Like many of her friends, Randi Draperson was a happy housewife from Los Angeles, California. She played tennis and watched over her 2 boys during the day, and went out to nice restaurants at night.
She also liked to get Botox several times per year. In fact, she has been getting Botox for the past 10 years, and generally doesn’t skip an appointment.
“I like the way it makes me look and feel. I work out hard and watch what I eat, my face started to get wrinkled in my early 20s and I wasn’t having that. In this community you really need to keep up with the Jones’es”
But something started happening earlier this year.
“I would go in for a treatment, and they would have to use about 25-50% more Botox. I didn’t mind paying for it, but I was worried that it wasn’t working any more.
Despite that this is a billion dollar industry and millions use it each year, there are a small group of people who are immune to Botox and even more people who are becoming immune to it by building up a resistance to it.
Research shows that less than 5% of patients who get Botox do not respond to it whatsoever.
The Journal of Neural Transmission recently published a review that found that 1 out of 200 Botox patients had developed a resistance to Botox. What happens is white blood cells form in the body and the Botox stops working completely after time.
An official statement from Allergan about Botox immunity or resistance: “it’s possible, albeit rare’ to develop resistance, adding that the likelihood is higher in patients receiving larger doses for medical problems like muscle spasms or heavy sweating.”
This should be a huge wake up call for women getting massive amounts of Botox. You might want to consider moderation if you want to continue looking young.
“I’m a little upset, but looking for options” says Randi.
And there are options other than Botox, but most of them involve the same active ingredient.
We’ve seen many other cases of people becoming immune to Botox such as this case where a woman chats with her peers about it.
“I’ve had Botox done a few times now for migraines/headaches. The first 2 times it worked great. The third time it didn’t help as long. Now these last 2 times (including just yesterday), it hasn’t helped at all. I had to get trigger point injections a few weeks ago because there was no way I was going to last until now and my insurance will only cover it every 3 months. Because the last one really didn’t do much (I thought maybe it was a bad batch or – I had allowed a shadowing resident to give the injections – so I don’t know if she goofed or something), my doctor used even more in the front yesterday (again, I did let another resident give the injections). “
Only time will tell if there are other alternatives to Botox or if this is the end of the line for some housewives.
