ANI
(TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2003)
LONDON: From ironing out the wrinkles out of a thousand celebrity faces,
Botox is all set to vanish odour from the armpits.
The latest study on the wonder drug by a team of scientists from the
Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich suggests that as well as smoothing
ageing skin, Botox injections into the armpit can help to protect against
body odour.
In one of the less pleasant tasks experimental subjects have been required
to undertake, 16 volunteers were asked to sniff "armpit secretions" from
each other and rank them in order of the nastiness of the odour, according
to a report in The Independent.
Each volunteer was then injected with Botox, and seven days later the
test was repeated. The findings, published in Archives of Dermatology,
showed the treated armpits were drier and scored better odour ratings.
The authors conclude that injections of Botox "can significantly
ameliorate the intensity and improve the quality of body odour".
Smelly armpits? Try botox.
BBC NEWS, Monday, 20 January, 2003
Botox, the drug of choice for people with wrinkles, may also help those
with smelly armpits.
Researchers in Germany have found that injecting the drug into armpits
can reduce sweating and body odour.
They tested their theory on 16 people. Each received a botox injection
in one armpit and a harmless solution in the other. They each wore
a t-shirt for 24 hours.
The area around the armpits was then cut out and given to another group
who were asked to rate the intensity of the odour on a scale of zero
for unpleasant to six for pleasant.
Smell test
According to researchers at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich,
pieces of the t-shirts which were exposed to armpits which had not
been treated with botox recorded an average score of 2.69.
However, those that had been exposed to a botox-treated armpit scored
just 1.83.
The volunteers were then asked to rate smells from the t-shirts on
a scale of minus three for unpleasant to plus three for pleasant.
The average score for t-shirts not exposed to a botox-treated armpit
was -1.14. This compares to plus 0.46 for t-shirts exposed to armpits
which had been injected with botox.
Marc Heckmann, who led the study, said armpits which had been treated
with botox were also much drier.
Elizabeth Jones, manager of the Boston Clinic in central London which
offers botox injections to the public, said it was an effective treatment.
"I have had it myself," she told BBC News Online. "It is very
effective and very painless. It takes just minutes and lasts for six months.
"You don't need to wear deodorant during that time. A lot of our patients
have had this treatment."
The study is published in the journal Archives
of Dermatology.
