14 DAY TRIAL // According to a recent study authored by researchers with the University of Queensland, Botox, the potent toxin that some people use to smoothen their wrinkles, doesn’t always stay at the place of injection.
Instead, this toxin sometimes goes on a joyride through the body and can even make it all the way to the central nervous system, the brain included.
In a paper in the Journal of Neuroscience, the University of Queensland specialists detail how, in a series of laboratory experiments, they managed to visualize single Botox molecules traveling through nerves.
What’s more, the researchers say that they also witnessed the molecules working their way into cells. Unfortunately, they haven’t yet figured out how they did it.
The good news is that, for the time being at least, there is no evidence that having Botox reach the central nervous system can cause severe side effects that people should worry about.
Otherwise put, Botox is still safe to use, either to smoothen wrinkles or to treat medical conditions whose symptoms include overactive muscles and muscle spasticity.
“The discovery that some of the injected toxin can travel through our nerves is worrying, considering the extreme potency of the toxin,” said researcher Frederic Meunier.
“However, to this day no unwanted effect attributed to such transport has been reported, suggesting that Botox is safe to use,” the specialist went on to stress.
Apparently, the pathway that Botox uses to travel through the body is the same as the one employed by deadly viruses such as Rabies and West Nile.
Hence, scientists expect that by further studying how Botox behaves in the body they might be able to gain a better understanding of these viral diseases.