Using Shea Butter to Improve Acne & Skin Health

shea butter acne - HealthCodes DNA

Shea Butter For Acne: Everything You Need to Know, The Benefits, Uses, & Risks

Shea butter is known for its skin-rejuvenating ingredients due to its rich vitamin content, especially vitamins A, E, and F. Though it is ideally used to maintain a balanced and glowing skin, you’ll be amazed at how it can assist fight acne. The following paragraphs highlight this naturally occurring substance’s benefits and healing ingredients.

First, let’s see what exactly shea butter is. It is a fatty substance derived from the Shea tree nut, i.e., Mangifolia tree, a native of the African Savannahs. It has been a popular skincare ingredient in Africa over the centuries and has made its way to cosmetic products.

What are the Beneficial Ingredients of Shea Butter?

The vitamin content of shea butter works like magic – it boosts collagen production, hydrates your skin, and prevents premature aging.  

Shea butter also has vegetable fats that improve cell regeneration, while its cinnamic acid protects your skin from the sun. Ingredients called unsaponifiable impart moisturizing and healing effects to it. It has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory ingredients, which address the root of your acne problem, i.e., bacterial growth and inflammation in your skin. Regular use of shea butter will improve your skin’s elasticity and even heal fine lines and wrinkles under your eyes.

This wonder product also prevents and heals stretch marks, scars, rashes, and wounds. It also minimizes acne blemishes and treats skin diseases like eczema to a certain extent. It treats chapped lips and conditions coarse hair as well.

How Can You Use Shea Butter for Your Acne and Skin

The ingredients shea butter uses for many years by people in Africa as a food source and cosmetic product. It comes from a tree called the Shea Karite. It is widely known because of its healing and moisturizing ingredients. Scientists have discovered the excellent benefits of shea butter and found that one can use it for various problems. Here are the most common uses of this ingredient in our everyday lives.

  1. Treat Dry Skin

Shea butter is known to have the ability to moisturize any skin. It is perfect for people with dry or flaky skin because it assists in moisturizing and renewing your skin cells to make them look smooth and youthful. Apply shea butter to the affected part of the body after a shower, and leave it for a while to absorb into your skin.

  3. Treat acne

Shea butter also has a soothing and healing property that treats acne because skin irritation is part of the reason for acne, this ingredient soothes the skin to prevent inflammation. You may see it as oily, but it can improve your skin tone and remove rashes if used adequately. The vitamin contents in the shea butter assists in removing excess oil on the face and erasing pores.

   5. As Stretch Mark Cream: 

Stretch marks are often a problem among pregnant women. Shea butter is used in many stretch mark creams as a significant ingredient because it assists retain skin elasticity. To use it, women often rub this butter on their bellies to prevent stretch marks and reduce existing effects. This is one of the most effective products to get rid of stretch marks because the fatty acids assist in providing nutrients to the skin to maintain its elasticity.

   4. Shea Butter act as Hair Moisturizer:

One of the popular uses of shea butter is to moisturize your hair. People with dry or damaged hair often use this as a moisturizing ingredient to seal the moisture in their hair because of its popularity, many hair products such as shampoos and conditioners incorporate this ingredient in it. These products make it easier to enjoy its benefits without doing additional work.

How Shea Butter Can Influence Acne Scars and Dark Spots

The shea tree does not produce its large, plum-like fruit until it is twenty years old. Another use of this butter is in hair conditioners, as its moisturizing ingredients assist in maintaining moisture in the hair and keep it healthy and revitalized. Shea butter is even more effective than cocoa butter or jojoba butter in treating dry skin. Shea butter is also helpful for Scars and Skin treatment. 

Besides being an excellent moisturizer and emollient, shea butter is naturally anti-inflammatory. It uses successfully for many conditions:

-Fading scars and stretch marks

-Treating eczema skin symptoms, burns, rashes, acne,

psoriasis

-Lessening blemishes, wrinkles

Shea butter absorbs rapidly into the skin and has also been known to relieve sinusitis and nasal congestion effectively. The softening ingredients assist in relaxing the skin and thereby ease tension and increase respiration. The use of shea butter can also be effective in lessening the pain of sore muscles and arthritis.

How Is Shea Butter Produced?

Shea butter produces via an intricate process. First, the shea nut cracks and roasts and is then ground paste. Water is added to the cooled paste and mixed until the shea oil comes to the top and can be collected. The oil is boiled until the water evaporates. It then filters until it becomes a creamy yellow color. In some places in Africa, where the shea tree grows, newborn babies are massaged daily with the rich, natural massage oil, which stretches their muscles and softens their skin.

How to Select the Best Shea Butter for Acne

Raw shea butter is the most unprocessed and pure form of shea butter. You might even notice some soft nuts in it! 

Natural goodness not destroying commercialization – rather. This product still maintains its original taste with no added chemicals or preservatives. Using raw shea butter for acne scars treatment can do wonders for your skin!

Shea butter’s color ranges from white to yellow, depending on the extracted tree. Shea butter typically comes in a jar or small tub and has a consistency similar to paste; you can scoop it out with your finger/utensil if desired. Raw shea butter is rich in healing nutrients that haven’t been reduced or removed by heating and refinement processes. Refined Shea Butter goes through several commercial processing steps to remove impurities like those bits from the nut and neutralize its odor – both of which cause it to lose valuable nutrients, making it less potent than its raw form for use on the skin.

However, you need to select quality products because cheaper ones may not have as many benefits as better quality raw ones. A tip is to look at the ingredients on the label and see whether it is listed as one of the few components.

How to Properly Store Shea Butter

Keeping your shea butter in an airtight container advise to keep it fresher for longer.  Reducing the amount of contact that your shea butter has with the air can greatly slow down the natural oxidation process when storing your butter in a dry and dark place. If you live in a zone where your home temperature is higher than 75F, we suggest placing the shea butter in the fridge to avoid continuous melting and solidifying, as that will lead to grainy shea butter.

6 Natural Essential Oils you can Mix with Shea Butter for Acne Scar Removal

Shea butter is a fantastic moisturizer for your skin and can assist in the handling of many skin disorders such as acne, rosacea, eczema, and psoriasis. Natural oils are potent essences of pure plant material, which deliver antioxidants and other compounds that can quickly restore the skin glowing. Mixing quality natural oils with shea butter will provide a unique ingredient that can enhance your skincare practice and the overall health of your body.

Tea Tree Oil:

By adding some tea tree oil to shea butter, you’ll be able to make an excellent acne cream.

Rosemary Essential Oil:

This soil-like fragrant oil is excellent for making hair masks, hair conditioners, and shampoo.

Frankincense Oil:

This combination makes a highly beneficial anti-aging cream. People can also use shea butter on facial and bodily skin to get rid of wrinkles, remove warts and hyperpigmentation, reduce scarring, and even assist in managing acne.

Lemongrass Oil:

This combination forms a high-quality massage cream that will feel great on your skin and smell amazing. This oil is also ideal for treating sore, tired muscles and can assist in relieving muscle pulls, strains, and stiffness. Another benefit is lemongrass oil can assist in treating skin conditions like acne, blemishes, and scarring.

Lavender Essential Oil:

This well-known essential oil has calming and healing ingredients. This oil has high anti-microbial, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and antiseptic aspects; thus, if mixed with shea butter, it can help remove body rashes and keep the skin glowing. 

Geranium Essential Oil:

Suppose geranium essential oil mix shea butter; its component can assist with everything from premature aging to hormonal acne to preventing sun damage, inflammation, and puffiness.

Olive oil:

Olive oil has proven benefits in lightening the skin’s face, blemishes, and other skin bruises. Thus, adding it to shea butter will keep skin smooth and glowing.

Does Shea Butter Increase Acne?

If you have acne-prone skin, shea butter may cause breakouts. Though shea butter brands claim the ingredient is non-comedogenic, it doesn’t clog pores; no findings support this. Based on research from the American Academy of Dermatology, shea butter could clog your pores and, in turn, cause breakouts. Shea butter has soothing and anti-aging ingredients that may make skin appear smoother and reduce aging. However, applying pure shea butter on the face may cause breakouts. Even using some products that contain a smaller percentage of shea butter may lead to acne. Shea butter can assist reduce the appearance and redness of acne scars, fading their impact over time. Using shea butter for acne can assist you in regaining the confidence that comes with clear, and glowing skin. Here’s why it works: anti-inflammatory ingredients. 

Shea Butter for Acne Scars, Dark Spots, Face, and Skin

Shea butter is known to heal scars, burn marks, acne, rashes, eczema, blemishes, pigmentation, wrinkles, stretch marks, and even psoriasis. That is not all – shea butter can also use sunblock to protect against the UV rays. Sun damage is considered one of the worst causes of aging, as it causes wrinkles and lines on the face. Shea butter’s anti-inflammatory ingredients have also been found to assist people suffering from arthritis or rheumatism.

Are you in need of a nasal decongestant? Shea butter has got you covered! You will find many skin-care and other products containing shea butter, from lip balms and soaps, from hair conditioners to chocolates and other foods. There are special shea butter massages that are very therapeutic and soften the skin. It assists in stimulating collagen production, thus reducing all signs of aging, such as wrinkles and lines. 

There are several uses of shea butter. Now, head to the market and look for it. You will find both the unrefined organic butter and the chemically refined ones. The refined version is bleached and heated and contains cheap fillers and additives. It lacks remedial ingredients found in the unrefined shea butter. With so many unethical stuff sellers out there, willing to sell anything without considering the users, it makes sense to buy this from a trustworthy seller. 

  Dry skin:

Shea butter is emollient, meaning it can absorb into your skin and build a moisture-sealing wall. Shea butter ingredients like stearic, palmitic, and linoleic acids assist in strengthening the skin disorders to lock in moisture. Findings have found linoleic acid is explicitly beneficial in treating dry skin because it boosts skin hydration and has anti-inflammatory ingredients.

   Eczema, dermatitis, and psoriasis: 

If you’re suffering from skin infections such as eczema, dermatitis, or psoriasis, often seek moisture and redness relief. Shea butter’s anti-inflammatory and emollient ingredients make it an excellent product to aid in soothing flaky, red, and irritated skin. Shea butter absorbs into skin faster, so it could assist you in getting speedy recovery from flare-ups, and it’s gentle on sensitive skin. 

Acne:

A 2013 study found that shea butter and neem oil soap had anti-bacterial ingredients that help reduce acne-causing bacteria on the face. The anti-inflammatory ingredients of shea butter might also help relieve a breakout. Another study found shea butter can stop fungus from developing, potentially aiding fungal acne. Shea butter’s fatty acids can also help reduce excess oil while providing moisture to avoid dryness. 

FACE – Fine lines, wrinkles, and aging:

Shea butter is rich in antioxidants, which may aid in stopping fine lines and wrinkles. It also has enormous vitamin A, E, and F properties to boost circulation and promote the faster recovery of healthy skin cells. Shea butter may also aid in plumping up your skin. Though more research is required to establish this, shea butter does contain triterpenesThis chemical slows the breakdown of existing collagen.

 Sunburns:

Shea butter anti-inflammatory ingredients can assist relieve the redness that comes with getting too much sun. Findings have shown oils found in shea butter may assist in treating first-degree burns. Research shows that fatty acids in shea butter may help seal in moisture as sunburn remedies.

23 Impressive Benefits Of Shea Butter for Acne & Skin Care

All the vitamins in shea butter prevent all kinds of acne, premature wrinkling, and facial lines. They assist with sun-damaged skin and vitamin F, a natural skin protector, and rejuvenator. Findings have shown shea butter reduces the effects of UV damage on the skin. Still, the levels of protection are highly varied. Shea butter contains a high level of cinnamic acid. This natural sunscreen can provide some degree of protection from the sun.

 It quickly penetrates the skin, allowing it to breathe while not clogging pores. It has anti-inflammatory ingredients making it helpful in treating rheumatism, arthritis, and troublesome muscles and joints. It relieves rashes, dry, flaky, scaly, and chapped skin and helps soften dry or fix hair loss. Reports from dry skin to minor dermatological diseases have been made concerning the benefits of shea butter. Yet, if you have a severe skin condition, you should see a physician. Here are many clinically proven benefits of shea butter for the skin.

Benefits of Shea Butter For The Skin:

  • Daily skin moisturizer
  • Absorbs into skin quickly with no greasy residue
  • Provides dry skin relief
  • Relieves and fades skin rashes.
  • Reduces or eliminates skin peeling, dry, flaky skin after tanning
  • Fades and reduces wrinkles
  • Assists restore elasticity to the skin
  • Relieves dry, itchy skin
  • Soothes and relieves minor burns (including sunburns)
  • It lessens razor irritation on the skin
  • Preventing after shaving bumps.

    Soothes and relieves minor skin wounds

  • Softens tough skin on feet, especially heels or cracked heels.
  • Assists prevent or fading stretch marks
  • Fades soothe and relieves eczema
  • Lessens the irritation of psoriasis
  • Provides sun and wind protection
  • It helps improve skin tone, dark spots, and skin discolorations
  • Reduces acne and provides acne relief
  • It removes fades, blemishes, and scars
  • It relieves chapped skin or cracked lips
  • Tired Feet: You will know all about tired, aching feet if you stand or walk for much of the day. For blissful relief, gently massage with a shea butter foot cream that contains peppermint or spearmint essential oils. 
  • Dry, Coarse Hands: A shea buttercream carefully formulated to care for hands can work wonders by restoring lost moisture and improving the smoothness and elasticity of the skin.

 

Wrapping up the Discussion on Shea Butter

If acne has deprived you of having a smooth face and glowing skin, why can’t you apply shea butter for an acne treatment today? Whether you’re dealing with dryness, scars, cystic, or aging, this natural ingredient is capable of assisting you to restore skin to its everyday beauty!

Nature has its means of fixing what it takes away, and shea butter can do the same. This supernatural skin-care ingredient can restore and rejuvenate your skin. This is the right time for you to take advantage of its surfeit of benefits and change how your skin feels and appear. 

Our skin’s overall appearance and health, as you may or may not know, determine our genetics. While shea butter helps with your skin health, it is by no means the entire picture of skin health. Other important factors such as genetics, diet, and lifestyle play a major role in maintaining your skin’s health and appearance.

Health and Appearance:

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HealthCodes DNA is the forerunner in perfecting a proprietary line of genetic tests for health, diet, and exercise. To build your own personal lifestyle that truly works to improve your health, with custom plans right down to your DNA, visit the HealthCodes DNA website at the above link and begin your journey to fully personalized wellness and health. 

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Because HealthCodes DNA relies on third-party ad networks who may track you across websites over time for advertising purposes, we are not able to respond to your selection of the “Do Not Track” option provided by your browser. We cannot advise on whether your selection of “Do Not Track” option will have any effect on the collection of cookie information by the third-parties who collect such cookie information on our site.

Third-parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our site or to display advertising based upon your Web browsing activity use Flash Cookies (Local Shared Objects) to collect and store information. To learn how to manage privacy and storage settings for Flash cookies click here.

Google Analytics. Google Analytics is used to perform some of the tasks listed above. We use the User-ID feature of Google Analytics to combine behavioral information across devices and sessions (including authenticated and unauthenticated sessions). We have enabled the following Google Analytics Advertising features: Remarketing, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting, and DoubleClick Campaign Manager integration. We do not merge information collected through any Google advertising product with individual-level information collected elsewhere by our service. Learn more about how Google collects and uses data here. To opt out of Google Analytics Advertising Features please use Google Ad Settings or the links provided in section 2.b.c.ii (“Targeted advertising” service providers). To opt out of Google Analytics entirely please use this link.

  1. Other Types of Information.

We are always working to enhance our Services with new products, applications and features that may result in the collection of new and different types of information. We will update our privacy statement, as needed.

  1. How we use and share information

HealthCodes DNA will use and share your personal information with third-parties only in the ways that are described in this privacy statement.

  1. Using information to provide, analyze and improve our Services

We use the information described above in Section 3 to operate, provide, analyze and improve our Services. These activities may include, among other things, using your information in a manner consistent with other commitments in this privacy statement, to:

  1. open your account, enable purchases and process payments, communicate with you, and implement your requests (e.g., referrals);
  2. host our website, run our mobile application(s), authenticate your visits, provide custom, personalized content and information, and track your usage of our Services;
  • conduct analytics to improve and enhance our Services;
  1. offer new products or services to you, including through emails, promotions or contests;
  2. implement online marketing campaigns and targeted advertising, including by utilizing third-party ads (subject to your cookie settings and preferences), and to measure the effectiveness of our marketing and targeted advertising;
  3. conduct surveys or polls, and obtain testimonials;
  • process and deliver your genetic testing results;
  • perform research & development activities, which may include, for example, conducting data analysis and research in order to develop new or improve existing products and services, and performing quality control activities.

You may be able to opt-in, opt-out or otherwise adjust your preferences of having your information used for certain of these activities. Please see below to learn more.

We use mobile analytics software to allow us to better understand the functionality of our Mobile Software on your phone. This software may record information such as how often you use the application, the events that occur within the application, aggregated usage, performance data, and where the application was downloaded from. We do not link the information we store within the analytics software to any personally identifiable information you submit within the mobile application.

  1. Using information with your consent

You have the choice to participate in HealthCodes DNA Research by providing your consent. “HealthCodes DNA Research” refers to research aimed at publication in peer-reviewed journals and other research funded by the federal government (such as the National Institutes of Health – NIH) conducted by HealthCodes DNA. HealthCodes DNA Research may be sponsored by, conducted on behalf of, or in collaboration with third-parties, such as non-profit foundations, academic institutions or pharmaceutical companies.  HealthCodes DNA Research may study a specific group or population, identify potential areas or targets for therapeutics development, conduct or support the development of drugs, diagnostics or devices to diagnose, predict or treat medical or other health conditions, work with public, private and/or non-profit entities on genetic research initiatives, or otherwise create, commercialize, and apply this new knowledge to improve health care. HealthCodes DNA Research uses your aggregate or individual-level Genetic Information and Self-Reported Information as specified in the Terms of Service.

Consent process for research. Your Genetic Information and Self-Reported Information may be used for HealthCodes DNA Research only if you have consented to this use by completing a Research Initiatives Consent Document. If you have completed a Research Initiatives Consent Document:

  1. Your aggregated, de-identified Genetic Information may be used for either philanthropic or commercial research purposes as set forth more fully the Research Initiatives Consent Document.
  2. When your Genetic Information and Self-Reported Informationis being used for research purposes, it will not be linked to your Registration Information.
  1. Withdrawing your Consent.You may withdraw your consent to participate in HealthCodes DNA Research Initiatives at any time by emailing us at support@healthcodesdna.com. HealthCodes DNA will not include your Genetic Information or Self-Reported Information in new research occurring after 30 days from the receipt of your request. Any research involving your data that has already been performed or published prior to our receipt of your request will not be reversed, undone, or withdrawn. If you withdraw your consent for research your Genetic Information and Self-Reported Information may still be used by us and shared with our third-party service providers to provide and improve our Services (as described in Section 4.a), and shared as Aggregate Information that does not identify you as an individual (as described in Section 4.d).
  2. What happens if you do NOT consent to HealthCodes DNA Research?If you do not complete a Research Initiatives Consent Document or any additional consent agreement with HealthCodes DNA, your information will not be used for HealthCodes DNA Research Initiatives and you will not be able to use HealthCodes DNA Services.
  1. Recruiting for external research

Academic institutions, healthcare organizations, and other groups are always conducting interesting new research projects. We want to make you aware of these opportunities. While we do not share individual-level Genetic Information or Self-Reported Information with third-parties without your consent, from time to time we may inform you of third-party research opportunities for which you may be eligible. For example, if a university tells us about a new cancer research project, we may send an email to HealthCodes DNA members who potentially fit the relevant eligibility criteria based on their Self-Reported Information to make them aware of the research project and provide a link to participate with the research organization conducting the study.

  1. Information we share with third-parties
  • General service providers.We share the information described above in Section 3 with our service providers, as necessary to provide their services to us. Service providers are third-parties (other companies or individuals) that help us to provide, analyze and improve our Services. For example, we work with third-party laboratories and contractors to process and analyze your saliva sample for purposes of generating your Genetic Information

NOTE: Our service providers act on HealthCodes DNA’s behalf. While we implement procedures and contractual terms to protect the confidentiality and security of your information, we cannot guarantee the confidentiality and security of your information due to the inherent risks associated with storing and transmitting data electronically.

When you purchase a testing kit and report from HealthCodes DNA, you are instructed to send a saliva sample to our third-party laboratory with a unique barcode label. The unique barcode identifies you to us but not to the laboratory. We may also be required to provide to the laboratory, your sex and date of birth or age pursuant to clinical laboratory requirements such as the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). No other Registration Information such as your name, address, email, phone number or other contact information) is required or provided to the laboratory. The receiving personnel at the laboratory will remove and discard your “sender information” from the packaging (e.g., name, address) before testing personnel receive the samples for processing. Receiving personnel do not perform testing, and testing personnel handle saliva samples that are labeled only with the unique barcode. DNA and saliva samples are destroyed after the laboratory completes its work, provided that laboratory legal and regulatory requirements no longer require the actual samples to be maintained. A de-identified copy of genotyping data may be kept in accordance with CLIA. The laboratory securely sends the resulting Genetic Information to our third party reporting company along with your unique barcode. Genetic Information is stored securely on our servers; the laboratory also stores your Genetic Information, but again, labeled only with the barcode.

  • “Targeted advertising” service providers.We may permit third-party advertising networks and providers to collect Web Behavior Information on our Service to help us to deliver targeted online advertisements (“ads”) to you. They use cookies and similar technologies (such as JavaScript, beacons, device identifiers, location data, and clear gifs) to compile information about your browser’s or device’s visits and usage patterns on our Services and on other websites over time, which helps to better personalize ads to match your interests, and to measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may be able to opt-out of many advertising networks by visiting here and here (if you are located in Canada, click here; or if you are located in the European Union click here). Please note this does not mean that you have opted-out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads.

  • Aggregate information.We may share aggregate information with third-parties, which is any information that has been stripped of your Registration (e.g., your name and contact information) and aggregated with information of others so that you cannot reasonably be identified as an individual (“Aggregate Information”). This Aggregate Information is different from “individual-level” information. Individual-level Genetic Information or Self-Reported Information of data about a single individual’s genotypes, diseases or other traits/characteristics information. For example, Aggregate Information may include a statement that “30% of our female users share a particular genetic trait,” without providing any data or testing results specific to any individual user. We may provide such Aggregate Information in commercial arrangements with our business partners. In contrast, individual-level Genetic Information could reveal whether a specific user has a particular genetic trait, or all of the Genetic Information about that user. HealthCodes DNA will ask for your consent to share individual-level Genetic Information or Self-Reported Information with any third-party, other than our service providers as necessary for us to provide the Services to you.
  • Information we share with commonly owned entities.We may share some or all of your information with other companies under common ownership or control of HealthCodes DNA, which may include our subsidiaries, our corporate parent, or any other subsidiaries owned by our corporate parent in order to provide you better service and improve user experience. We may provide additional notice and ask for your consent if we wish to share your information with our commonly owned entities in a materially different way than discussed in this Privacy Statement.
  1. Disclosures required by law

Under certain circumstances your information may be subject to disclosure pursuant to judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants, or orders, or in coordination with regulatory authorities, we may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. HealthCodes DNA will preserve and disclose any and all information to law enforcement agencies or others if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal or regulatory process (such as a judicial proceeding, court order, or government inquiry) or obligations that HealthCodes DNA may owe pursuant to ethical and other professional rules, laws, and regulations; (b) enforce the HealthCodes DNA Terms of Service and other policies; (c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third-parties; or (d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of HealthCodes DNA, its employees, its users, its clients, and the public.

NOTE: If you are participating in HealthCodes DNA Research, HealthCodes DNA will withhold disclosure of your personal information involved in such research in response to judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants or orders in accordance with any applicable Certificate of Confidentiality that HealthCodes DNA and/or any of its third party providers has obtained from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There are limits to what the Certificate of Confidentiality covers so please visit the Certificates of Confidentiality Kiosk ( https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/coc/index.htm).

  1. Your choices
  2. Access to your account

If your Registration Information changes, you may access, correct or update most of it from your Account page. You may also modify and delete certain of your information. Please note that you may not be able to delete User Content that has been shared with others through the Service and that you may not be able to delete information that has been shared with third-parties, though we can work with you to prohibit your data from being shared with third-parties in the future. We will respond to your request to access within 30 days.

  1. Marketing communications

By registering for an account, you are agreeing that we may send you promotional emails about our Services. You can opt-out of such emails by clicking the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of any of our or third-party promotional email communications. Please note that you may not opt-out of receiving non-promotional messages regarding your account, such as technical notices, purchase confirmations, or Service-related emails.

  1. Information you choose to share with others

You may decide to disclose your personal information to friends and/or family members, doctors or other health care professionals, and/or other individuals outside of our Services, including through third-party services such as social networks and third-party apps that connect to our website and mobile apps through our application programming interface (“API”). These third-parties may use your personal information differently than we do under this Privacy Statement. Please make such choices carefully and review the privacy policies of all other third-parties involved in the transaction. For example, if you have enabled a HealthCodes DNA sharing feature with another person who downloads a third-party app that uses our API, your information may also be obtained by that third-party app developer and, potentially, by other users of that third-party app.

In general, personal information, once shared or disclosed, can be difficult to contain or retrieve. HealthCodes DNA will have no responsibility or liability for any consequences that may result because you have released or shared personal information with others.

  1. Account closure

If you no longer wish to participate in our Services or no longer wish to have your personal information be used, you may close your account by sending a request to support@healthcodesdna.com. When closing an account, we remove all Genetic Information within your account (or profile) within thirty (30) days of our receipt of your request. As stated in any applicable Consent Document, however, Genetic Information and/or Self-Reported Information that you have previously provided and for which you have given consent to use in HealthCodes DNA Research cannot be removed from ongoing or completed studies that use the information. Our contracted genotyping laboratory may also retain your Genetic Information as required by local law and we may retain backup copies for a limited period of time pursuant to our data protection policies. In addition, we retain limited Registration Information related to your order history (e.g., name, contact, and transaction data) as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services, as well as for accounting, audit and compliance purposes.

  1. Important Information
  2. Security measures

HealthCodes DNA takes seriously the trust you place in us. To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, to maintain data accuracy, and to ensure the appropriate use of information, HealthCodes DNA uses a range of physical, technical, and administrative measures to safeguard your Personal Information. In particular, all connections to and from our website and mobile application are encrypted using Extended Validation Secure Socket Layer (EV SSL) technology.

Please recognize that protecting your Personal Information is also your responsibility. We ask you to be responsible for safeguarding your password, secret questions and answers, and other authentication information you use to access our Services. You should not disclose your authentication information to any third-party and should immediately notify HealthCodes DNA of any unauthorized use of your password. HealthCodes DNA cannot secure Personal Information that you release on your own or that you request us to release.

Your information collected through the Service may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which HealthCodes DNA or its subsidiaries, affiliates or service providers maintain facilities and, therefore, your information may be subject to the laws of those other jurisdictions which may be different from the laws of your country of residence.

  1. Business transactions

In the event that HealthCodes DNA goes through a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, your information will likely be among the assets transferred. In such a case, your information would remain subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Statement.

  1. Linked websites

HealthCodes DNA provides links to third-party websites operated by organizations not affiliated with HealthCodes DNA. HealthCodes DNA does not disclose your information to organizations operating such linked third-party websites. HealthCodes DNA does not review or endorse, and is not responsible for, the privacy practices of these organizations. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of each and every website that you visit. This Privacy Statement applies solely to information collected by HealthCodes DNA.

  1. Children’s privacy

HealthCodes DNA is committed to protecting the privacy of children as well as adults. Neither HealthCodes DNA nor any of its Services are designed for, intended to attract, or directed toward children under the age of 18. A parent or guardian, however, may collect a saliva sample from, create an account for, and provide information related to, his or her child. The parent or guardian assumes full responsibility for ensuring that the information that he/she provides to HealthCodes DNA about his or her child is kept secure and that the information submitted is accurate.

  1. Changes to this Privacy Statement

Whenever this Privacy Statement is changed in a material way, a notice will be posted as part of this Privacy Statement and on our customers’ account login pages for 30 days. After 30 days the changes will become effective. In addition, all customers will receive an email with notification of the changes prior to the change becoming effective.

  1. Contact Information

If you have questions about this Privacy Statement, please email HealthCodes DNA at info@HealthCodesDNA.com.