The Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned against the use of glutathione injectables, a popular skin lightening treatment offered in beauty clinics all over the country.
“It is alarming that they (clinics, spas, and salons) also offer services such as intravenous drip or infusion using skin lightening agents including reduced glutathione, vitamin C, and other injections,” the FDA said in an advisory released today.
Whitening “drip” treatments are quite popular in the Philippines, that is concoctions containing substances like glutathione, vitamin C, and collagen that are intravenously administered to customers looking to lighten their complexion.
Clinics say that these treatments are not harmful and can even be good for one’s health but the FDA warned that glutathione has not been evaluated as a skin lightening treatment by published clinical trials.
The FDA also said that it has not approved any injectables for skin lightening and that injectable glutathione is only approved as an adjunct treatment in cisplatin chemotherapy.
Side effects of using injectable glutathione for skin lightening include toxic effects on the liver, kidneys, and nervous system. There’s also a risk of getting Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, a serious disorder brought out by a reaction to medication that leads to the shedding of skin. Since whitening drips usually contain vitamin C, the FDA warned that they can also cause the forming of kidney stones.
More serious risks include the possibility of developing skin cancer and of contracting HIV, Hepatitis C, and Hepatitis B, especially when the IV is administered by someone not in the medical field or in a non-sterile place.
Apart from clinics that offer them, glutathione drips can be easily be sourced online, with some sellers even offering at-home services.
Like most parts of Asia, light skin is glorified in the Philippines. Whitening products like soaps and lotions are commonly found in supermarkets but more intense whitening procedures like these glutathione IV treatments have gained popularity in recent years.
Coconuts Manila wrote about the whitening drip trend and the skin lightening industry in the feature Life on the drip: Tapping into a country’s color obsession in 2o17.
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