Botox isn’t just a beauty treatment. A new study has found the use of the active ingredient in Botox is an effective treatment for urinary incontinence, which strikes as many as 1 in 5 people over 40 years old.
The four-year study -- published in the journal European Urology by University of Leicester researchers -- found botulinum toxin helped relieve the symptoms in 240 women with severe cases of overactive bladder problems that did not respond to two different drug treatments.
Researchers found even a single treatment with Botox to be effective, lessening the women’s feelings of urgency to rush to the bathroom.
"In patients treated with botulinum toxin the times of urgency dropped from six a day to less than one a day,” said lead researcher Dr. Douglas Tincello. “Most excitingly, about 4 in 10 women become completely continent again after six weeks and a third were still continent again six months after treatment. The effects to start to wear off after about six months or so.”