Does Botox Actually Affect Your Brain
Botulinum Toxin Type A can get into your skull. Literally. Scientists from Pisa, Italy have been injecting rodents with botox and watching what happens. The following results were a little surprising.
Botox 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 stops the release of neurotransmitters, shutting down those nerves.
In dermatology, we use botox treatments to close off the nerves that workmuscles in your face, like your forehead and brow. With those nerves blocked, you cannot contract the muscles, so they stay flat. Very much like your having wrinkles jeans. 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 head?
Results from this Italian study refute the belief that botox stays locally in the skin. They found that the botox injected into the rats followed the nerves back to the rat’s brain, shutting downnerves there.
What does this mean?
This is a important question. The study was done in rats, not actual users. We do not know if it might do the same thing in humans even if some Botulinum Toxin Type A did get into the brain, there’s no evidence at all that it has any meaningful effect, good or bad. For instance, 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 fabulous and tough drug. In treating wrinkles and fine lines, there are not many if any treatments short of intrusive surgery that will compare to the results that botox offers. It is a drug and has side-effects and has the potential to be misused and even abused. Botox injections have been used safely in thousands of people, but there are risks. It is also dear and its effects are non permanent, so botox is not for everyone.
If you’re not comfortable with assuming risks of botox, or your budget doesn’t allow for it, then think about this effective alternative : use a night cream that contains tretinoin or retinol over the counter. No facial cream is more effective at reducing fine lines than tretinoin.
Use an cold pack to help stop swelling and bruising at the injection sites. Topping your face before and after the process can be helpful in this regard. Your doctor should have icepacks available for you to use.
Plan to return on regularly. Most Botox treatments last at least a quarter of a year and some last so long as a year. There’ll be a point however , at which the toxin wears off and you’ll have to have the process repeated in order to maintain results.
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.
