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Taking advantage of pre-Olympic hype, Allergan, maker of BOTOX, launched a massive nationwide drive in July to convince people that BOTOX can be an important component of achieving their “personal best.” Spearheading the effort are former Olympians — swimmer Mark Spitz and gymnast Nadia Comaneci.
It is a sad day when two superb Olympic athletes — whose performances earned a total of 14 gold medals combined — prostitute themselves for undisclosed amounts of money to help Allergan sell...
Taking advantage of pre-Olympic hype, Allergan, maker of BOTOX, launched a massive nationwide drive in July to convince people that BOTOX can be an important component of achieving their “personal best.” Spearheading the effort are former Olympians — swimmer Mark Spitz and gymnast Nadia Comaneci.
It is a sad day when two superb Olympic athletes — whose performances earned a total of 14 gold medals combined — prostitute themselves for undisclosed amounts of money to help Allergan sell BOTOX. Instead of tens of millions of people watching the athletes’ performances in the past as they strived for their personal best, people will now be able to watch videos of doctors’ performances as they inject Mark Spitz and Nadia Comaneci with BOTOX.
This sends a terrible message to athletes, young or old, and to others that they should not accept the way they look as they age but, rather, should try to look their “personal best” by the BOTOX-enhanced pretense that they are younger than they really are.
Another trouble with this slick marketing campaign is that botulinum toxin (available as BOTOX and MYOBLOC) can cause life-threatening adverse reactions. In January, Public Citizen petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to immediately increase its warnings about BOTOX and MYOBLOC; adverse reactions can include paralysis of the respiratory muscles and difficulty swallowing (dysphagia), a condition that can allow food or liquid to enter the respiratory tract and lungs, causing aspiration pneumonia. While the data in our petition mainly related to problems associated with the medical use of BOTOX, adverse reactions can occur with cosmetic use as well.
Two weeks after our petition, the FDA issued an alert about the dangers of injecting botulinum toxin but stopped short of forcing drug makers to send out warning letters to doctors or putting a black box warning on the drug as we had requested.
Educating physicians and patients about what adverse symptoms to look for and when to seek immediate medical attention will save lives. Early symptoms include dry mouth, difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, slurred speech, drooping eyelids and muscle weakness.
The more rational approach to dealing with the lines that inevitably occur with aging comes from singer Willie Nelson, whose song we were reminded of by University of Minnesota Professor of Journalism Gary Schwitzer:
This Face is all I have, worn and lived in
And lines below my eyes are like old friends...
This face of mine
And I kept believing the reflection on the wall
Who needs to be the fairest of them all
I never looked like you, cool and streamlined
I have this honesty that grows with time
And when cracks appear they suit me fine
Like a good old dog you won’t hear me whine
And this face is all I have, worn and lived in.
