Botox can get into your head. Literally. Analysts from Pisa, Italy have been injecting rodents with Botulinum Toxin Type A and watching what happens. The following results were a little surprising.
Botox stops the release of neurotransmitters from specific nerves. When it is released into the skin, it is taken up by the nerves, and over time stops the release of neurotransmitters, shutting down those nerves.
In dermatology, we use botox to close 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 shorts. While you are standing, the pants hang loosely and are smooth. When you sit, your thighs and hips wrinkle the material, forming creases or wrinkles. In the same way, when your facial muscles contract, they crunch up, creasing the skin and forming wrinkles.
So what about the botox?
Results from this Italian study refute the belief that botox stays locally in the skin. 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 focusedin rats, not folk. We do not know if it might do the same thing in people even if some Botulinum Toxin Type A did get into the brain, thereis not any proof at all that it has any meaningful effect, bad. For example, we know that smoking kills brain cells and stops other cells from developing. Does that imply that smokers or ex-smokers have any meaningful brain effects from their habit?
Botox is a superb and powerful drug. In treating wrinkles and fine lines, there are just a few if any treatments short of aggressive surgery that may compare to the results that botox offers. It is , however , a drug and has complications and has the potential to be misused and even abused. Botox has been used safely in millions of men and women, but there are hazards. It’s also dear and its effects are transient, so botox isnot for everyone.
If you’re not happy with assuming risks of botox, or your budget doesn’t allow for it, then consider this viable alternative : employ a night cream that contains tretinoin or ROC. No facial cream is better at reducing fine lines than tretinoin.
If you recently had botox and look in the mirror one morning and think that you’re ten years younger, don’t worry, it’s not brain damage, it’s just your face on botox.