Botox May Help Cancer Patients Recover Their Voice

Please tweet and retweet Tweet

This is a guest post by Rod Kelly, a content writer for Cosmetic Surgery. You can follow Rod at @thefreshhealth :)

The botulinum toxin is widely recognized for its ability to decrease the appearance of wrinkles in cosmetic surgery. What many people may not know is that it also has a number of health benefits as well. Hospitals in India are currently using the drug as a treatment for cancer patients who have lost their voice due to throat cancer. Patients undergoing cancer treatment undergo a removal of the voice box as a part of the treatment necessary to remove the cancer.

Nerve Freezing Alternative to Botox

Please tweet and retweet Tweet

Botox has been available for decades to treat fine wrinkles on the face but this involves injecting minute amounts of a poison to temporarily paralyze the nerves. An estimated six million doses of botox are now given every year so it is now the single most popular cosmetic treatment in the United States. Now a revolutionary new concept is being developed to replace botox. It involves freezing the nerve so it is temporarily damaged and therefore paralyzed for an equivalent amount of time as the botox injection.

Botox, Xeomin and Corporate Espionage

Please tweet and retweet Tweet

On Friday, March 9, US District Judge Andrew Guilford entered an injunction against Merz Pharmaceuticals in his Santa Ana, California court chambers. This prohibits Merz from selling filler products or Xeomin or soliciting the purchase of filler products or Xeomin in the facial aesthetic market for 10 months from the date of the order, except in limited circumstances. Merz has to also do a number of other things and report on these to the court in 6 month intervals for the next year in a half. This took place about a week before Merz was supposed to introduce Xeomin, a new direct competitor to Botox, at a major medical meeting in the US.

What is Botox?

Please tweet and retweet Tweet

This is a guest post by Sachin from the Cosmos Clinic in Sydney Australia

Botox here, botox there… it seems that all we hear about these days in the cosmetic surgery industry is botox. Hollywood stars use it, New York socialites swear by it… but what is it? If you’re like me, you don’t want to put something in your body if you don’t know what it’s made of. So I did a little research on botox and I want to share my findings with you.

Topical Botox Gel

Please tweet and retweet Tweet

A new topical gel botulinum toxin (Botox) is currently being studied. This will allow patients to apply the medication topically to erase crow's feet, frown lines and forehead wrinkles without the need for needle injections of Botox. 90% of patients in a phase 2 clinical trial treated with the experimental gel had visible reduction of moderate to sever crow's feet wrinkles compared to 28% of similar patients randomly assigned to a placebo group.

Effects of the gel last for about four months which is comparable to the effective duration of Botox injections.

Phase 3 studies are in the works to compare the gel to injected Botox.

It is not yet known when this will be available for public consumption but I think you will see this as an active ingredient available in cosmetic counter cosmeceuticals in the very near future.

Aaron Stone MD - Plastic Surgeon Los Angeles
Aaron Stone MD - twitter

Botox Resistance or Fatigue

Please tweet and retweet Tweet

Botox resistance or fatigue occurs when the injection does not last as long or is ineffective. If the botox is fresh and effective this can be due to circulating antibodies against Botox formed by the body in response to previous injections or changes in the muscle itself over time.

Zytaze (a zinc and phytase prescription medication) given in oral capsule form 2 capsules a day for 4 days (total 10 capsules) prior to Botox injections to patients who responded poorly to Botox injections improved the effect of the Botox injections or how long they last. It is dispensed as 10 per box. This was studied in patients with uncontrolled eyelid twitching (blepharospasm) treated with Botox but should also hold true for Botox administered solely for cosmetic reasons. The mechanism as to why this supplement would be effective or how it works are not known.



Contraindications to botox injections include pregnancy, breast feeding, allergies to components in the botox (human albumin), neuromuscular disorders (myasthenia gravis, Eaton-Lambert syndrome, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and use of medications that strengthen the effect of botox (quinine, calcium channel blockers and aminoglycoside antibiotics).

Aaron Stone MD - Plastic Surgeon Los Angeles
Aaron Stone MD - twitter

New Botox Available in US in September 2010

Please tweet and retweet Tweet

A new type of Botox called Xeomin (Merz Pharmaceuticals] will become available in the US in September 2010. The drug was approved by the FDA in August 2010 for treating certain neuromuscular conditions, such as blepharospasm (chronic blinking), cervical dystonia (tight neck muscles that distort the head's position). It is not yet approved for cosmetic purposes to treat dynamic wrinkles between the brows and on the forehead. Such use would be considered off label but Botox was used in such an off label fashion for years before it received FDA approval for cosmetic use.

That means we will now have 3 products available, Botox, Xeomin and Dysport to treat aging wrinkles of the face. More Dysport has to be injected to get the same results as Botox but since the per unit price is cheaper the end cost to achieve a given result is the same for Botox and Dysport. Xeomin is formulated differently in that it does not contain the complex proteins found in the other 2 formulations. It is too early to say if this is a positive or negative attribute. It could lead to migration of the Xeomin away from the injection site with more side effects or it could mean you will not form antibodies or develop resistance to the medication after many injections.

Since the price of Botox did not change after the introduction of Dysport is likely those prices will not change after the introduction of Xeomin. That may be due to Dysport's failure to steal market share from Botox but only time will tell.

Botox Manufacturing Kills Mice

Please tweet and retweet Tweet

I just found out today that for every batch of botulinum toxin created, tests are performed on laboratory mice. The test employed is the LD 50, that is the dose of botox that kills 50% of the mice it is given to. After the toxin is administered by a needle stick to the belly impaired vision, paralysis and respiratory arrest follow. Those that die suffocate. The process takes three or four days. The surviving mice are then euthanized. It is estimated that worldwide at least 600,000 mice die in the production of botox each year. In the European Union alone, tens of thousands of animals are estimated to be used in this testing per year. As the use of botox increases so does this number. Europe has a ban on animal testing for cosmetics but botox is considered a medical treatment so the ban does not apply. There currently is no other assay available or in use to determine botox strength and doseage in each batch of botox that is manufactured.

July 26, 2011 addendum:
Allergan (the manufacturer of Botox) spent $65 million on more than a decade of research that led to a new animal-free test, testing the effect of Botox on cells in a lab dish. The Food and Drug Administration approved the test in June 2011. Allergan estimates it will be able to reduce its animal testing by 95 percent over the next three years as countries outside the United States approve the new procedure as a replacement for the old LD50 test.