Botox

Maybe we can blame snakes for our wrinkles. After all, as the story goes, it was a snake that tempted Eve, getting her expelled from Eden and doomed to a mortal life filled with fine lines and wrinkles. So isn't it about time that the slithering serpent made amends? More than a half-dozen skin-care companies think so, incorporating a synthetic venom into their formulations to help diminish signs of aging. The products sprang from an "aha!"

A Las Vegas plastic surgeon has sued Allergan Inc., accusing the Irvine pharmaceutical company of selling its popular wrinkle treatment Botox in large vials and encouraging physicians to unsafely reuse them. Dr. Julio L. Garcia contends that Allergan sold Botox exclusively in 100-unit vials for several years, even though a typical treatment required just 20 units. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, said Allergan sales representatives encouraged physicians to use the vials on multiple patients, a practice now condemned by health officials.

From hair-color treatments to Botox to surgical "mommy makeovers," it seems there is no limit to the ways women can try to hold on to their fading youth. But are these healthy self-improvements or simply vain attempts to look younger? It depends on whether women can accept that aging is a natural part of life, says Vivian Diller, a New York City psychologist and coauthor of the 2010 book "Face It: What Women Really Feel as Their Looks Change. " In a recent interview, the 58-year-old former model and ballet dancer discussed ways that women can achieve a healthy self-image as they get older.

Real estate agents listing an $8-million home in Santa Monica wanted to ensure a good crowd for an open house last month, so they hired a stilt walker, shirtless male jugglers and a contortionist who floated in the pool, encased in a clear plastic bubble. Over near the Beverly Center, an agent stationed models in front of a new condominium project. Wearing chocolate velour robes and flip-flops, the young men and women served up free drinks — in keeping with the marketing theme that "it's always cocktail hour" at these condos.

Allergan, Inc., the maker of Botox, said second-quarter profit rose 2.7 percent and raised its earnings forecast on higher sales of the wrinkle smoother and breast implants. Net income increased to $246.6 million, or 79 cents a share, from $240.1 million, or 78 cents, a year earlier, the Irvine, California-based company said today in a statement. Earnings, excluding some items, were 96 cents a share, topping the average estimate of 95 cents from 21 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Botox may be famous for erasing frown lines, but it also may disrupt an important chain of communication between the face and the brain. Not only do our facial expressions reflect our emotional ups and downs, they appear to send crucial feedback to our brain, suggests a growing body of research. Without that full feedback loop, our ability to understand — and be understood — might be constrained. In a recent study of women undergoing cosmetic treatment with Botox, researchers found that the treatment, which blocks facial nerve impulses, seemed to slow the ability to comprehend emotional language.

Allergan Inc., maker of wrinkle treatment Botox, is challenging the government's ban on marketing off-label uses for pharmaceuticals. In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the Irvine company argued that it should be allowed to give doctors information about using Botox for treatments not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including bladder problems, muscle spasms and headaches. Botox is approved by the FDA for use cosmetically as a wrinkle treatment and medically for eye-muscle disorders, excessive underarm sweating and cervical dystonia in adults, which causes abnormal head positions and neck pain.

Botox, the botulism-based drug that has wiped wrinkles from the faces of millions, may be approved for another use: stopping headaches. Drug maker Allergan Inc. said Thursday that it had new evidence that its injectable drug could help relieve migraine headaches. Based on preliminary results from two company-funded studies, Allergan said it would ask the Food and Drug Administration to approve Botox for chronic migraine next year. The FDA approved Botox to smooth wrinkles and age lines in 2002, and it has grown into a blockbuster product for Irvine-based Allergan, with $2.1 billion in sales last year.

The U.S. Department of Justice is looking at Allergan Inc.'s promotion of its blockbuster wrinkle drug Botox for medical uses, but investors didn't seem too worried about the news Tuesday. Allergan shares closed at $57.38, down $1.28 or 2.2% on word that the Irvine company received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia demanding documents regarding its promotional and educational practices involving the use of the botulinum toxin-based drug for medical problems.

Allergan Inc.'s net income more than doubled in the first quarter as sales accelerated outside the U.S. for the wrinkle remover Botox. Demand cooled in the U.S., and the company blamed the economy. Net income increased to $111.4 million, or 36 cents a share, from $43.8 million, or 14 cents, a year earlier, the company said. Revenue grew 23% to $1.08 billion, bolstered by converting overseas sales in other currencies to the dollar. Irvine-based Allergan sells cosmetic and medical products including breast implants, surgical devices to remedy obesity and a treatment for overactive bladders.

From hair-color treatments to Botox to surgical "mommy makeovers," it seems there is no limit to the ways women can try to hold on to their fading youth. But are these healthy self-improvements or simply vain attempts to look younger? It depends on whether women can accept that aging is a natural part of life, says Vivian Diller, a New York City psychologist and coauthor of the 2010 book "Face It: What Women Really Feel as Their Looks Change. " In a recent interview, the 58-year-old former model and ballet dancer discussed ways that women can achieve a healthy self-image as they get older.

Allergan, Inc., the maker of Botox, said second-quarter profit rose 2.7 percent and raised its earnings forecast on higher sales of the wrinkle smoother and breast implants. Net income increased to $246.6 million, or 79 cents a share, from $240.1 million, or 78 cents, a year earlier, the Irvine, California-based company said today in a statement. Earnings, excluding some items, were 96 cents a share, topping the average estimate of 95 cents from 21 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

José Eber, the veteran hairdresser instantly recognizable by his long blond locks and jazzy cowboy hats, has launched a new salon in Beverly Hills, blocks from his former hair haven on Via Rodeo. The two-floor, 8,500-square-foot José Eber salon, formerly home to Christie's auction house, is a sprawling ode to old-school glamour, featuring 30-foot ceilings, enormous, quirky art works (by collage artist Terence Lawlor), an 18-foot sofa peppered with velvet pillows, and — on everything from the walls to the swivel chairs — the color purple, in homage to Eber's longtime friend and client, Elizabeth Taylor.

Botox has been the reigning, if unofficial, monarch of cosmetic procedures for nearly a decade. But its claim to the beauty throne is being rattled this week by a study in which patients thought another brand of botulinum toxin, the Botox competitor Dysport, smoothed their “crow’s feet” wrinkles a bit better. In a randomized, double-blind face-off funded by the makers of Dysport, patients received injections of Botox on one side of the face and injections of Dysport on the other.

Much of the conversation at a West Hollywood march Saturday was on a subject many would like to avoid: age. About 40 people listened to music and speeches at West Hollywood Park before taking up signs proclaiming, "Make every day a celebration" and "Age is not a number, it's a spirit," and strolling down Santa Monica Boulevard. It was all part of the Age March, a type of event not commonly encountered in the Southern California world of Botox and anti-age remedies. Barbara Rose Brooker started the walk in San Francisco about a year ago, after writing a book called "The Viagra Diaries," about love and sex after 60. Organizers plan to hold marches in New York and Washington, D.C., as well.

Botox-maker Allergan Inc. was ordered by a federal court jury to pay $212 million to a Virginia man who alleged that use of the drug left him severely disabled. The verdict awarded Douglas Ray, 67, $12 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages — the largest penalty ever in a Botox injury case. Ray was injected with the drug in 2007 to treat hand tremors. He quickly fell ill with a fever and rash, said his lawyer, Ray Chester. Ray suffered brain damage and now requires round-the-clock care, the lawyer said.

Kristen Spears started getting Botox injections at the age of 6 -- not to smooth furrows in her brow, but to calm spasms in her legs. The girl was born with severe cerebral palsy, and Botox, best known as a face-lift-in-a-syringe, can relax contorted muscles and sometimes help young patients walk without surgery. Instead, Kristen's mother alleges, an overdose of the drug killed her. Opening arguments in a negligence lawsuit by Dee Spears against Botox manufacturer Allergan Inc. are set for today in Orange County.

Botox has been the reigning, if unofficial, monarch of cosmetic procedures for nearly a decade. But its claim to the beauty throne is being rattled this week by a study in which patients thought another brand of botulinum toxin, the Botox competitor Dysport, smoothed their “crow’s feet” wrinkles a bit better. In a randomized, double-blind face-off funded by the makers of Dysport, patients received injections of Botox on one side of the face and injections of Dysport on the other.

Botox injections can erase the effects of years of emotional expression on a person's face. But the cosmetic procedure that unfurrows brows, smoothes laugh lines and unwrinkles crinkles appears to come with an unseen price: an impaired ability to read others' emotions. A new study has found that when it comes to reading expressions of emotion on the faces of people in photographs, women who received Botox injections in their face were less accurate than those who had their facial lines plumped with an injectable cosmetic filler. The research contributes new evidence to a key theory about communication between humans: that we unconsciously use facial mimicry to help discern and interpret the emotions of others.

Kim Cattrall, 54, plays a former porn star who's the object of a misfit teenager's adoration in "Meet Monica Velour," writer-director Keith Bearden's first feature-length film, which opened Friday. Your character Monica Velour — you're certainly not a former porn star, but you do know what it's like to be a 50-ish performer with a sex-bomb persona. I think there's a difference between sexy and being sexualized, and I think that for me as an actor, I know the difference, but I think the images from the work that you portray, whether it's "Sex and the City" or other films I've done in the past — teen comedies, "Mannequin," "Big Trouble in Little China" — those things sit in people's minds as who you are. The career that I'm having post-"Sex and the City" has been about making different kinds of choices.