Baldness drug Propecia 'risking men's sexual health'

Young men could be risking their sexual health by taking a commonly used anti-baldness drug, claim some doctors.

They say finasteride, sold in the UK as Propecia, can cause serious side effects and isn't adequately labelled.

A quarter of men in their 20s show signs of male pattern baldness, with six and a half million males in the UK affected.

Propecia manufacturer Merck says it continually monitors the drug's safety and has updated the label.

James, 26, from Edinburgh suffered side effects after using the drug.

"I noticed hair loss, hair coming out in the shower and on the pillow, and I freaked out basically.

"I went onto the internet and researched it. I found out there was a drug called Propecia, and soon enough I started buying that and it worked a treat."

The prescription pill is extremely effective at stopping hair loss and in clinical trials nine out of 10 men didn't lose any more hair over a five year period.

Drugs' company Merck, which manufactures Propecia, claims on its website that less than 2% of men could suffer sexual side effects.

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The facelift that made me fall in love with life again

Annabel Giles was one of Britain's top models, but nearing 50, illness and heartbreak had left her looking tired and old...

The wonderful Joan Collins famously once said: ‘The problem with beauty is that it’s like being born rich, and getting poorer.’

One morning in the summer of 2007, I looked at myself in the mirror and suddenly knew with searing clarity what she meant.

I hated what I saw staring back at me. In my youth, I had been one of the most celebrated models of my generation — a supermodel before the term had been invented. To take up Joan’s analogy, I hadn’t just been born rich; I’d been born a millionaire.

Now here I was, peering at my 48-year-old self in the mirror, wondering where my lovely face had gone.

It seemed as if it was slowly sliding off my head. I looked cross, tired and worried, even when I was feeling chipper. Put simply, my inside wasn’t matching my outside — a feeling most women no longer in the first flush of youth will recognise only too well.

I realised in that moment that I didn’t want to stand idly by as my looks slipped away. I wanted to look as good as I could, no matter what my age.

So there was only one thing for it — to go under the surgeon’s knife.

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Carey Mulligan: Hollywood doctor told me to have Botox

At just 25, Carey Mulligan is one of Hollywood's freshest-faced stars.

Yet the British actress was told to get Botox in order to look more youthful, she has disclosed.

Of her visit to a Los Angeles dermatologist, Mulligan recalled: "I said, 'I have some lines here under my eye and they're annoying, what can you do?' He looked at my face and said, 'We'll just drop some Botox in here and here...'.

"I said, 'What the ----? I'm only 25, are you joking?' So I can't move my face? Isn't that, well, the antithesis of what I'm trying to do as an actress? Only in LA would someone try and give you Botox when you're 25 years old."

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Do-it-yourself Botox injections risky business

Do-it-yourself Botox injections are the latest wrinkle in the pursuit of beauty on a budget.

Catherine Maiorino, 54, started thinking about buying Botox over the Internet when the creases between her eyebrows began to needle her. "So I went and found a website where I could order it," recalls the vocational school teacher from Pennsauken, N.J.

She paid $200 to a spa in California for a vial of what was labeled as Dysport, which contains the same active ingredient as Botox. The price was about one-third of what she expected to pay at a physician's office. Maiorino figured her daughter, a phlebotomist, could do the injections. "She is the most excellent sticker in the whole world."

When the substance arrived in the mail, Maiorino was disappointed to find only a few freeze-dried crystals in the vial, to be reconstituted with saline solution.
"There were no actual instructions in the package, no way to determine what the proper consistency should be," she says.

Her daughter balked - "she said I was crazy" - and insisted Maiorino take the vial to a doctor.

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Botox Could Cause Muscle Wastage

Submitted by Ria Patel

According to a new study carried out by the researchers from the University of Calgary, the botox injections that are employed to get rid of wrinkles and plump-up lips could lead to wastage of muscles into fat.

The researchers claim that the cosmetic jab if used over long periods of time could harm any part of the body and not just the area where injection is given.

The findings of the study are based on the experiment of Botulinum toxin A, a substance used in the medical profession on a group of 18 rabbits for a period of up to six months. It was discovered that the limbs of the animals, where the shot was given had endured muscle wastage of up to 50%. The loss of muscle was not just confined to limbs where injection was given but also affected other limbs.

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Botox to be tested for Treating Herpes

Submitted by Ria Patel

A treatment used to get rid of wrinkles is being used for other purposes as well. Apparently, Botox is being used to treat the cold sores that occur in people suffering from the herpes simplex virus. The sores usually appear around the lips of people suffering from the condition.

Though, the infection does not appear in its nascent stages, yet once it's activated, people end up suffering from cold sores, which appear on a regular basis.

The cosmetic procedure is being currently scrutinized to check, whether it can help people suffering from herpes. The research is being conducted by a group of researchers from the Chicago Centre for Facial Plastic Surgery in the United States.

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Try a super serum: Don't scoff - the powerful doses of anti-ageing ingredients in these potions work wonders

By Alice Hart-davis

When I first heard about beauty serums a few years ago, my reaction was cynical. A whole new step in skincare, between cleansing and moisturising? Yeah, right.

How come we had all been fine for decades using just moisturiser? Had skincare companies - or perhaps their marketing departments - come up with this brilliant money-making wheeze to persuade us to add yet another product to our daily regimes?

But now I couldn’t live without my serums. Like many others, I have come to see them as a vital ingredient in any skincare regime. Have I just been suckered by the hype? Goodness, no. Here’s why.

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Would you let your man spend £7,000 to hide his bald patch?

Anyone who’s caught their man secretly checking out his reflection in the bathroom mirror will know that most of them are as vain as David Beckham or Simon Cowell.

They may be able to laugh off comments about their complexion, weight or their (lack of a) six-pack, but if there’s one thing liable to put in him in a huff, it’s pointing out that he may be thinning on top.

Male pattern baldness - known medically as androgenetic alopecia - affects nearly all men by the time they are 60. For some, such as Prince William and footballer Wayne Rooney, it can begin as young as 17 or 18.

But, for most men, baldness begins in the late 20s or early 30s. By the age of 40, a large percentage have said goodbye to the thick, lustrous locks of their youth.

For those happy to go through life looking like Phil Mitchell, William Hague - or for the lucky few - Bruce Willis, it’s no big deal.

But for many others, baldness can become an obsession, as actor James Nesbitt admitted last week.

Publish Post

After years of battling his thinning pate, he finally had two follicular unit transplants, which replaced much of the lost hair. ‘They’ve changed my life,’ he says. ‘It’s horrible going bald. Anyone who says it isn’t is lying.’


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