If you know anything about chemistry, you know that supplements which claim to do something special and actually do something special probably only do it because they have real drugs in them that are not on the label, and are perhaps dangerous.
So it goes with "anti-aging" creams. If you are lucky, they do nothing but exploit your financial gullibility. If your skin lightener or anti-aging treatment really does reliably remove age spots and wrinkles, stop using it, especially if you bought it in a shop catering to the Latino, Asian, African, or Middle Eastern communities because you were told that the FDA is controlled by Big Pharma and are blocking out these miracle treatments.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a new warning about these imported cosmetics, and be even more worried if there is no label on them at all - because they may contain mercury. Mercury toxicity can have serious health consequences, not just for you but due to vapors inhaled by family members or perhaps from touching a washcloth.
There has been a huge upsurge in popularity for foreign cosmetics due to environmentalist and activists group promoting fear and doubt about American science and the regulatory process. The naturalistic fallacy also lends credence to the notion that if someone in Asia or Africa used a compound hundreds of years ago, it must be safe, but manufacturing standards are too inconsistent and the products may be dangerous, which has led to FDA's new update.
“Even though these products are often promoted as cosmetics, they also may be unapproved new drugs under the law,” says Linda Katz, M.D., director of FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors. FDA does not allow mercury in drugs or in cosmetics, except under very specific conditions where there are no other safe and effective preservatives available – conditions that these products do not meet.
