Botulinum Toxin Type A can get into your head.  Literally.  Researchers from Pisa, Italy have been injecting rats with Botulinum Toxin Type A and watching what occurs. The following results were a little surprising. 

 Botox stops the release of neurotransmitters from explicit 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 off those nerves. 

 In dermatology, we use botox to close off the nerves that workmuscles in your face, like your forehead and brow.  With those nerves blocked, you can’t contract the muscles, so they stay flat. Very much like your having wrinkles pants.  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 assumption that botox stays regionally in the skin.  They discovered that the botox injected into the rats followed the nerves back to the rodents brain, shutting offnerves there. 

 What does this mean? 

 This is a critical question.  The study was done in rats, not humans.  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, there’s no proof at all that it has any meaningful effect, bad.  For example, we all know that smoking kills brain cells and stops other cells from developing.  Does that mean that smokers or ex-smokers have any suggestive brain effects from their habit? 

 Botox is a superb and tough drug.  In treating wrinkles and fine lines, there are not many if any treatments short of aggressive surgery that may compare to the results that botox offers.  It is a drug and has side effects and has the potentiality to be misused and even abused.  Botox injections have been used safely in millions of people, but there are risks.  It is also dear and its effects are transient, so botox isn’t for everyone. 

 If you’re not ok with presuming hazards of botox, or your budget doesn’t allow for it, then think about this effective alternative : employ a night cream that contains tretinoin or retinol over the counter.  No facial cream is better at reducing fine lines than tretinoin. 

 Use an ice pack to help stop swelling and bruising at the injection sites.  Icing your face before and after the process can be helpful in this regard.  Your doctor should have cold packs available for you to use. 

 Plan to go back on a consistent basis.  Most Botox treatments last at least three months and some last as long as a year.  There will 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 a decade younger, don’t worry, it’s not brain damage, it’s just your face on botox.