We now have the unsurprising news that botox has been causing deaths. Wired News, carrying an Associated Press article, FDA Links Anti-Wrinkle Drugs to Deaths, says:
The popular anti-wrinkle drug Botox and a competitor have been linked to dangerous botulism symptoms in some users, cases so bad that a few children given the drugs for muscle spasms have died, the government warned Friday.
The Food and Drug Administration's warning includes both Botox, a wrinkle-specific version called Botox Cosmetic, and its competitor, Myobloc, drugs that all use botulinum toxin to block nerve impulses, causing them to relax.
In rare cases, the toxin can spread beyond the injection site to other parts of the body, paralyzing or weakening the muscles used for breathing and swallowing, a potentially fatal side effect, the FDA said. …
The FDA said the deaths it is investigating so far all involve children, mostly cerebral palsy patients being treated for spasticity in their legs. The FDA has never formally approved that use for the drugs, but some other countries have.
However, the FDA warned that it also is probing reports of illnesses in people of all ages who used the drugs for a variety of conditions, including at least one hospitalization of a woman given Botox for forehead wrinkles.
I hate to say it, given the severity of the issue, but it's not difficult to consider that injecting yourself with poison (in this case, botulinum toxin) can't be a good thing.
It's not even a matter of "how much" poison (how would you know how much is too much?) or whether, as the article above states, that little bit of (voluntary!) poison might drift off to the wrong part of your body?
And "doing" Botox for facial wrinkles is not a one-time thing, so you'd be adding to your store of (voluntary!) poisons in your body on an ongoing basis. Consider, too, that as the body gets older (and gets wrinkles), its ability to fend off "attacks" may lessen.
Gotta be a better way.
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