by Johneen Manning

Created on: June 01, 2008   Last Updated: June 02, 2008

Want to freeze wrinkles in their tracks? Get the facts about Botox.

What is Botox?

The first time I heard the term, I thought it was 'Beau-Tox'; as in, 'Beautifying Toxin'. It turns out, I wasn't far off in terms of what the procedure claims to perform. In its cosmetic application, the Botox is injected directly into patients' facial muscles, usually in the forehead and around the eyes, in an attempt to restore a smooth, youthful appearance. Botox

In actuality, Botox is the brand name for a substance that belongs to a class of drugs called Botulinum Toxins; it is a formulation of botulinum toxin type A, derived from the bacterium associated with botulism: Clostridium botulinum.

That's right, people actually pay to be injected with small doses of the potentially fatal nerve toxin responsible for causing dangerous paralytic illness. The symptoms of botulism include double or blurred vision, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, and muscle-weakness. Although the illness is rare and usually contracted through contaminated canned food products, in serious cases, it can result in death due to respiratory failure.

We regularly allow ourselves to be injected with minute doses of dangerous bio-chemicals every time we are vaccinated or receive antibiotics. However, vaccinations and antibiotics are not optional cosmetic procedures, as they are designed to prevent or treat diseases and massive outbreaks of illness.

Allergan, the manufacturers of Botox insist that more than one hundred years of research have expanded experts' knowledge of botulinum toxin type A, from the initial identification of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, to the commercialization of botulinum toxin type A as Botox used by medical professionals for clinical and cosmetic use in order to relax muscles.

Cosmetic Use of Botox

Botox Cosmetic has been approved in the treatment of frown lines (referred to as glabellar lines by professionals); it is advertised as effective in the "temporary improvement in the appearance of moderate to severe glabellar lines associated with corrugator and/or procerus muscle activity in adult patients less than 65 years of age."

Translation? Glabellar lines are wrinkles between the brows that form when you frown, an expression achieved by the contraction of the corrugator and procerus muscles located between and above the eyebrows. These wrinkles are formed when, over time, the normal movement of the facial muscles causes the skin between the brows

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