{"id":11990,"date":"2024-08-28T19:28:56","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T19:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=11990"},"modified":"2024-08-28T20:26:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T20:26:54","slug":"alastair-carruthers-79-dies-pioneered-the-cosmetic-use-of-botox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=11990","title":{"rendered":"Alastair Carruthers, 79, Dies; Pioneered the Cosmetic Use of Botox"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With his wife, Dr. Jean Carruthers, he conducted hundreds of studies on the wrinkle-erasing properties of the neurotoxin that causes botulism. The work revolutionized beauty care.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPretty Poison,\u201d newspapers called it in the mid-1990s, when the deadly neurotoxin that causes botulism began to make headlines as a temporary wrinkle-eraser.<\/p>\n

Botulinum toxin was 100 times more virulent than cyanide. For years beginning in World War II, the Defense Department had hoped to develop it as a chemical weapon. But decades later, when Dr. Alan Scott, an ophthalmologist, refined it into a pharmaceutical after discovering its potential to cure conditions like strabismus (crossed eyes) and blepharospasm (involuntary eyelid twitching and clenching), an unlikely byproduct of his treatments was cosmetic: brows as smooth as a child\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Yet it was not Dr. Scott who pioneered Botox, as it would later be called, as a panacea for aging. It was Dr. Alastair Carruthers, a Canadian dermatologist, and his wife, Dr. Jean Carruthers<\/a>, an ophthalmologist, who joined forces to investigate its cosmetic use in hundreds of peer-reviewed studies.<\/p>\n

While Dr. Scott would come to be known as the \u201cFather of Botox,\u201d the Carrutherses were considered its godparents. Dr. Alastair Carruthers died on Aug. 19 at his home in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was 79.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Dr. Carruthers, who had advanced Parkinson\u2019s disease, died with the help of Canada\u2019s medical assistance in dying law, his wife said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Dr. Carruthers, right, with Dr. Alan Scott and his wife, Ruth Scott, in 2009. Dr. Scott, who first refined the botulinum toxin into a pharmaceutical, was known as the \u201cFather of Botox.\u201d<\/span>via Carruthers family<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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With his wife, Dr. Jean Carruthers, he conducted hundreds of studies on the wrinkle-erasing properties of the neurotoxin that causes botulism. The work revolutionized beauty care.\u201cPretty Poison,\u201d newspapers called it in the mid-1990s, when the deadly neurotoxin that causes botulism began to make headlines as a temporary wrinkle-eraser.Botulinum toxin was 100 times more virulent than cyanide. For years beginning in World War II, the Defense Department had hoped to develop it as a chemical weapon. But decades later, when Dr. Alan Scott, an ophthalmologist, refined it into a pharmaceutical after discovering its potential to cure conditions like strabismus (crossed eyes) and blepharospasm (involuntary eyelid twitching and clenching), an unlikely byproduct of his treatments was cosmetic: brows as smooth as a child\u2019s.Yet it was not Dr. Scott who pioneered Botox, as it would later be called, as a panacea for aging. It was Dr. Alastair Carruthers, a Canadian dermatologist, and his wife, Dr. Jean Carruthers, an ophthalmologist, who joined forces to investigate its cosmetic use in hundreds of peer-reviewed studies.While Dr. Scott would come to be known as the \u201cFather of Botox,\u201d the Carrutherses were considered its godparents. Dr. Alastair Carruthers died on Aug. 19 at his home in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was 79.Dr. Carruthers, who had advanced Parkinson\u2019s disease, died with the help of Canada\u2019s medical assistance in dying law, his wife said.Dr. Carruthers, right, with Dr. Alan Scott and his wife, Ruth Scott, in 2009. Dr. Scott, who first refined the botulinum toxin into a pharmaceutical, was known as the \u201cFather of Botox.\u201dvia Carruthers familyWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11992,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11990"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11993,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11990\/revisions\/11993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}