Can Botulism Toxin Dangerously Affect Your Brain
September 11, 2009
Botox can get into your brain. Literally. Analysts from Pisa, Italy have been injecting rats with Botulinum Toxin Type A and watching what happens. The following results were a little surprising.
Botox treatment blocks the release of neurotransmitters from specific nerves. When it is injected into the skin, it is taken up by the nerves, and over time blocks the release of neurotransmitters, shutting down those nerves.
In dermatology, we use botox to shut off the nerves that control muscles in your face, like your forehead and brow. With those nerves off, you cannot contract the muscles, so they stay flat. It is analogous to having wrinkles in your pants. While you are upright, the pants hang loosely and are smooth. When you sit, your thighs and hips crinkle the material, forming creases or wrinkles. In the same way, when your facial muscles contract, they bunch up, creasing the skin and forming wrinkles.
So what about the botox?
Results from this Italian study refute the idea that botox stays locally in the epidermis. They revealed that the botox injected into the rodenst followed the nerves back to the rat’s brain, shutting downnerves there.
What does this mean?
This is a important question. The study was donein rats, not folk. We don’t know if it might do the same thing in people even if some Botulinum Toxin Type A did get into the brain, there’s no evidence at all that it has any meaningful effect, bad or good. As an example, we all know that smoking kills brain cells and stops other cells from developing. Does that imply that smokers or ex-smokers have any pointed brain effects from their habit?
Botox is a wonderful and powerful drug. In treating wrinkles and fine lines, there are just a few if any treatments short of intrusive surgery that may compare to the results that botox offers. It is , however , a drug and has side-effects and has the potential to be misused and even abused. Botox has been used safely in thousands of people, but there are risks . It is also dear and its effects are temporary, so botox isnot for everyone.
If you are not ok with assuming hazards of botox, or your budget doesn’t allow for it, then consider this viable alternative : employ a night cream that contains Tazorac or retinol over the counter. No facial cream is more effective at reducing fine lines than tretinoin.
If you recently had botox and look in the mirror one morning and think that you are 10 years younger, don’t worry, it’s not brain damage, it’s just your face on botox.
