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Beyond Cosmetic: Botox As A Medical Remedy

Mighty_Emperor

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Ooooooooo my chalfonts are twinging at the thought!!

Botox has promise as prostate treatment

By ANDRÉ PICARD
PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER
Thursday, May 13, 2004 - Page A19


It will give you more than just a pretty face: Research shows that Botox injections may relieve symptoms of one of the most common medical conditions suffered by older men, enlarged prostate.

A new study, presented Tuesday at the American Urological Association conference in San Francisco, showed that injections of botulism toxin A -- most commonly used to make wrinkles disappear -- can shrink the size of the prostate and relieve urinary problems, without serious side effects.

"For most men, enlarged prostate is considered to be an uncomfortable inevitability of aging," said Michael Chancellor, a professor of urology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

He said that many existing treatments have devastating and embarrassing side effects, such as impotence and incontinence.

Dr. Chancellor said it is unclear why exactly Botox works, but it is likely because it relaxes tight muscles around the prostate and urinary tract.

The prostate gland, which is found only in men, sits just below the bladder, close to the rectum. The walnut-shaped gland produces semen. It also produces a protein called prostate-specific antigen. Higher-than-normal PSA levels can be a clue that cancer is developing in the sex gland.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a condition commonly referred to as enlarged prostate, is one of the most common diseases affecting older men. When the prostate enlarges, it presses against the urethra -- the tube that carries urine from the bladder and out of the penis. An enlarged prostate can act like a clamp on a garden hose, irritating the bladder and making it difficult urinate.

By age 60, almost half of all men suffer from BPH, and by age 80, it is up to 90 per cent. BPH is a benign condition and not to be confused with prostate cancer.

However, many men with BPH suffer discomfort and some serious medical problems. As many as half of men with an enlarged prostate will develop symptoms such as more frequent urination, urinary tract infections, the inability to completely empty the bladder, and, in extreme cases, the eventual damaging of the bladder and kidneys.

There are a number of drugs available for the treatment of BPH. Because the condition is often triggered by a urinary-tract infection, the first line of defence is antibiotics to clear up the infection.

Finasteride and dutasteride work by inhibiting the production of DHT, or dihydrotestosterone, a hormone involved in prostate enlargement. Other drugs work by relaxing the muscles of the prostate and the bladder: terazosin, doxazosin, tamsulosin and alfuzosin. The four are alpha blockers, meaning they can affect blood pressure and have other side effects, such as impotence.

Botox is being touted as a better treatment because it works locally, and has no serious side effects.

But some researchers question its safety. Writing in the medical journal Urology, Alexis Te of the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York said that physicians should not lose sight of the fact that Botox is closely related to botulism, a form of food poisoning caused by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum.

Dr. Te said it may not be wise to expose older men to a neurotoxin, particularly because many of them may have compromised immune systems. And he cautioned that urinary problems are not caused exclusively by an enlarged prostate, so treatment should not be focused exclusively on the gland.

theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040513/HBOTOX13/TPScience/
Link is dead. The MIA webpage (quoted in its entirety above) can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/2004061...News/TPStory/LAC/20040513/HBOTOX13/TPScience/
 
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Botox helps woman speak after 14 years
By Lucy Cockcroft
Last Updated: 2:07am GMT 06/11/2007

A grandmother who lost her voice 14 years ago has regained her speech after doctors injected her with Botox.

Phyllis Yates, 73, lost the ability to talk when she awoke one morning in 1993.

Doctors struggled to find the cause until last November, when they diagnosed laryngeal dystonia, a condition that causes involuntary spasms of the vocal chord.

They decided to inject the muscles surrounding Mrs Yates' voice box with Botox, a toxin commonly used in cosmetic surgery to fill out wrinkles.

The treatment relaxed her vocal chords and gradually, after several courses, she regained the ability to speak.

For the first time, Mrs Yates is able to talk to her two granddaughters Donna, 13, and 11-year-old Leanne.

She said: "I couldn't speak when my granddaughters were born, now finally I can tell them that I love them."

She added: "It was so frustrating because if I was in a shop or anything they would just shout at me and look as if I had gone crazy.

"And I was getting so frustrated. I kept passing out with tears falling down my face because I couldn't ask for a cup of tea or anything."

Mrs Yates, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, said she was overcome with joy when doctors told her they had found a cure.

She said: "When I got the Botox injections I was that emotional. I was really crying because I never dreamt that it would happen.

"Now I've got a lot to catch up on. I'm putting my husband in his place." 8)

Her husband, George, however, is delighted to hear his wife's voice again for the first time in 14 years.

"It is wonderful. She always nags, but that's a woman's prerogative. I just shut my ears now," he joked. :D

http://tinyurl.com/2ky3b4
 
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I never saw this coming ... Results of data mining patient feedback has motivated researchers to examine whether Botox can alleviate depression. No, it's not a joke ...
Botox Injected for Cosmetic Reasons May Significantly Ease Depression

FDA database of drug side effects indicates the benefit may hold up no matter where Botox is injected.

Botox, a medication derived from a bacterial toxin, is commonly injected to ease wrinkles, migraines, muscle spasms, excessive sweating, and incontinence. Forehead injection of the medication is also currently being tested in clinical trials for its ability to treat depression.

Researchers at Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California San Diego have mined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Adverse Effect Reporting System (FAERS) database to see what nearly 40,000 people reported happened to them after treatment with Botox for a variety of reasons.

In the study, published July 30, 2020 in Scientific Reports, the team discovered that people who received Botox injections — at six different sites, not just in the forehead — reported depression significantly less often than patients undergoing different treatments for the same conditions.

“For years, clinicians have observed that Botox injected for cosmetic reasons seems to ease depression for their patients,” said Ruben Abagyan, PhD, professor of pharmacy. “It’s been thought that easing severe frown lines in forehead region disrupts a feedback loop that reinforces negative emotions. But we’ve found here that the mechanism may be more complex, because it doesn’t really matter where the Botox is injected.” ...

FULL STORY: https://scitechdaily.com/botox-injected-for-cosmetic-reasons-may-significantly-ease-depression/
 
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