Botox can get into your skull. Literally. Researchers from Pisa, Italy have been injecting rats with Botulinum Toxin Type A and watching what happens. The following results were a little surprising.
Botox injection blocks the release of neurotransmitters from precise nerve endings. When it is injected into the skin, it is taken up by the nerves, and over time blocks the release of neurotransmitters, shutting off those nerves.
In dermatology, we use botox to shut off the nerves that workmuscles in your face, like your forehead and brow. With those nerves off, you can’t 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 crinkle 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 idea that botox stays domestically in the skin. They revealed that the botox injected into the rodenst followed the nerves back to the rodents brain, shutting downnerves there.
What does this mean?
This is a important question. The study was donein rats, not folk. We do not know if it would do the same thing in people even if some Botulinum Toxin Type A did get into the brain, there is no evidence 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 suggest that smokers or ex-smokers have any pointed brain effects from their habit?
Botox is a superb and robust drug. In treating wrinkles and fine lines, there are not many if any treatments short of invasive surgery that will compare to the results that botox offers. It is , however , a drug and has side-effects and has the capability to be misused and even abused. Botox has been used safely in thousands of people, but there are risks . It’s also costly and its effects are temporary, so botox isnot for everyone.
If you’re not ok with assuming hazards of botox, or your budget doesn’t allow for it, then think about this viable alternative : employ a night cream that contains prescription Renova 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.
