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Yep, Filipino Prez Has Breast Implants, And Other Beauty And Skincare News

RealSelf's roundup of the latest news from the trades and papers:

1. Philippine President Gloria Arroyo had implants after all.

Call it Implant-gate: A spokesman for President Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines looked like a real boob over the weekend after admitting the Prez did have breast augmentation 20 years back, after initially saying she hadn't. Good news: She had lumps checked, and they're fine. [ABS-CBN]

2. Diabetes drug Actos could help psoriasis "significantly."

File under odd drug-fellows: Indian derms have found the diabetes drug Actos could lead to a 64% reduction in psoriasis severity when added to psoriasis treatment Soriatane. Dr. Sunil Dogra of Chandigarh, India, says Actos could be a "safer alternative" to other added-in therapies. [Skin and Allergy News] 

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Megan Fox Has Wonky Thumbs, And Other Beauty And Skincare News

A highly patriotic edition of RealSelf's roundup of the latest news in the trades and papers.

1. Megan Fox has freaky thumbs and Drew Barrymore hates her acne. 

Everyone's talking about Megan Fox's thumbs -- again, with that idiotic Transformers flick out. (The short-thumb condition is called brachydactyly.) But A-Line also runs down a whole litany of celebs and their "imperfections" (heavy air-quotes): Kate Hudson's modest decolletage, Shannen Doherty's "crooked face," Kim Kardashian's cellulite, and Christina Applegate's short legs. And you're welcome for the Fox shot. [A-Line]

2. Shocker: Americans getting fatter than ever.

A big new study tells us what any trip to the mall food court will tell you quickly: Americans are fat. Adult obesity went up in 23 states in the past year, and more worryingly, there are 30 states in which almost a third of the kids are obese, too. [LATimes]

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Gastric Bypass Safer Than Ever, And Other Beauty News

RealSelf's roundup of the latest news in the trades and papers:

1. Gastric bypass surgery goes BOLDly where it hasn't been before

Gastric bypass and gastric-band surgery for weight loss has become significantly safer in recent years -- it's no more risky than any other common abdominal or GI procedure. A new database -- the Bariatric Outcomes Longitudinal Database (BOLD) -- will keep track of patient info and outcomes. Good news: complication rates from bariatric procedures dropped 21% from 2002-06. [Time]

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Botox For Job Seekers, And Other Beauty And Skincare News

RealSelf's roundup of the latest skincare and beauty news in the trades and papers:

1. Looking for work? Try a little nip, a little tuck.

Yes, the job market is brutal, we know. So some Miami docs are doing their part to get people back on their horse -- in Dr. Jason Shapiro's case, by giving away 50 free procedures to needy job-seekers. Coral Gables derm Dr. Fredric Brandt says his out-of-work consider the cost "an investment" -- and 75 percent of plastic surgeons say they've treated patients who say they want work to get ahead in the workplace. [Miami Herald]

2. Gastric bypass offers hope to keep diabetes at bay.

A new study from the American Diabetes Association says over half of Type 2 diabetes patients (177 in all) who were "very obese" were diabetes-free eight years after having gastric-bypass surgery. Docs caution that the positive effects don't always last, and patients should have the procedure done early in the course of their disease. [NYTimes]

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Melanoma Stalking The Young, And Other Skincare And Beauty News

RealSelf's roundup of the latest skincare and beauty news from the trades and papers:

1. Melanoma gaining on twentysomethings

A growing number of young folks (defined here as people under 30) are getting melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, says the American Society of Dermatologic Surgeons (ASDS). It's already the second-most-common form of cancer in women 20-29. The usual suspects are to blame: Not enough sun protection and tanning beds. [STLToday]

2. Surgeons surge through the economic slog

Chicago-area surgeon Lawrence Martin, MD says his cosmetic surgery revenue is off by a whopping 50% but he's making up for it with more perioral procedures, aggressive marketing, and old-fashioned facetime with current patients. Interesting: Patients don't want to take off time for surgery for fear of losing jobs. [Plastic Surgery Practice]

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Could Botox Really Cure Baldness?

Curing baldness is just about the Holy Grail of the cosmetic universe -- and now Botox is the latest magic bullet, says a Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon. But this story is getting a mysteriously slender amount of play here in the US.

Dr. Simon Ourian says he's been testing Botox on his patients for three years, reports the UK's Telegraph, starting when he gave his mother injections for migraine headaches after chemo, which also made her hair fall out. When Dr. Ourian discovered the Botox was helping her hair grow back, he began trying out the technique on other patients.

"With my patients these Botox vitamin injections for baldness have been very safe and more effective than anything I have seen before," says Dr. Ourian. He has yet to publish a scientific study proving his findings.

Huge news, right? Oddly, it's been the foreign press picking up the story -- but barely a peep from US media, even though the original release went out back in February.

Have any of you tried Botox for hair loss with any success? Any doctors want to chime in on their own experiences?

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The Rise (and Fall) Of The Muffin Top

The rise

They might not admit it exactly, but Aussies brought the rest of the world the “muffin top." The Oz sitcom "Kath and Kim" is cited as the source of the term that now refers to the roll of fat that overflows out of the top of low-cut or too-tight jeans (and recently, shoe overflow!)

Many years later, muffin top is climbing the charts for Google trends, with oddly, Boston named the leading city for “muffin top” searches.

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Botox Vanquishes Acne, And Other Beauty News

Here's (our first!) RealSelf news round-up from the trades and papers:

1. Botoxing acne

A Chicago plastic surgeon, Anil R. Shah, MD, says he's getting great results using Botox to treat tough acne cases. But Dr. Shah is only recommending the Bo' for patients older than 20, and says it's a "technically difficult" procedure. Next up: Botox eases worldwide nuclear weapon proliferation and induces men to put the toilet seat up consistently. [Aesthetic Medicine News]

2. Skin cancer epidemic: Don't blame the potatoes

Idaho has one of the highest rates of serious skin cancer in the country. Why? One local derm, James Stewart, MD, says the outdoor living, scarcity of docs, and preponderance of Caucasians are partly to blame. [Idaho Statesman]

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Accutane Yanked For Good, Says Roche

A controversial era in acne treatment is over: Roche says it is taking extensively-used severe acne treatment Accutane off the market after almost three decades.

The company -- in its own statement, according to Bloomberg -- makes it sound like they're yanking it because its generic competitors are making it a financial loser, and though its market share is now below five percent, Roche has also had to shell out over $33 million in damages to former Accutane patients who have complained of inflammatory bowel disease from taking the drug.

Meanwhile, generic competitors like Sotret will stay on the market, and dermatologist Neil S. Goldberg, M.D., of Bronxville, NY, tells Global Medical News isotretinoin is still "a miracle drug" for acne.

Have you used Accutane? And will you continue now that its manufacturer is pulling it off the market? And will doctors continue to prescribe isotretinoin despite its many side effects?

More on RealSelf

• RealSelf users say Accutane has helped them more than 75% of the time.
• Have I become dependent on Accutane? Our doctors weigh in.

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Hairy Black Tongue? Maybe It's The Skin Condition Meds

You're about to read just about the best lead sentence in a medical trade mag -- in any mag, for that matter -- we've ever seen:

Bent penis, black hairy tongue, ear ringing, nightmares and psoriasis are just some of the rare side effects of drugs commonly prescribed by dermatologists and other physicians.

So says Dermatology Times, which got this tremendous bit of scoop from dermatologist Jerome Z. Litt, M.D., of Beachwood, Ohio.

Litt's been writing and updating the Drug Eruption Reference Manual for the past 15 years, and he's compiled some of the more bizarre (and disturbing) side effects of taking derm drugs in a new book, Curious, Odd, Rare, and Abnormal Reactions to Medications.

Most of the freaky reactions described in Dr. Litt's book emanate (on rare occasions, we must stress) from antibiotics, methotrexate, and other powerful drugs prescribed for skin conditions.

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