Ever since hearing that one of my relatives and one of my Veggie Gal girlfriends use Botox to look young, I’ve wondered about the safety. I admit they look at least ten years younger, with flawless skin, but, are they ever going to get sick? After all, the same toxin, that we are cautioned about avoiding when canning food because it causes botulism is the same one that is used in Botox. I’ve expressed the concern to my VG girlfriend and she just said she wasn’t worried.

This podcast from Hilda LaBrada Gore, above, and linked here, features a crunchy mom, Megan McCue, who got very sick from using Botox. It wasn’t just a little bit sick, it was debilitating sickness.

Here’s more about Megan and her interview, copied and pasted from YouTube:

“Megan McCue is the author of Notox and Me Tox Pretty. And today she explains how that single treatment of Botox turned her life (and health) upside down. She goes over what happened to her–how she essentially became incapacitated, unable to work or care for her children, and how her doctor dismissed her concerns, suggesting she was simply anxious. Megan goes over the history of this product, its black box warnings, its prevalent use among young people and why she is an outspoken advocate for informed consent and pharmaceutical transparency. Finally, she makes clear that the symptoms of botulism can last years, which is one of the many reasons she recommends we steer clear of it. For more information, visit Megan’s website: https://meganmccue.com Become a member of the Weston A. Price Foundation (https://www.westonaprice.org/why-join/) (and use the code pod10)”

She also has written her two books shown below to go in depth about the dangers of Botox.

So is Botox to be absolutely avoided? Only you can decide for yourself. Only you can decide what risk you want to take.

I was surprised to discover in the latest book by the Trim Healthy Mama sisters, Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett, that they use a Korean form of Botox. It’s the Trim Healthy Wisdom book, shown below. I bought it when it first came out and haven’t finished it. It’s a heavy tome, about three inches thick, almost 1000 pages! Pearl and Serene are known for their books on healthy eating. They promote a diet plan that recommends eating protein at every meal, and then either carbs or fat with the protein. They separate carbs from fat for weight loss to happen. They mostly recommend using whole foods so they have come to be known for promoting healthy eating. (I don’t consider their sugar replacements as “whole foods.” My review of their diet plan and how it worked for me is here.)

So when I heard that they use a form of Botox, I thought, “Wow, they are not as naturally crunchy mom as I would have thought.”

Here is the text copied and pasted from one of their podcast episodes where they share about how they keep the wrinkles at bay.

“Listener Question– “The sisters’ faces are looking lovely and smooth for their
mid-40s and 50s. Do the sisters use Botox?”

“Pearl and Serene– Do we use Botox? Not exactly. We use our own special South Korean form
of ‘tox’. Yes, it’s legal. We’ll be sharing exactly what we use and how we use it in our upcoming
book Trim Healthy Wisdom. But for now, we’ll explain that we do our own very diluted and
conservative tox injections at home and we’re not necessarily recommending others do it. But at
a certain age, we can tend to look frowny, sad, mad… and we don’t want to look that way.
Those 11s between the eyebrows and overused muscles in the forehead… the furrows take
over. We tried taping our foreheads for a time, because of the tension in our foreheads but that
didn’t give us a good result.

“There’s been a big DIY world around skin procedures since COVID. During the pandemic,
people couldn’t go and get the work that they wanted done. So, they started sharing videos from
professionals online and from those who had specific successful protocols. And we asked, “Why
can’t we do that?” So, we started to research and then we started to practice.

“A piece of advice… don’t ever just start jabbing your face! You’ll mess up! Be sure to follow
tutorials on how to do it correctly if you’re interested. The tox we use is very pure and there are
many dermatologists out there now who believe it is healthy and age-preventing for the skin. It
lasts for about 4 months and is not expensive. It helps keep the frowning, drooping, and lines at
a minimum.

“Several studies are showing that relaxing frown and worry lines with Botox can lower anxiety
and depression. One study is linked below (here) but we’ll share more of the pros and cons and
research in our book.
“We also do some other procedures such as red-light therapy and cosmetic microneedling on
our faces. One of the other main things that have helped our faces tone up is facial fitness
exercises. We’ll be posting videos of those in the future. The other important thing we have
done for our faces is use an Estriol/DHEA cream. We’ll have a lot more specifics in our
upcoming book Trim Healthy Wisdom.” (from the THM podcast transcript here)

You can watch the podcast in video form here.

Their book has come out since they made that podcast. You can buy it here. In the book the sisters have a whole chapter of resources for skin care, including a list of Facebook groups and YouTubers that teach how to use Korean Botox.

I’m OK with a few wrinkles I guess, but like the THM sisters, I don’t want my resting face to look angry with deep 11s. So I was getting somewhat interested in using their resources, until I heard the podcast with Mindy above. At the very end of it, Mindy says that the longer you use Botox the more you are creating a time bomb that will explode with health problems as the toxin accumulates. I also wonder who funded the study the THM sisters reference, the Botox manufacturer? I have to say, I am suspicious. I probably won’t ever do Botox, even the THM way.

Instead, I’ll stick with using my castor oil, as shown by the 50+ woman above and below. She says she is a holistic aesthetician. If any of you find out she’s a closet Botoxer please let me know. I’m not sure about how crunchy natural holistic that Vaseline is, which is one of the products she mentions above. I did have a neighbor when I was a young mom who swore by daily Vaseline use. She was in her 50s and had wonderful skin. It’s certainly cheap.

I do love what Mindy says at the very end of the interview that beauty from within is more important than beauty on the outside.