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.
