We live in a culture that is obsessed with looking young and beautiful. As women and celebrities age they feel the need to maintain their youthful appearance to live up to the standards of our society. In our youth crazed society, millions of people try to get rid of their wrinkles through the use of Botox cosmetics every year. Since Botox as been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, its use as a wrinkle reducer had grown exponentially. The age of women seeking Botox injections is decreasing and tabloid headlines often read something along the lines of " Ashlee Simpson is getting Botox at 23!" In 2003, doctors administered nearly 3 million Botox injections, making it the most frequently used cosmetic procedure. Despite the fact that the use of Botox is increasing every year, most people are not aware of how it affects the body and what side effects is may have. .
Botox was first discovered by Dr. Justinus Kerner in the 1820's. Dr. Kerner studied a batch of spoiled blood sausages that resulted in the death of dozens of Germans. He found that there was something in the spoiled sausages that brought on the disease that killed so many people. He called the disease "wurstgift", the German word for sausage poison. Dr. Kerner's experiments led to a better understanding of the neurological symptoms of food-borne botulism. From his research he was able to determine for the treatment and prevention of food poisoning. In the 1890's Dr. Emile Pierre van Ermengem investigated an outbreak of botulism after three people died and 23 were paralyzed at a funeral dinner. Dr.Van Ermengem, found a spore-forming bacterium he named Bacillus botulinus that lead to food born botulism. Multiple studies ensued and seven strains of botulinum toxin were identified. Each strain was named by a letter A through G respectively. It was found that four of these strains, A, B, E, and F, cause illness in humans.
