The United States of plastic surgery: Americans spent $11 billion last year on face lifts, Botox, breast augmentations

Thursday, May 02, 2013 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: plastic surgery, breast augmentation, Botox

(NaturalNews) The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) recently released its 2012 Plastic Surgery Statistics Report and the findings are truly astounding. According to the latest available data, Americans and people living in America collectively spent a whopping $11 billion last year on face lifts, Botox injections, breast augmentations and various other purely aesthetic - and technically unnecessary - cosmetic procedures.

The non-profit organization, which supports the interests of the plastic surgery industry, says that in 2012 Americans underwent 1.6 million cosmetic surgeries last year, and these included procedures like face lifts, liposuction, and rhinoplasty, which is also known more familiarly as a nose job. Beyond this, there were an additional 13 million minimally invasive procedures that also took place, including things like Botox injections and dermal fillers.

For the seventh year in a row, breast augmentation was the most popular type of cosmetic surgery performed, according to the ASPS report, with 286,000 operations having taken place. There were also a record-high number of Botox treatments administered, according to the report - a staggering 6.1 million injections of the neurotoxin Botulinum were delivered into the foreheads and in between the eyes of primarily women, all for the purpose of enhancing skin and eye appearance.

Estrogenic world leading many misshapen men to also get plastic surgery

An increasing number of men are also getting plastic surgeries, according to ASPS, and particularly in their chest areas. High levels of estrogen in the environment and food supply as well as sedentary lifestyles have caused many men to develop breasts, for which some of them have opted to receive chest reduction surgery. Every age category of men saw an increase in plastic surgery procedures for a collective total of 1.3 million in 2012.

The cosmetic procedure that saw the most growth overall, however, was brachioplasty, a surgery that involves removing excess skin from the back of the arm. Primarily women with flabby arms are opting for the procedure rather than toning their arms through exercise and proper diet - according to the latest figures, brachioplasty surgery has increased in popularity by 4,378 percent since the year 2000. Back in 2000, only 300 women received the procedure, while 15,457 got it in 2012.

"We are genetically programmed to have different accumulations of fat in different areas, and for some women the arms can be a problem area," says Dr. David Reath, chair of the ASPS Public Education Committee and plastic surgeon. The only major problem with the surgery, he adds, is that it can leave a visible scar on some women.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.plasticsurgery.org

http://www.latimes.com

http://news.discovery.com/human/life/upper-arm-lifts-130429.htm