The mechanism of action of the cosmetic treatment that is gaining popularity may be known, but its long-term consequences are less known
At the gym where I work out, I sometimes meet women and men whose faces look smooth but are slightly swollen. A quick inquiry reveals that they have received botox injections, usually around the lips or eyes. In the US, the incidence of Botox injections has increased by almost 600% since 2000, and last year there were approximately 5.4 million treatments. In view of the enormous popularity of these treatments, I think it is important that people understand the mechanism of action of Botox, and its short-term and long-term risks.
Botox is a commercial name for the toxin of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which is responsible for botulism poisoning, a rare poisoning that causes severe disruption of the nervous system and may lead to paralysis of the respiratory and skeletal muscles. Botulinum toxin is the strongest toxin in nature produced by bacteria. One gram can kill millions of people. Botox has been used as a medical treatment for many years, but in recent years, one of its most popular uses is to eliminate age wrinkles. Wrinkles in the face are caused by three main reasons: two are related to skin changes and the third is muscle contraction. The Botox toxin only affects muscle contraction, because it causes temporary paralysis of the facial muscles in the injection area. Since the muscle contraction also contracts the skin, the paralysis causes the muscles to relax and the skin to become taut.
When Botox is used for cosmetic purposes, the most common side effect is temporary eyelid droop (as mentioned, up to a few months) due to paralysis of the eyelid muscles. There may also be more serious side effects, but they are very rare. The question that is rarely addressed is what happens in the long term. To discuss the subject, the mechanism of activation of muscles by the nerves must first be described.
The nerve cell bodies that activate the muscles of the body are found in the spinal cord or the brain. To reach the muscles, the nerve cell sends out a long extension, known as an axon, which carries electrical information that ultimately activates the muscle cell. But the axon itself does not touch the muscle and there is a very thin gap, known as a synapse, between the axon membrane and the muscle membrane, so the electrical information does not pass directly to the muscle. Instead, the electric current passing through the axon causes the release of substances, called neurotransmitters, in the synapse area. These transmitters activate special receptors found in the muscle membrane, also in the synapse area. The connection of the transmitters with the receptors causes electrical changes that lead to the contraction of the muscle cell.
What happens when you cut the axon? The part of the axon that is not connected to the cell body degenerates, and as a result the release of transmitters in the synapse stops and the electrical activity of the muscle stops. This condition causes far-reaching changes in the muscle. For example, when the muscle feels a lack of electrical activity, it produces additional receptors, which are not concentrated in the synapse area but are spread throughout the muscle membrane. At the same time, nearby nerve cells sprout extensions that can wrongly innervate the muscle. Moreover, the muscle cells without innervation weaken and even degenerate.
Although the botox toxin does not cause the axon that innervates the muscle to be severed, it prevents the release of those transmitters in the synapse area, therefore preventing the generation of electrical signals in the muscle (but not in the axon). A strange and abnormal situation is thus created: the nerve continues to send electrical signals and does not degenerate, but the muscle is paralyzed. The muscle remains without electrical activity and therefore it produces excess receptors and these are spread over the surface of the muscle membrane. Besides this, foreign nerve cells may send sections and innervate the paralyzed muscle cells.
We know very little about the effects of repeated and prolonged Botox treatments. We do not know how these treatments affect chronic changes in the muscle cells, changes in the construction of proteins in the nerve cells, and changes in the brain. When using Botox for medical purposes there is no choice, but removing wrinkles in the face is not a necessary operation, and its price today is still unclear.
About the author
Yitzhak Ferns is a professor in the Department of Neurobiology of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the founder of the Israeli Association for Neuroscience and the founder of Belmonte Youth Labs in Jerusalem.
5 תגובות
"A reasonable person" is a definition that someone with a cynical sense of humor invented.
To this can be added a variety of "drinks" and the one who knows the ingredients in them can only be a chemist.
What ultimately determines what is suitable for our bodies is money, which has been replaced by the developed and advanced,
You are the leader of the pack.
Since the twentieth century, and at an increasingly severe level, hundreds and thousands of industrial processes, and dangerous substances, are in use and are, in a sober view, a large-scale experiment on humans. Botox is not the worst of them. Perhaps he can be given the most ridiculous title of them all.
I know many women who do botox treatments and it seems to me that it is a lost war, they buy the explanations of the treating doctors and do not delve into opposing opinions.
It has become a status symbol and it is a shame that articles like those in science are not published more prominently in the media along with the publication of the side effects such as allergic effects and all kinds of "bags" in the eyelids and the like.
Amazing, if only man knew how to channel all these wasted energies to a more useful purpose..
Unbelievable
I wonder what dozens of types of preparations, whose manufacturers advertise that they are contributions to the health of the skin, to its beauty, preventing its aging and eliminating wrinkles, really contribute or cause. In any case, it seems that caution was taken in this article, not to accuse, not to state clearly, in order to prevent lawsuits.