancer, and (sigh) we’re sorry to say we’re back here again writing about black hair products and their harmful effects.

A couple of weeks ago the results from another research study was published and this showed that 80% of black hair products contain endocrine disrupting and asthma causing chemicals. Endocrine disrupting chemicals are of concern as some studies have linked these chemicals to hormone-related health conditions including breast cancer and fibroids.

Latest Research

On 25^th April 2018, researchers from the Silent Spring Institute and Battelle Memorial Institute in the USA published the results from their study which investigated the endocrine disrupting and asthma-associated chemical content of black hair products. They tested 18 black hair products that cut across 6 types of products. These included hot oil treatments, anti-frizz/polish, leave-in conditioners, root stimulators, hair lotions and relaxers. Within these products they tested for the presence of 66 chemicals including BPA, phthalates (a solvent) and parabens (a preservative).

What Did They Find?

Researchers found that the black hair products tested contained 45 endocrine disrupting or asthma-associated chemicals. They stated that they found cyclosiloxanes (used for conditioning and spreadability), parabens and the fragrance marker diethyl phthalate (DEP) at the highest levels, and DEP most frequently in these products.

In their study, root stimulators, hair lotions and relaxers more frequently contained nonylphenols, parabens and fragrances whilst anti-frizz products tended to contain cyclosiloxanes.  Worryingly hair relaxers for children contained five chemicals that are regulated by California’s Proposition 65 or were prohibited from being used in the EU.

What we found particularly disturbing was that ingredients lists were incomplete, meaning that the researchers found chemicals in the products that were not listed on product labels. This is disturbing because many women do try to avoid chemicals such as parabens, but researchers found that butyl and ethyl paraben were never listed on labels and 12% of products with methyl paraben didn’t include this on their label. This is extremely misleading and means that women can’t make an informed choice about the products they purchase. Other chemicals that were frequently not included on ingredients lists were fragrance chemicals and cyclosiloxanes.

You can listen to  Dr. Jessica Helm from the Silent Spring Institute and Tola Okogwu from My Long Hair Journey discuss this latest study in the video below.

California’s Proposition 65 and EU Regulation

There are regulations in place to protect consumers and deter manufactures from including chemicals that are hazardous to our health in their products. Two such regulations are Proposition 65 and the European Union Cosmetics Directive.

California’s Proposition 65, more formally known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, aims to “help Californians make informed decisions about protecting themselves from chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.” By law, all businesses selling products to people in California must ensure clear and reasonable warnings are included on items that contain harmful chemicals so that people are aware that they will be exposed these chemicals. Some chemicals that are regulated by Prop 65 are o-phenylphenol, BPA, phthalate, ethanolamine and benzophenone.  Businesses don’t have to include any warnings if the chemicals are at concentrations that don’t pose a health risk. Now, in this current study,  it was found that even though two no-lye hair relaxers for children contained a Prop 65 regulated chemical, no warnings were included, and researchers made the point that these would not meet the Prop 65 labelling requirements.

The EU Cosmetics Directive states that all cosmetic products sold in the EU must be safe and they prohibit the inclusion of chemicals in products that have been shown to cause cancer, female reproductive toxicity and developmental toxicity. Some of the compounds prohibited by the EU include BPA, phthalate, alkylphenol and ethanolamine. In this study, some products were found to contain products prohibited by EU law – BPA, phthalate, nonylphenol and diethanolamine. So these products would not be fit for sale in the EU.

What Can We Do?

Well… ladies, we must demand better from brands. We must see what we can do to get companies to remove these chemicals from their products. In the meantime, we have to be very selective and only buy from brands that sell products that are safe, but this can be hard to do if brands are not listing all the chemicals in their products on their labels.

 Here are some brands that we use, or have used in the past, and we believe are safe, but we recommend that you do your research too.

Afrocenchix
Almocado
Camille Rose Naturals
Pure Goodnes
Root2Tip
Shea Butter Cottage
Shea Decadence
Yaphene

Finally, we are currently in discussions with the team behind My Long Hair Journey to see what we can do to start addressing this problem. We’ll keep you updated and let you know how these discussions go. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts on this topic. How do you feel about this new piece of research and are you concerned about the hair products that you use?

More Information

You can download the full research paper below as well as the study’s supplementary material which lists the brands tested in this study and information about EU regulation and California’s Prop 65. And, you can purchase some of the products from the brands listed above on Amazon below.

We are so delighted to announce that we will be launching our fibroids self-care webinar series in the autumn. The aim of this series is to empower women affected by fibroids with information, knowledge and practical tips to take action to improve their health and wellbeing.

The series will include four webinars led by experts in the field of gynaecology, nutrition, exercise and mental health with a fifth session being an Our Stories session. In this final session attendees will hear from women who have conquered fibroids and will have the opportunity, if they wish, to share their own experiences. We will also explore challenges, useful tips and discuss solutions. Lake Health and Wellbeing will use this session to listen, understand the current experience of women with fibroids and work with attendees to explore how we can best support women with fibroids.

If you have fibroids, this webinar series will be perfect for you. It will give you the opportunity to meet other women with fibroids and provide you with access to experts in the field, all from the comfort of your home. This is not to be missed.

The webinars will be held every two months and there will be a small charge.

For more information and to register your interest, please contact us on events@lakehealthandwellbeing.com  or you can sign up to our fibroids mailing list here

More details will follow very soon.

Disclosure: this post contains an affiliate link. Find out more here

In today’s blog post we hear from Silvia who shares her experience with fibroids and explains why she started her blog, Life With Fibroids.

Well, let’s start off with a little bit about me. My name is Silvia and I am married to an amazing man who is so supportive and have an adorable dog who from time to time drives me nuts, but that is okay because I adore him.  I have fibroids and have been living with them for two years and have come to a place in my life where I want to share my story and my personal opinions and connect with others and learn about their stories as well.

I was diagnosed with Uterine Fibroids two years ago officially but have lived with them for just about 6 years now and since then I have done a lot of research but there is still so much more to do, so in no way am I saying I am an expert and I am not a doctor.  I decided to start my website, Life with Fibroids,  to create a space where women of all ages, creeds, backgrounds, religions, and parts of the world could come together and know that having fibroids does not mean that you are alone. Although fibroids is very common it is crazy to think that it is not a very talked about subject for most women and there is really no place to connect with others and ask how they are living with it and going through life with this. I was diagnosed with Uterine Fibroids two ago and they do affect my life they make me have the worst menstrual cycle of my life for example I have more bleeding and the first couple of days is so painful and the cramps sometimes can drop me to my knees. It hurts so much let me just say.

I guess, for me at least, that is the biggest inconvenience and it is so crazy to think that they can develop like they did for me because of the fact that your body can produce too much oestrogen and they can grow over time as well and can cause other problems like infertility if they block the Fallopian tubes and get in the way of implantation but to know that it is on a case by case situation and if you come to find out  that you have them and are worried about that then I would definitely set up an appointment with your doctor and get your situation checked. I did and thankfully they are not going to stop me from getting pregnant but I think for the best option since they have gotten bigger is to get them removed before we try for a baby again since I have experienced a miscarriage due to fibroids and want to avoid any further complications due to fibroids, so that is another reason for me to write this post and try to reach out to those who are in the same situation and be an outstretched hand and let others know you are not alone and I am here for you. I guess I just want to help people share and get connected and help support each other because there are lots of stories like mine but there are also lots of stories that end up with a happy mommy and a happy baby, so like I said it is case by case and if I can help even one person then I think that writing this post and creating my blog, Life with Fibroids, is worth it.

Now let’s get a few things clear about fibroids first:

1. Fibroids are not cancerous and from what I have come to learn not life threatening, so you can take that stress off your mind right now.
2. What my doctor has come to teach me is that for every woman’s fibroids are different and can affect them in different ways and with fibroids especially the kind that I have which is Uterine Fibroids is always a case by case situation so in no way am I saying that I know everything about you and your situation so please feel free to write about your story and connect with others.
3. Fibroids can happen anywhere in the body but the most common fibroid I have come to read about is Uterine Fibroids which is what I have.
4. Even though many women have fibroids they can go their entire lives without knowing it due to having no symptoms and doctors not having any indication to look for them.
5. Women who do have them and do have active symptoms can have a variety and cannot have their daily lives affected in any way and then there is the other side of the coin where women have their everyday life come to a standstill and cannot function and then of course there is the middle ground where you have good and bad days but nothing too drastic, which for the most part is where I fall, well for the most part anyway.
6. My final point on this never-ending list is that for every woman with this diagnosis there is a story and it is different and each and everyone is valuable and important.

So with all that I have said again I just want to say that I created my blog, Life with Fibroids, as a place to connect and share your individual stories and remember that you are not alone and you are one of a kind and that you and I and everyone else living and not living with this is beautiful and amazing. Please feel free to visit my blog, share your stories and help me to connect with others from all over. Thanks for taking the time to read my post and even though I am not the most talented writer I want to share my story and hope that it can help at least one person out there. Thank you again for visiting and taking the time to read my post. At Life with Fibroids I do my best to keep everyone up to date on what is happening with me and my fibroids and try my best to keep it active and hopefully on-going. Have an awesome day and you rock!

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Lake Health and Wellbeing  would like to say a big thank you to Silvia for sharing her experience with fibroids, we hope that through her experience you have gained some useful insight into this condition. You can find out more about Silvia at Life With Fibroids

If you have any questions or comments please do leave these in the comments section below. 

Disclosure: this post contains an affiliate link. Find out more here

Wednesday 2nd May, 2018

In this week’s episode we have a really interesting and insightful conversation with Le’Nise Brothers, the founder of Eat Love Move, about fibroids, hormones, diet and lifestyle.

We first heard about Eat Love Move on the Secret Birds Podcast a couple of months ago when founder Le’Nise Brothers was interviewed about health, hormones and barriers.  We were really impressed with all the great work that Le’Nise is doing and it also piqued our interest because of the work we’ve been doing on fibroids, an area that Le’Nise focuses on too. We felt the services offered by Eat Love Move would be of interest to you, our readers, so in today’s blog we introduce you to their services.

Who Is Eat Love Move?

Eat Love Move is a business that focuses on women’s health and offers personalised hormonal health programmes and workshops. At the helm of the company is Le’Nise Brothers, a registered naturopathic Nutritional Therapist who specialises in women’s health, anxiety, depression and weight loss.

As a nutrition and wellbeing coach for women, Le’Nise’s mission is to help women understand and embrace their hormones and menstrual cycle and thus much of her work focuses on women who struggle with low energy, sugar cravings and hormonal issues such as PMS, PCOS, endometriosis, heavy & painful periods, fibroids, perimenopause and menopause.

“I’ve had a life-long interest in food – eating it, cooking it and sharing it. I slowly started to make the connection between what I was eating and how I was feeling and used diet and lifestyle changes to improve my anxiety, depression and irritable bowel syndrome.”  – Le’Nise Brothers

Le’Nise firmly believes in the power of food and she takes the time to understand her clients, their lifestyle and goals, and then designs nutrition and lifestyle programmes that are tailored to the individual.

Their Services

Eat Love Move’s services fall into three categories:

• Personalised Health Programmes
• Hormone Health Programmes
• Workshops and Talks

Personalised Health Programmes – these are a minimum of 8 weeks long and are for women who have symptoms or health issues, are concerned about their family’s medical history or have been advised by their doctor to improve their diet.  A typical personalised health programme consists of the following:

• Initial personal consultation including an in-depth health and lifestyle assessment
• Personalised nutrition advice and supplement plan
• Current medication and nutrient interaction evaluation, if applicable
• Recommendations of clinical tests and interpretation, if applicable
• Follow up consultations – face to face, skype, telephone
• Mini progress review calls
• Email support
• Personalised menu planning and recipes

Hormone Health Programmes – Eat Love Move offers three programmes:

1. Period Helper – this is a personalised programme that helps women with their periods and menstrual cycle so they enjoy life with no PMS or pain (yay!)
2. Hormone Helper – this programme teaches women how to manage their hormones and stress, and how food can bring things back into balance.
3. Menopause Helper – teaches women how to support their hormones and get a sense of balance so they feel better as they go into perimenopause and menopause

Workshops and Talks

Le’Nise is passionate about helping women learn more about how they can improve their health and wellbeing and regularly facilitates workshops and delivers talks covering a range of topics including meal planning, wellbeing in the workplace, self-care and hormone health.

More Information

For more information and to book a free 20 minute health and wellbeing review you can email hello@eatlovemove.com or visit their website

Eat Love Move offers Skype and FaceTime consultations so you can access their services from anywhere in the world, or if you’re based in London you can find Le’Nise at the Onebody Clinic in Chiswick on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9 – 11am

Alternatively, you can join Eat Love Move’s private Facebook group, Embrace Your Hormones. It’s a private and positive space for women to ask questions about their hormones and menstrual cycle and get evidence-based information and support.

Disclosure: this post contains an affiliate link. Find out more here

We’re delighted to announce that our May Fibroids Twitter Chat is with Olivia Haltman on 30th May 2018 at 7pm, GMT (that’s 11am PST, 2pm EST and 2pm AST).

Olivia Haltman is an accredited Integrative Humanistic Counsellor and an Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapist.  She is also a member of British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), EMDR UK & Ireland and BAATN (Black and Asian Therapist Network).

Olivia set up OH Services in 2010 to support people who want to develop their lives on a personal level and reach their best potential. She is passionate about self-development and helping others take positive steps on their life journey. ​

She has worked in the Mental Health Sector for over 10 years, supporting people from all backgrounds, genders and lifestyles.  She believes everyone is different, with unique needs and aspirations so she uses an integrative approach to apply and integrate the most suitable solutions for her clients.

​She also applies (where necessary) a holistic approach to help clients enjoy the essential benefits of wellbeing and healing processes.

We’ll be discussing the emotional impact of fibroids and how women with fibroids can improve their emotional wellbeing.

Join us for a very important and useful exploration of how fibroids impacts a women’s mental health. To take part in this conversation find us on Twitter on 30th May and use the hashtag #FibroidsChat

You can find out more about Olivia and the services she offers here: www.ohcounsellingservices.com

Today we tackle a question that we are asked quite regularly at our fibroids events: ‘Is there a link between fibroids and endometriosis?’

To answer this question, we’re going to look at what research tells us, but first let’s start with a bit of background on endometriosis. You can find out about fibroids on our fibroids page here

What is Endometriosis?

Endometriosis occurs when cells similar to those that line a woman’s womb are found in other parts of the body like the ovaries, fallopian tubes, bladder and stomach. The problem with this is that the cells that line the womb have a specific function which is only appropriate in the womb. The cells that line the womb build up, break down and bleed every month during our period. In the womb the blood has an escape route (the vagina), but in endometriosis the blood from the womb-like cells don’t have an escape route, and this can cause pain, inflammation and scarring.

Endometriosis is a long-term condition that affects millions of women worldwide causing a range of symptoms, such as heavy and painful periods, back pain, constipation, infertility and more. Thus, it has a significant impact on a woman’s quality of life.

Is there a link between fibroids and endometriosis?

When we look at research that has been conducted in this area, there does seem to be a link between fibroids and endometriosis. Firstly, several studies have found that many women with fibroids also have endometriosis, but just how common it is to have both fibroids and endometriosis isn’t clear as it has varied between studies. For example, a study carried out in the US by a team in Stanford in 2010 found that 86% of patients with fibroids also had endometriosis, whilst in 1994 a team in Italy found that just 12% of women with fibroids had endometriosis. Furthermore, three other studies found that 87%, 21% and 28% of women with fibroids also had endometriosis.  So, it does vary from there being a very strong link (87%) to a relatively weak, but significant link (12%).

When we look at the biology of fibroids and endometriosis there is evidence of a link between these two conditions. It has been reported that fibroids and endometriosis have common biological abnormalities that contribute to the development of both conditions. Namely these are defects in molecules called 17B-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (involved in hormone regulation) and aromatase (involved in the production of oestrogen). Related to this it is thought that women with fibroids and/or endometriosis tend to have a hormone imbalance having excess amounts of oestrogen in the body which, in both conditions, causes growth of the abnormal cells.

Why is it important to know about this link?

It’s important for patients and doctors to be aware of the link between fibroids and endometriosis so patients can receive the most appropriate treatment. If there is no awareness that women with fibroids are likely to also have endometriosis, patients diagnosed fibroids will be treated for just their fibroids and their symptoms may persist which the doctor and patient may think is due to the treatment being ineffective, but the persistent symptoms could be due to undiagnosed endometriosis. Researchers from the Stanford Study therefore recommend that doctors explore whether their fibroids patients also have endometriosis. Their study did identify helpful clues to identify whether a patient with fibroids may have endometriosis. They found that women who were diagnosed fibroids were more likely to have endometriosis if they:

• Had pelvic pain that was disproportionate to the size of their fibroids
• Were infertile

Therefore a good starting point for doctors and patients wanting to explain persistent symptoms after fibroids treatment is to explore whether the two symptoms above are present as this could mean the patient has endometriosis. If we can pinpoint these patients early then steps can be taken to alleviate their symptoms and thus improve their quality of life.

More Information

For more information about endometriosis you can visit Endometriosis UK’s website and for more information about the link between fibroids and endometriosis you can check out the references below.

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References

1. Huang J.  et al. (2010). Coexistence of endometriosis in women with symptomatic leiomyomas. Fertil Steril, Volume 94(2), p 720.
2. Nezhat C. et al. (2016). Strong Association Between Endometriosis and Symptomatic Leiomyomas. JSLS, Volume 20 (3).
3. Maclaran K., Agarwal N. and Odejinmi. (2014). Co-existence of uterine myomas and endometriosis in women undergoing myomectomy: risk factors and surgical implications. J Minim Invasive Gynecol, Volume 21 (6), p 1086.
4. Tanmahasamut P., Noothong S., Sanga–Areekul N., Silprasit K. and Dangrat C. (2014). Prevalence of endometriosis in women undergoing surgery for benign gynecologic diseases. J Med Assoc Thai, Volume 97 (2), p147.

Disclosure: this post contains an affiliate link

We are developing a fibroids awareness, information and support programme. The first phase of this work was to understand the needs of women with fibroids and we achieved this by conducting some qualitative research.

The research project explored four areas:
· The level of knowledge of fibroids prior to diagnosis
· Treatment and diagnosis
· The effect of fibroids and its treatment on quality of life
· The availability of support and information

The findings from our work suggested that a significant number of women with fibroids do not have access to the support and information that they require to successfully manage their condition. You can read more about the findings on our blog here or download the full report here: Fibroids_Survey_Summary_Final

The findings of this survey are informing the direction of our work and since the publication of our report we have:

• Formed a Fibroids Ask the Expert Panel
• Published a fibroids booklet
• Hosted our first conference for women affected by fibroids
• Delivered presentations to churches and community groups
• Hosted a regular fibroids Twitter chat
• Created a fibroids blog and news series
• Launched a fibroids social media campaign in collaboration with Noire Wellness
• Contributed to the APPG’s fibroids inquiry
• Started working on  a fibroids fact sheet series
• Started organising a fibroids self-care webinar series

You can keep up-to-date on all our work in this area by signing up to our fibroids mailing list below:

Through our fibroids publications, we aim to provide useful, simple and straightforward information on fibroids. We have produced a fibroids booklet, reviewed by healthcare professionals and women with fibroids; are creating a series of fact sheets on areas that women have highlighted are important to them and have also produced a report summarising a small piece of research we conducted to explore the needs of black women with fibroids.

Booklets and Reports

Understanding the Needs of Women with Fibroids

We conducted some research to understand the experience of African and African-Caribbean women with fibroids. This work explored the needs of women with fibroids and determined if women had access to enough information and support. Our findings then informed the development of our fibroids information and support programme.

You can read our report here.

Publication date:  21st January 2015

Redesign: July 2019

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Fibroids Booklet

Our booklet provides much-needed information on all aspects of fibroids from symptoms and risk factors to treatment and prevention. It aims to ensure that women have accurate, reliable information about fibroids. We hope this booklet will be a one-stop-shop for anyone with questions or concerns about fibroids.

You can read the booklet here.

Publication date: 29th July 2015

Our booklet will be updated in 2020

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Fact Sheets

Fibroids and Exercise – in this fact sheet we discuss how exercise may help with alleviating symptoms and provide readers with simple tips on how to get active without aggravating their current symptoms.

Updated: March 2019

Download here:  Fibroids and Exercise Fact Sheet

Acknowledgements: We’d like to thank Candice Bryan from Noire Wellness for contributing to this fact sheet and Way Wive Wordz Publishing, Editing and Tuition.

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Fibroids and Your Emotional Wellbeing: this fact sheet aims to help women identify, understand and address the emotions that may be associated with having fibroids.

Updated: April 2019

Download here:  Fibroids and Your Emotional Wellbeing

Acknowledgements: We’d like to thank Olivia Haltman from OH Counselling Services for co-authoring this fact sheet and Way Wive Wordz Publishing, Editing and Tuition for editing this document.

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Infographics

Fibroids and COVID-19: this comprehensive infographic explores how the COVID-19 pandemic may be affecting fibroids patients and provides some self-care and stress management tips to help women cope during this challenging time.

Published: 18th May 2020

Download here: Fibroids and COVID-19 Infographic

Reviewed by: Dr Oduntan, District Medical Officer, St Kitts and Nevis

You can download a list of the references used to prepare this infographic here

We would like to thank our volunteer, Mariana Ndrio, a second-year medical student at the UMHS in St Kitts and Nevis for her hard work in preparing this resource.

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What You Need to Know About Fibroids: This infographic provides an overview of fibroids covering what fibroids are, the different types, risk factors, prevention tips and symptoms.

Published: 1st June 2020

Download here: What You Need to Know About Fibroids

You can download a list of references used to prepare this infographic here

We would like to thank Dr Sofia Miah, who recently graduated from the University of Exeter Medical School, for her hard work in preparing this infographic.

This infographic was reviewed by a UK-based gynaecologist.

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We are committed to making all our resources free and easily accessible to all those who need it. You can help us with this commitment by making a donation which will go towards the costs of producing our health information which includes the costs of design, printing and editing. You can make a donation here. Thank you for any help that you can provide.

Please note that our online payments are being managed by JAD Cash,  a comprehensive e-money solution for the Eastern Caribbean countries. All online payments will, therefore, be processed in Eastern Caribbean Dollars (XCD)

Wednesday 28th March, 2018

In this week’s episode we had a really interesting and informative discussion with Olivia Haltman about the emotional impact of fibroids and how women with fibroids can improve their emotional wellbeing.