An impossible shot

A Botox injection directly into your stomach is no substitute for sensible weight loss

Botox injections in to the stomach that are putting patients’ lives at risk are being offered by doctors in the UAE despite it not being approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Getty Images

For the squeamish, the thought of Botox injections – in which toxin is injected into the face to numb muscles and stop wrinkles – can be daunting and only for the extremely vain. To contemplate taking that same injection but instead applying it internally, to the walls of the stomach, could be enough to void the stomach in advance.

Yet that is a weight-loss procedure that has appeared in the UAE. The Botox stops the stomach stretching and makes the patient feel full. But, as we reported, doctors have warned patients that they could be putting their lives in danger.

Such unusual procedures are, of course, popular with those who desperately want to lose weight and feel they have tried other options. But the mere idea of some procedures is dangerous: they inculcate the idea that there is some magic solution to weight loss, delaying action on the part of those who are severely overweight. In the end, there is no magic shot: freezing your stomach but continuing to eat as you ate before is no recipe for weight loss.