Woman, 26, suffers organ failure from HAIR CREAM which caused her kidney to ... trends now
A chemical used in hair straighteners sold online could cause kidney failure, doctors warn — after a woman who regularly got her hair done suffered organ damage.
The woman, who was not named, also felt nauseous and suffered from vomiting, diarrhea, fever and back pain just after regularly using products with glyoxylic acid.
She had no health problems before the treatments, but said she would also feel a burning sensation on her scalp whenever the chemicals were applied.
Doctors warned that glyoxylic acid and its derivatives — like glycolic acid — popular in 'Brazilian' and 'formaldehyde-free' hair straightening treatments, could seep through the skin into the blood and travel to the internal organs.
Once there, they could form crystals — the doctors suggested — which may stop the kidneys from functioning correctly.
Chemical straighteners, typically marketed to black women, break down protein bonds in curly hair using chemicals known to disrupt the body's hormone balance, leaving the hair permanently straight (stock image)
Pictured above is a hair straightening product that contains glyoxylic acid for sale on Amazon
In the case, revealed in the New England Journal of Medicine, the woman went for treatments three times at the same salon in June 2020, April 2021 and July 2022.
On the same day after each treatment she was diagnosed with acute kidney injury, which is a sudden loss of function in the kidneys — when they stop filtering water and waste products from the blood.
Hospital tests showed levels of creatinine — a waste product — in her blood surged to double their normal measurements.
It was not clear how she was treated, but this may have included intravenous fluids and dialysis — or being hooked up to a machine to filter the blood.
The woman, from Tunisia, had used a cream that contained ten percent glyoxylic acid.
Doctors suggested glyoxylic acid damaged the kidneys because
