Medicine makes you old!

I'm one of those people who avoid taking medicine if at all possible. My wife, meanwhile, is a pharmacist and encourages me to take pills and potions on all possible occasions. So you can imagine that this subject is a source of stress at home!

What about others? Take the French for example. A typical patient will feel positively cheated if he/she leaves a doctors surgery without 5 different prescription medicines. No wonder the French store medicines in cabinets in the kitchen rather than first aid boxes in the bathroom!
Now, I've always thought that people's views about medicine were limited to perceptions of efficacity and safety. But it turns out I was wrong. People link taking medicine with their age!

Advertising agency DDB recently surveyed consumers across 11 countries. They found, for example, that 77% of the Chinese feel that taking a medicine everyday makes you feel old. 70% of inhabitants of Singapore feel the same way. What they seem to be saying is that, if you have to take medicine, you must be near to death's door.

Other cultures take a different view. In the US, for example, only 39% link medicine to feeling old. On the contrary, 61% feel that taking a medicine everyday makes you feel healthy.

It would take an enormous effort to get beyond these statistics and read real meaning into them. Are the differences due to the respective health systems? The availability of different drugs and natural remedies? The breadth of preventative medicines? The cost structure?

Nevertheless, one thing is sure. Taking medicine is not neutral. Beyond the physiological effects, pill popping can have psychological impacts too. For some, taking drugs is a sign of age and decay. If you have one of these profiles, be careful about what you are taking and why. You may be inadvertently accelerating your descent into Old Brain thinking.

To Botox or not to Botox

"[I have a] moving layer of custard under the skin. Every morning I wake up not knowing how I am going to look". The words of a British woman who'd had an injectable water-based filler treatment under her skin to help her look younger.

Women today - and increasingly men - are under great pressure to retain their young looks. Celebrities are all at it - Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Aniston have all tried Botox, for example. Here's two photos of Kylie taken 20 year apart!

And, meanwhile, in a recession, who doesn't want to create an 'edge' that might just make a difference between a job and a park bench?

But what is the cost of going down this non-surgical cosmetic path? In money terms, around £2000 per year if you count both skin fillers and two sessions of Botox injections. And this for the next 20 years or more. But if it goes wrong, the cost can be greater - as the quote heading this post implies. So why do it?

Talking to people who use Botox, it isn't just about rolling back the years. It's about staying relevant and having people take you seriously. And yes, it's about keeping up with the Hollywood set.

But money and accidents apart, there are two very serious things to consider before Botox. Firstly, will you really achieve what you set out to achieve? Just as facelifts were obvious - and, let's face it, ugly - so the 'new face' physionomy of the Botox injector also gives a 'fake' look. For example, a lighting expert in the theatre recently complained "there's no way to light them so that they don't look hideous".

Secondly, what is the point looking beautifully young if the minute you open your mouth you betray yourself as a frumpy, grumpy old timer? You see, the truth is, that no matter how young we look, if we have an 'Old Brain' in our heads, we will live saggy, uninspiring and limited lives.

So, if Botox is your thing, I say, why not? The arguments for and against are well captured in this recent article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/07/kira-cochrane-celebrities-ageing . If you still feel confident to go through with it, take the plunge. But, whether you Botox or not, think also about rejuventating your mind. Give your thoughts a 'facelift' and see where they take you.