Pharmaceutical Beauty
Currently, many women prefer using drugs to achieve beauty. However, clinical TCM practitioners emphasize: "All medicine carries toxicity—three parts harmful." Any medication has potential side effects on the body, including adverse effects on beauty. Especially some drugs cause greater damage to skin, hair, and physical appearance. Therefore, please avoid overuse or misuse of such medications.
Drugs Harmful to Hair: Thick, lustrous hair is a sign of good health. However, drugs like nitrogen mustard, melphalan, bleomycin, pipobroman, and procarbazine—especially various anticancer chemotherapy agents—can cause severe hair loss. Compounds containing thallium, arsenic, and sulfur also induce hair loss. When necessary, alternate between different drugs to minimize hair loss.
Drugs Harmful to Skin: Drug side effects are most visibly and quickly reflected on the skin. Drugs such as amodiaquine, nitrobenzene, quinine, chloroquine, sulfonamides, chlorine-containing compounds, and toxic substances like phosphine can make the face and entire skin turn yellow. Iodine can darken skin, while silver nitrate turns it blue-black. Many drugs directly trigger dermatitis or rashes—such as bromides and sulfonamides. Penicillin, penicillamine, quinidine, reserpine, and tetracycline can cause "drug-induced rashes," appearing as unsightly butterfly-shaped lesions on the face. Topical drugs affecting skin: Some medications cause skin pigmentation, especially hormone-containing ointments like cortisone cream and fluocinolone cream. For facial treatments, test first on the upper arm for several days to check for allergic or other adverse reactions, preventing potentially irreversible pigmentation.
Drugs Affecting Body Shape: Yeast tablets and insulin can cause obesity. Long-term use of propionate testosterone or methyltestosterone in women may hinder breast development, damaging body contour beauty. Conversely, prolonged use of estrogen, prolactin stimulants, or rifampicin in men may lead to gynecomastia. <Beauty>