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The
Botox
By J. K. Tukra
Are you
sufficiently bothered by wrinkles to stick needles into your
face? That’s the question millions will be asking themselves
once the Botox crazze starts in earnest.
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Botox injections,
as you may have heard, are the biggest thing since
nose jobs. They are already the most popular cosmetic
procedure in the U.S.; about 1.6 million Americans
got the shots last year-a so-called off-label use
of a drug originally approved to calm twitchy eye
muscles. The fact that the shots reduce wrinkles
too was an unanticipated bonus; doctors were allowed
to use Botox for that purpose, but the manufacturer,
Allergan, couldn’t advertise it to the public.
Now the company can, thanks to the U.S. Foods and
Drug Administration’s decision last month to
approve Botox for the removal of certain wrinkles.
Now clinics are expected to be inundated by people
yearning to be wrinkle free. Before scheduling an
appointment, though, you should know what Botox
can and can’t do, and what the downside might
be.
Botox is short for “botulinum toxin,”
the substance that causes botulism, a sometimes
fatal form of food poisoning. It sounds scarier
than it is; in small quantities, Botox merely interrupts
nerve impulses to muscles in the face. |
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The lines that furrow the
forehead when you raise your eyebrows, the crow’s
feet that appear when you squint and the creases between
the eyebrows when you frown are all caused by tension
in underlying muscles, which contract and squeeze the
skin like an accordion. Botox is so diluted that serious
side effects like allergic reactions are rare. If the
doctor slips, in most cases the worst that can happen
is that you will lose the ability to raise your eyelids
all the way; or, if you’re getting shots around the
mouth, a mistake could leave you drooling. But even a
perfectly executed procedure has consequences. Depending
on which wrinkles you go after, you might not be able
to frown or raise your eyebrows or squint.
Is this a problem? Not enough to discourage Botox enthusiasts.
In Hollywood however, the treatments are so popular that
some directors complain that their leading actors can
no longer convincingly perform a full range of facial
expressions. The good news is that even if there’s
a little accident, Botox wears off after a while (which
also means you have to go back every six months, at up
to $500 per treatment). Slipups are pretty rare, however,
as long as you go to someone who knows what he or she
is doing.
That includes knowing when Botox won’t be useful
at all. Muscles cause some wrinkles, but many result simply
from the loss of elasticity that goes naturally with aging
(or, less naturally, with smoking and sun exposure), causing
the skin to sag and crumple. There are treatments for
this sort of wrinkle, but Botox isn’t one of them,
says Dr. David L. Fledman, director of plastic surgery
at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn New York. “I
had a patient recently who came in asking for Botox.”
He says. “It would have done no good at all. In fact,
she might have ended up looking worse.”
So Botox isn’t a cure-all, and it has some pretty
odd side effects. But if you don’t mind getting shot
up with poison and you don’t mind paralyzing parts
of your face-well, you’ve got plenty of company.
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Pregnant
Pause
The
real No. 1 killer in the U.S. pregnant women and
new moms is not complications of
childbirth like hemorrhage or stroke but homicide.
Murder, while still rears, occurs twice as often
a month those pregnant or recently pregnant, compared
with other women of the same age.
Researchers have no explanation, but the stress
of pregnancy might increase the incidence
of domestic violence.
Breast
Feeding Alert
The
latest British Medical Journal warms that long-term
breast-feeding of children may
increase their chances of developing cardiovascular
disease later in life. The Journal said that
after studying 331 young adults, researchers
found those who had nursed longer than four
months
had stiffer arteries than those bottle-fed or
breast-fed only as newborns.
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