Before my father's untimely death in 1996, one of his last research projects was to explore the use of Botulinum toxin in the treatment of conditions such as muscular dystrophy, focal distonia etc - in which muscles go into spasm and cannot function.
This, as everyone knows, morphed rather grotesquely into Botox, the beauty treatment by which women allow themselves to be injected with a deadly poison in order to straighten out the odd wrinkle. This fantastic article from The Times today, however, proves how worthwhile that research really was: it has given Leon Fleisher the use of his right hand again, after 35 years. Fleisher is the most glorious musician - an artist of true humanity and integrity - and now he has a new lease of life at the piano.
You can hear him at the Wigmore Hall on Sunday afternoon. If you're not within concert-going distance, hear this CD.
2 comments:
Will check out the story you reference.
By the way, there are other medical applications for botox, including for excessive sweating (Hyperhidrosis).
But do you really think Botox is "grotesque" when used to reduce wrinkles?
Unless you're entirely against the idea of reducing signs of aging, what's the alternative you'd suggest? Personally, I am more concerned about using a wrinkle cream that has never received proper medical testing or regulatory oversight.
My main concern about your post is that slamming Botox used in aesthetics purposes feeds into stigmatizing a treatment that millions of consumers undergo each year. This has the adverse effect we see in our forum (http://www.realself.com/Botox/reviews). People often don't engage in a meaningful discussion about the pros/cons and safety of Botox prior to getting it done because they don't want to admit to considering it. So they won't ask questions and know that it's a drug that should be administered in a proper medical setting. --Tom
I have no alternative to suggest, firstly as this isn't a blog about anti-aging products and secondly as I haven't quite reached that stage of life. Yet. ;-)
What I find 'grotesque' is that medical research intended to develop treatments for much more serious illnesses, and conditions such as Mr Fleisher's, has ended up being applied in often a somewhat frivolous manner instead - frequently with, as you say, a lack of meaningful discussion among consumers about the pros/cons and safety of the substance, which is after all an extremely powerful toxin. I had no intention of casting aspersions on the treatment and its safety and I don't doubt that 'millions of consumers' undergo it safely every year. But I do suspect that my late father would be turning in his grave.
He would have been overjoyed to see the process to which he had contributed being used to save the musical existence of an artist like Leon Fleisher; less so if I decide someday to have the same thing applied to my nasty frown lines.
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