Recent reports caution about the
increasing use of Botox – the drug that erases wrinkles and treats muscular
disorders. The treatment so far was considered relatively harmless and
temporary solution to ailments real and imagined.
However, the latest feature article
in The Guardian by Alison Moodie reports about the new study in the University of Wisconsin-Madison that has
raised fresh doubts about how Botox works in the body. Contrary to notions that
it stays put at the injection site, researchers found evidence from animal
tests that the drug was in fact able to move between nerve cells.
This is not the first sign of
concern about Botox procedure. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had a
safety warning issued in 2009, that said the toxin “may spread from the area of
injection to produce symptoms of botulism”, including muscle weakness and
difficulty breathing that can occur hours or weeks after an injection.
Earlier in 2002, the FDA approved
the drug to be used cosmetically to minimize facial wrinkles, primarily the
vertical lines between the eyebrows. Meanwhile, Botox sales, a little over $
300 million in 2001, jumped to $ 1.9 billion last year.
The Wisconsin study set out to test
whether the toxin remains in the injected area, or whether it has the ability
to travel. The researchers looked at two strains of botulinum toxin. Using
mouse neurons, they showed that the toxin molecules were able to move between
different nerve cells in a lab dish.
“Once these toxins enter a neuron, a
fraction of the toxin acts within that neuron, but another fraction is able to
move – from the first neuron – into connected neurons,” said senior author
Edwin Chapman, an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and
professor of neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “In other
words, these toxins do in fact move about among connected networks of neurons.”
Dealing with most of the skin
disorders with natural procedures, Herbally Radiant has been highlighting the
potential health risks from surgical procedures like Botox injections and injecting
dermal fillers. The only difference is that while such surgical procedures are
expected to show instant results, the herbal natural skin care products need
time to work on skin. But, unlike the
temporary results from Botox or dermal filler, the organic ingredients in the
natural products create more durable effects that add to the overall beauty and
general appearance.
Another adverse reaction
conveyed by a mature customer on frequent Botox treatment was that “being
unable to move your face emphatically, as you listen to someone speak, reduces
feelings of connection. In essence, numbing your face very likely numbs your
emotions: Botoxed subjects show less brain-scan activity in key emotional
regions … All in the quest for a
youthful face for others to gaze upon! And then what? Confronted with a
motionless face, one that expresses nothing as we speak to its owner, we humans
feel confounded, disconnected, and distressed.” Well, this view is not without substance.
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