Botox:

[Al-khiyal]

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Islamic clerics have banned Malaysian Muslims from undergoing Botox treatment for cosmetic purposes because the compound contains prohibited and harmful substances, a news report said Friday.

The National Fatwa Council, which advises the government on Islamic regulations, issued the edict Thursday, but conceded that using Botox for medical reasons - for example, to treat cerebral palsy sufferers - is permissible if doctors deem it necessary, The New Straits Times reported.

Council Chairman Shukor Husin told the newspaper the ruling is not legally binding, but that Muslims who defy it would be committing a sin.

Shukor said Botox contains extracts from pigs, an animal considered unclean in Islam, and that the council ruled on the issue after studying reports by local and international specialists, as well as religious edicts in Middle Eastern countries.

Botox is the brand name for a substance derived from the toxin botulin which, when injected into the face, temporarily paralyzes the facial muscles to eliminate wrinkles. It can also be used treat migraines, excessive sweating and muscle spasms in the neck and eyes.

The fatwa council rulings in Malaysia help shape Islamic Sharia laws here, but not all their edicts are passed into legislation. Some 60 percent of this Southeast Asian country's 26 million people are Muslims. Malaysian Muslims are required to obey council edicts, even if they have not been enshrined in national or Sharia law.

Clerics nix Botox for Malaysia Muslims

[Cheba_Mami]

Botox is not healthy anyway... but what if one needs it for a specific treatment? and what is someone is a famous actress/singer/model or some similair job in which good appearance is required
ah maybe all those jobs are not appoved by them too
what do you guys think?

[Al-khiyal]

26 April 2007 -- A crackdown on beauty parlours and clinics providing botox treatments and "filler" injections to plump up lips was announced by the Government yesterday amid fears for patient safety.

Two years after Sir Liam Donaldson, the Government's chief medical officer, warned of a risk of permanent injury caused by the treatments, including transmission of hepatitis and vCJD, ministers have asked the cosmetic surgery industry to set up a system of self-regulation to "further improve standards".

The announcement was attacked by critics who said it did not go far enough. Which?, the consumer magazine, said it was "disappointing" that the Government had decided to "bottle out" and "leave it to the cosmetic treatments industry to make itself safe". It has campaigned for statutory regulation.

Demand for cosmetic treatment is soaring with nearly 700,000 procedures performed in Britain in 2005 at a cost of £360m. There are an estimated 20,000 high street clinics offering cosmetic treatments such as botox injections, which paralyse muscles, but which can leave patients with frozen features if too much is used.

While major cosmetic surgery is regulated, non-surgical treatments such as botox and filler injections to smooth sagging skin can be offered by any high street business.

The dangers were highlighted by the actress Leslie Ash, star of the sitcom Men Behaving Badly, who had collagen implants in her lips in 2003 which went wrong leaving her with a "trout pout".

Jenny Driscoll, health campaigner at Which?, said: "There is an increasingly casual approach to non-surgical treatments - just look at Botox parties where people are encouraged to drink champagne before going under the needle. This is a boom sector and our concern is that the rush to make money may result in some businesses cutting corners."

Two government reports published in 2005 drew attention to the risk of the procedures. At the launch of the reports, Sir Liam Donaldson said aesthetic fillers injected under the skin to counter sagging features, popular with celebrities, used material from animals, birds, and human corpses which could be infected with hepatitis and other viruses. Collagen, the most heavily used material, could have bovine material which carried a risk of transmitting vCJD, he said.

Yesterday, Andrew Vallance-Owen, chairman of the working group on cosmetic surgery established by the Independent Healthcare Advisory Service to implement self regulation of the clinics, said he regretted the Government's refusal to bring in a statutory control but had accepted the task because " some regulation is better than none".

He said: "There is no question that better control of these facilities is needed. We are talking about invasive procedures. Botox is a prescription-only medicine and patient safety should be paramount. If things go wrong, some patients could be left scarred physically or psychologically for life.

"As it stands now, almost anyone can set up shop in the local high street, don a white coat and start offering dermal fillers or arrange Botox parties. If we - the industry - don't step in, these procedures will be less regulated than ear piercing."

A code of practice would be drawn up, he said. "It is very hard to work out how many people are being treated or how many suffer adverse incidents, because the clinics are unregulated and there is no data. Occasionally you read of a celebrity who has been injured because there is no escape from publicity for them. But there may be a lot of people who are embarrassed by what has happened or don't want to make a fuss and we don't hear about them." He said Botox came in large bottles for single use, with any remaining being thrown away. But it was likely that less scrupulous clinics were keeping the opened bottles and reusing the contents.

Temporary fillers that went wrong would only be likely to have temporary effects. But semi-permanent fillers designed to plump up or smooth out sagging skin could do lasting damage and there had been suggestions that these should only be given by qualified doctors, he said.

Lord Hunt, the Health minister, said self regulation would be reviewed in three years and replaced with statutory controls if it failed. "While I have every confidence that self-regulation is the best way forward for non-surgical cosmetic treatments at this moment in time, we do not completely rule out the introduction of statutory regulation."

'I tried to move, but nothing happened'

Sarah Manners, actor, 31

Sarah Manners, star of the BBC hospital drama Casualty had Botox treatment four years ago. She had feared that her looks were not perfect enough - but the result nearly ruined her career. Her face froze while she was filming an airline drama in which she played a glamorous air hostess and an entire scene was lost. She said: "The director wanted to do a close up of me looking upset but the movements had to be minimal. As the cameras began rolling, the tears welled up and I made what I thought was a slight movement my eyes with my eyebrows. Nothing happened. The director shouted 'cut' and we did it again - but nothing happened." Manners panicked - she had had two doses of the muscle paralysing injections and she did not dare tell anyone on set. She knew the scene had to be reshot. She spent the next fortnight doing facial exercises to get her face working again.

"It taught me a lesson. You can't afford to have Botox when you're an actor. It could lose you work."

Cost and risks of treatment

* BOTOX

HOW IT WORKS: Paralyses muscles to remove wrinkles.
COST: £100 to £300 a session.
RISKS: Hard to predict how it will affect your muscles. Can cause droopy eyelids or eyebrows and, in rare cases, double or blurred vision.

* LIP IMPLANTS (COLLAGEN)

HOW IT WORKS: Plumps up lips.
COST: £250 to £1,000.
RISKS: Allergic reactions such as rashes, joint and muscle pain, headaches, blistering, soreness and restricted breathing. Other less common risks include infection, abscesses, skin peeling, scarring, lumpiness and open sores near the treated area.

* CHEMICAL PEELS

HOW IT WORKS: Acid solution applied to the skin removes blemishes and wrinkles.
COST: £100 for superficial peel to £2,000 for deep peel.
RISKS: Side effects can include: a stinging sensation; redness; blistering; itching and increased sensitivity to sunlight. Other risks include infections, scars and pigmentation changes.

* LASER HAIR REMOVAL

HOW IT WORKS: targets hair follicles to prevent new growth.
COST: £40 to £400.
RISKS: Skin may be red and sensitive. Light-based treatments can cause blisters and burns, leading to mild scarring and changes in skin colour.

SOURCE: WHICH?

Government curbs on Botox clinics 'do not go far enough'

[Bent_Bladi]

don't they also give botox injections in the underarms.... supposedly it prevents you from sweating... they do it during the academy awards or something

[Al-khiyal]

We all know Botox is stupid:
Now it looks as if it can kill, too

February 4, 2008 -- Finally, there is proof, or at least the beginnings of proof, that Botox is not as innocuous as it claims to be: indeed, that it is un-innocuous to the point of being (rarely, but even so ...) fatal.

Botox never sounded like a great idea, did it? It works by temporarily paralysing the muscles. It looks good from a distance, but dodgy up close. It is a great favourite among actors, the only professionals on earth, I believe, whose jobs explicitly involve them being able to move their faces as fully as possible. Well, apart from clowns. When you see an actor, photographed off-guard, with a look of shiny, dead neutrality, you somehow know that it is the result of too many injections.

But beyond this instinct, there is the medical fact that it is a poison, injected into the face, and good sense would dictate that this has ramifications. Experience now suggests as much - the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has had reports of 16 fatalities linked to injections of Botox and a similar product.

The problem seems to occur when the botulinum toxin spreads beyond the injection sites to other areas of the body. The reports detailed cases of muscle weakness, difficulty swallowing and aspiration pneumonia, which occurs when you breathe alien material into your lungs. It is true that America is both large and litigious, so while 16 cases is not very many, you can be sure that if it is proved that Botulism was to blame, the drug companies will pay dearly for accidentally offing these wrinklies.

This kind of procedure - which carries no benefit, and appeals to none but the very vain - is never going to attract the most rigorous medics. My half-sister was trained to give Botox injections, on a course that lasted a day, cost £120 and was full of half-qualified dentists whose medical training doesn't extend below the thorax. Most proper doctors (no offence) don't want to get their hands dirty administering poisons for cosmetic reasons. And when problems do occur, it is reasonable to expect that it would take a skilled physician to notice (one symptom is muscle paralysis: since that's the purpose of the injection in the first place, you can see why a dentist or layman might miss it).

It would be foolish to overstate the danger of the treatment, when the more compelling argument against it is still that it is stupid and it makes you look weird. But still, it is worth bearing in mind that it could also kill you.

[Bent_Bladi]

yeah it is stupid....

I think people with wrinkles are beautiful (though, I'm not talking about wrinkled up brown bag wrinkles ). It shows - dunno, some sort of ~wisdom~ and I don't know ... okay, I'm on crack - ignore me... just one rule, never mess with mother nature or she'll lash back and you'll be sorry (or dead)

[nesreen]

No ill give it a miss .
im fortunate that i dont have wrinkles yet and nature has been kind to me but when my time comes and i have deep wrinkles i ll have to get used to them. i dont think i will have recourse to Botox .

I have noticed that actresses who use it suddenly look terrible when botox ceases to work and they have to go and top it up . no thanks .