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Botox - Staying forever young?

Written by admin on February 4th, 2009

Botox has now been used for a number of years for men and women that want to hide signs of aging,the problem lies in the general misconception about the cosmetic effect it creates. To understand exactly what it is and does, we first have to look at just how this amazing miracle of modern science came to be. The first research into Botulinum toxin was carried out over five decades ago,originally the purpose of this was to treat neurological disorders.

It wasn’t until around 1989 that the Federal Drug Administration agreed to allow its use in medical procedures to help people with disorders of the eye,these included people with eyes that were not aligned correctly and those that suffered from uncontrollable blinking called blepharospasm. More research was carried out into other medical uses and in 2000 it was allowed to be used on patients that had a cervical dystonia condition,this disorder causes severe neck and shoulder contractions but they also permitted it to be used with other eye problems.

In all the research that was going on with botox, doctors had found that it was effective at reducing frown lines around the eyebrow area,after this in 2002 the FDA approved it’s use on the condition that it was a cosmetic procedure. Botox paralyses the muscles that cause wrinkles keeping them in a relaxed state,eventually, over a period of several months, given enough of these injections, the frown lines start to soften.

Continued treatments mean in many cases the lines disappear and now the same treatment is used on other areas of the face like the crows’ feet, laughter lines and other facial wrinkles. The injections are a purified and watered down version of the sometimes fatal Botulinum poison,these treatments are only a fraction of the true strength which, in other forms, could make us seriously unwell.

This popularity is due to the fact that we all have wrinkles and lines (increasing with age) when we smile, laugh and make other facial movements which are the result of muscles in the face. When we are young and our skin is more elastic, these lines do not show but as we age the constant use of facial muscles leaves us with lines,while many manufacturers have tried to produce creams that eliminate these wrinkles and creases (unsuccessfully), this treatment can at least for a short period.

These botox injections are used directly into the muscles that control facial expressions and paralyzing them for a short period, effectively making it almost impossible for a person to smile,many people believe that overuse leaves the recipient with a look similar to that of a mannequin.

While the face can still provide expressions, they are seriously reduced but this give the effect of someone looking much younger than they really are. However, this cosmetic treatment is still expensive,with injections in the low to very high hundreds of dollars each, it looks to remain expensive for some time to come. Whether there are any long term effects from continued use of botox is still unknown as the treatment is still to new but for those people who do use it, it doesn’t seem to matter.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 12:16 am and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.