First Lady talks health, exercise and Botox

Former first lady, Michelle Obama, talked to American glossy People magazine about staying fit and healthy and looking good, putting exercise and healthy eating at the core of her message. Although she has not undergone plastic surgery or Botox herself she was very open to it and to the fact that people should be free to choose to do it as they please.

Obama is well-known for her toned and strong physique, which she puts primarily down to her exercise routine. She famously works out with her husband every morning; the evidence of which can be seen in both their figures. With her 50th birthday approaching the First Lady looks incredibly good for her age.

When it comes to diet Obama is less strict than she is with her exercise regime although she does makes sure she eats “plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables”. She’s quite right in her belief that strict or obsessive diets tend to be less healthy (and beneficial for weight) than simply eating moderately and a having a nutritionally balanced diet.

Her exercise routine currently consists of heavy cardio and weight training; something she plans to ease off on slightly in favour of yoga-type exercises. Increasing her levels of flexibility will benefit her as she ages she believes, to make sure she “doesn’t break a hip”. It’s these healthy, responsive and controlled lifestyle decisions which help to keep her so healthy and in such great shape.

And while Obama has not yet undertaken plastic surgery or non-invasive procedures such as Botox or Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy at the moment she is not against nor of the mind to tell people that they shouldn’t, she told the magazine.

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17% of Mancunians would have Botox by unqualified practitioners

A Manchester clinic has undertaken research in to consumer opinion, on where and by whom people would undergo non-invasive cosmetic procedures. The results are quite startling – with a sizable minority happy to undergo work by those who are not specifically trained for the task at hand.

On the heels of the Keogh review, whose recommendations are yet to be implemented, many practitioners and clinics are keen to make their credentials clear and to advise those who are looking for treatment that it is always preferable to have it carried out by those uniquely qualified for a specific treatment. What is clear from this group of surveyed participants however is that the general public themselves are worryingly blasé about who treats them.

In the survey 16% admitted they would undertake non-invasive body-sculpting by someone who was not qualified to carry it out. 17% said that they would be happy to have Botox administered or dentist work carried out by someone who was not qualified to do so.

A minority were also unfussy as to where they had the treatments carried out, with a quarter happy to visit a beauty salon for non-invasive treatments and 5% who would be willing to do it at a friend’s house. A similar number would be willing to have their treatment carried out in their own home.

The problem with having procedures carried out by those who are unqualified, and with not being in a clinical environment whilst doing so is not just that the likelihood of things going wrong is greater. If something requires urgent medical assistance then there is no immediate back up for that and the customer will have to seek medical help elsewhere. There is also no accountability if something does go wrong.

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Beautician convicted for fraudulent Botox treatment

A Scarborough-based beautician has been charged for fraudulent Botox whilst showing fake certificates as evidence of her training.

Jamie Winter, 35, has been prosecuted for 5 fraud offences and as a result will have to serve 150 hours unpaid community service – no prison sentence was imposed.

The case came light to light as one of her female patients suffered an adverse reaction and went to the police to report Winter for maltreatment.

No prosecution could be brought for the alleged assault as there was no evidence that the swelling the woman had suffered was a direct result of the Botox. It did lead to the fraud charges however.

The 5 accounts were for treatments given to 10 female and 2 male patients over a period of 18 months, within the Scarborough area. Winter pleaded guilty to these charges. She offered the Botox at a cut rate, having bought it cheaply online from the US and reportedly undergoing minimal online training. After practising on herself and her friends Winter then started to charge for the service and word quickly spread about her discounted rates.

As there is no regulation surrounding Botox treatments it was not her lack of proper training that was the cause for the conviction but rather the simple fact of producing a false certificate, thereby offering the injections on a fraudulent basis.

What the case highlights is the need for regulation of Botox treatments – in particular, regulation surrounding the Botox training carried out by the practitioner – in order to protect the patient.

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Botox’s ever-increasing medicinal repertoire may soon include pain relief for cancer and arthritis sufferers

The positive uses that Botox can have on the body are well known within the medical industry, despite it being most commonly thought of as an anti-ageing cosmetic procedure.

Traditionally (indeed prior to its use as an anti-ageing injectible), it was formulated for and administered to those with eye problems, and has continued to be used in ophthalmology as well as helping to treat other ailments. These include hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating), overactive bladders and migraines.

Now though, one university professor has discovered a safe way that botulinum toxin (the full term for Botox) can be used to treat chronic pain, which would be tremendous news for those suffering from pain associated with cancer, arthritis and long-term back pain, for example.

The potential for Botox to be used as pain relief is not in itself a brand new discovery – it works by paralysing nerve endings to stop their usual function, so for example, in the case of wrinkles it freezes their movement and with bladder incontinence it stops the signal to urinate – by the same token it is known that it can suppress pain.

Until now though there was no known way that Botox could be administered without it paralysing the area in question and stopping it from functioning altogether, rather than simply paralysing the pain. But now Professor Bazbek Davle from Sheffield University has discovered a way that it might be used.

He and his research team have discovered that when using part of the botulinum poison and sticking it to extracted poison from the tetanus bug (the ‘friendly’ part of it) it can send signals from the painful area to the spinal chord, thus sending a message to the brain to freeze the pain rather than the area that it is administered to.

So far animal trials have proved positive, with large-scale human trials planned next. If these are successful then the drug could be available on the market within three years. It is not expensive, either – it will cost £1000 annually to produce, meaning that it should be readily available on the NHS. For those who suffer from long-term pain it should be welcome relief, especially as it will also negate the need for daily pill-popping.

Cosmetic Courses offer foundation, advanced and bespoke Botox courses to medical professionals seeking to enter the aesthetic industry. See our list of upcoming courses on our homepage.

 

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Botox reducing obesity

Norwegian PhD student, Helene Johannessen thinks so, and alongside her clinical research team is currently undertaking medical research on laboratory rats to see if Botox could provide a legitimate alternative to costly and invasive gastric surgery. The work they have carried out so far shows promising signs that Botox could help to achieve weight loss in patients suffering with obesity.

They have tested injecting the toxin in to the vagus nerve of the stomach in the rats – this nerve is responsible for triggering hunger and also passing food through to the intestines. Botox works by paralysing this nerve to stop the hunger signal being sent to the brain, therefore Botox reducing obesity.

Over a five week period of receiving Botox injections the rats ate less and lost 20-30% of their body weight. If injections to the vagus nerve work in the same way on humans then it could mark a huge turning point in how obese patients are treated.

Miss Johannessen, who with her team is working for the Experimental Surgery and Pharmacology research project as part of their endeavour to find alternatives to the treatment of obesity, is waiting for approval from medical authorities in Norway before commencing human trials. Talking to Norwegian television channel NRK, she said:

“As a start we will be inviting patients who are candidates for obesity operations but who, for one reason or another cannot undergo one.”

Obesity currently accounts for between 2 and 8% of the global healthcare bill and for 10-13% of all deaths in certain parts of Europe.

Cosmetic Courses are the UK’s leading aesthetic training provider for medical professionals offering foundation, advanced and bespoke Botox training for medical professionals. For information on any of our training courses or to find out our latest course dates, please contact us on 01844 390110 or email [email protected].

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FDA approves Botox for the treatment of crow’s feet

September 11 witnessed new legislation for the use of Botox in the US – it is now legal to administer it to the fine lines around the eyes.

Up to now the Food and Drug Administration had only approved the cosmetic use of Botox for lines across the forehead and between the brows, however doctors have been using Botox in the treatment of lines around the eyes for a number of years.

The approval came after a study led by Allergan, the manufacturer of Botox, into its efficacy as an anti-ageing injectable. In a controlled group of 833 adults one half received Botox injections to the eye area and the other half received placebo injections to the same area. The group that received Botox displayed the most sign of a reduction of wrinkles.

Although Botox was being used by doctors ‘off-record’ in this way, the approval will mean better safeguards and guidelines. Dr Marco Harmaty, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, told CBSnews.com that Botox has been used not only for crow’s feet for a number of years but also other unapproved parts of the face including creases by the side of the nose. However he also added:

“(It) does give you an added benefit and safety of saying that I’m not doing anything illegal or potentially harmful.”

The FDA approved Botox use for lines on the forehead in 2002.

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Botox as treatment for a chronic eye condition needs more specialist training

It is little known that one of Botox’s original medical uses was for an eye condition called blepharospasm, which causes continuous eye twitches or excessive blinking.

It was discovered that the injection could help control the muscles in the eyelids that were responsible for producing so much movement, the results of which led those administering it to realise its potential to eradicate fine lines.

Botox has become far better known as a beauty measure in the fight against wrinkles and ageing, and as a result this can mean far more practitioners who train to administer Botox as a cosmetic procedure than for other medical purposes. Opthalmologists at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London have described the lack of specific training in this area, even though its use as a treatment for blepharospasm pre-dates its cosmetic use.

Doctors at the specialist hospital successfully treat 95% of their patients with the condition but are aware that those who seek treatment for the condition elsewhere either don’t receive Botox as a treatment or they do but with far less success. They attribute this to the lack of numbers who train in this specific area of opthalmology.

The condition can cause a great deal of distress to the sufferer, as constant twitching or blinking dries out the eye and causes irritation and discomfort. In some cases the eye can shut together for some time, leading some sufferers of the condition to be registered as visually impaired. When Botox is injected in to the area it needs to target very specific muscles in the eyelids, which is why it can be difficult to get it right without the right training.

Though the condition is made manageable through regular Botox treatments there is nonetheless no outright cure, as well as no full understanding of the cause of the condition. It’s believed that genetic factors may be at play, as well as already-existing susceptibility to dry eyes.

Cosmetic Courses offer training in Botox and other aesthetic treatments to medical professionals throughout the UK. For information on any of our training courses, please contact the team on 01844 390110 or email [email protected].

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Could the protein that Botox targets be the answer to diabetes cure?

Scientists at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University are attempting to understand the proteins that may be responsible for the development of Type 2 diabetes.

It is the same SNARE proteins that Botox treatment targets, as they are responsible for muscle contraction. Botox targets these proteins and effectively freezes them, therefore halting muscle contraction.

As well as in other areas of the body these proteins, called SNARE, reside in the beta-cells within the pancreas. Researchers are using molecular microscopic techniques to determine exactly what happens with these cells and insulin release.

The steady release of insulin made by these cells helps to control glucose levels in the body. When there is a consistently high level of glucose production in the body, which is what happens in obese patients, this process stops functioning properly and leads to Type 2 diabetes.

These SNARE proteins, which are the equivalent to the size of ten-thousandth of a human hair, will be observed by Dr Colin Rickman and his team of researchers. They hope that this will help to understand exactly how the beta-cells produce insulin and therefore what happens when they stop functioning. The intention is that these findings will help find a cure to the chronic condition.

The number of people with Type 2 diabetes in the UK rose by 1.5 million between 1996 and 2012, and it’s predicted that the number of sufferers will hit 5 million by the year 2025. This recent and projected growth in number is due to the rising numbers of those who are overweight and obese.

Cosmetic Courses offer aesthetic training to medical professionals throughout the UK. If you would like information on any of our training courses, please call us on 01844 390110 or email [email protected].

 

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Pharmaceutical giant in hot water for alleged improper marketing of Botox

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has come under fire in China for allegedly marketing Botox through improper practices, as well as being investigated for possible tax and invoice fraud.

The Wall Street Journal earlier this week reported that investigations are being carried out on the corporate behemoth for possible bribery and corruption, in a planned marketing strategy to boost sales in the emerging market. They claim to have seen evidence of emails targeted at 48 doctors which include cash and other incentives as a reward for prescribing Botox for therapeutic reasons.

The marketing strategy even took the name of a Russian World War II sniper, ‘Vasily’, after Vasily Zaytsev, with communication regarding the incentives supposedly sent to and from the private email addresses of GSK’s sales personnel.

GlaxoSmithKline have responded by announcing their own internal investigation and say initial findings show there has been no improper sales and marketing conduct carried out by sales staff at their organisation. A spokesperson for GSK in London announced:

“…we are investigating these new claims. However, our inquiries to date have found no evidence of bribery or corruption in relation to our sales and marketing of therapeutic Botox in China”

“GSK has some of the toughest compliance procedures in the sector. We are proud of our high standards and operate in accordance with them.”

GSK’s distribution of Botox in China is for therapeutic use (such as facial spasms) rather than cosmetic use ie. for the treatment of wrinkles.

Cosmetic Courses offer a wide range of aesthetic training courses to medical professionals. For information on any of our courses, contact the team on 01844 390110 or email [email protected].

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The Apprentice result – good for Botox’s reputation or bad?

Lord Alan Sugar selected his business partner-cum-reality TV winner last week and will be backing a chain of Botox and skin clinics to appear on British high streets.

The businesswoman/winner is 24-year-old doctor, Leah Totton, who impressed the business impresario with her ideas and her business acumen, despite having no previous experience within industry, having only worked in medicine prior to appearing on the BBC show.

Totton said that she hopes to increase the quality of non-invasive procedures such as Botox and fillers that are available on the market, and says she is well-placed to do so, given her medical credentials. However the industry itself has been quick respond to her claims, instead suggesting that her lack of sector-specific training will actually do more damage to the reputation of the industry than good.

Spokesperson for BAAPS and consultant plastic surgeon James McDiarmid said:

“Having Leah Totton running Botox clinics is like saying that someone, aged 17, who has just passed their driving test can be a Formula One driver.”

He also lambasted the BBC for the apparent “trivialisation” of cosmetic surgery.

The plans for the clinics are to offer non-invasive procedures such as Botox, chemical peels and fillers.

Cosmetic Courses offer a wide range of aesthetic training courses to medical professionals looking to enter the cosmetic industry.

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