LAVENDER

"Marcus darling... Welcome to Lavender Hill" - Eartha Kitt as Lady Eloise

Lavender EO (Essential Oils) is one of the most popular EOs used in aromatherapy. Pregnant women use lavender EO to treat stress and anxiety, the most common psychiatric disorders during pregnancy, with prevalence rates of 11–17%. In addition, pregnant women may be exposed to lavender EOs through a multitude of everyday products, including food flavorings, soaps, lotions, shampoos, hair products, colognes, laundry detergents, and insect repellents.

*GODDESS POWER HOUR RECOMMENDS SUSPENDING THE USE OF LAVENDER WHILE PREGNANT & BREASTFEEDING*

First, we wondered whether chlorpyrifos is present in the lavender EOs to which pregnant women are exposed. Second, when pregnant women are regularly exposed to the endocrine disruptor chlorpyrifos through lavender EOs, is there a risk to them and their fetus? Considering the large proportion of pregnant women using potentially contaminated lavender EO, this would be a major public health problem.

Not all pregnant women who use lavender EOs experience pregnancy problems, such as chlorpyrifos-induced shortening of pregnancy duration. In this context, the question we raise is whether the endocrine effects of chlorpyrifos are the same when tested in a culture medium or in contaminated lavender EO. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the potential endocrine-disrupting effects of chlorpyrifos in lavender EOs on the human placenta. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as exogenous substances or mixtures that alter the function(s) of the endocrine system and consequently cause adverse health effects. To achieve our objective, we used the hPlacentox test selected by the European public/private platform PEPPER for the pre-validation of endocrine disruptor characterization methods. The hPlacentox assay recommends the use of the JEG-Tox human placental cell model to study hormonal disruptions (steroidal and polypeptide) and adverse health effects in these same cells and thus meets the WHO definition of EDCs. The development of the hPlacentox assay was based in part on our previous work, showing that activation of the P2X7 receptor would be a common cellular mechanism of toxicity for EDCs in the placenta and that there is a causal link between P2X7 receptor activation and EDC-induced hormone disruption.

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content is for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9566273/#:~:text=Not%20all%20pregnant%20women%20who,or%20in%20contaminated%20lavender%20EO.