Oh, Rats — Don’t Botox Your Brain
I’ve never been a big fan of botox (”Don’t Believe the Botox Hype”.) The “bo” part of the name stands for botulinium toxin A. That means it’s in the botulism family. I’m an even less of a fan of botulism. Why would you risk sticking botulism in your face? Hey, I’ve never understood why “American Idol” is so popular, and that’s popular, too. Besides smoothing out your face, botox was rumored in to help relieve chronic headaches (it doesn’t).
So, as a reminder — botox will not relieve your chronic headache or migraine. And, a recently released study shows that botox can sink into your brain.
As another reminder, your brain doesn’t need smoothing out. It really needs all of those wrinkles.
What About This New Study?
Sadly, the study was done on rats instead of people. I’ve never been bitten by a rat, but I have been bitten by people, so I am admittedly predjudiced about being pro-rat. They were botox injections into the whisker area (that’s gotta hurt!) Thtree days later, the rats were killed and their brains opened up, which showed traces of the botox in the brain tissue and brain stem (which makes you wonder what these scientists do for fun.)
This is a preliminary study, so nothing’s conclusive (except if you’re a rat in a medical lab, you’re screwed). There is a call for similar studies to be done on monkeys (oh, joy.)
Wouldn’t it be easier to not use just the damn botox in the first place?
Substitutions for Experimental Animals
Personally, I think we should stop all animal experimnentation. It’s expensive, it’s cruel and often doesn’t relate to what human bodies go through. What about all these criminals sitting on death row? What about that guy sitting for life at our expense who claimed to have something to do with 9/11? I say botox HIS whisker area and then dissect his brain three days later. We have all these prisoners who hate themselves and are a drain on society. Bu giving them a chance at medical becoming human lab rats, then they can feel that they are doing something quasi-heroic.
Surprisingly, I get a lot of strange looks when I bring this subject up.
But seriously, we could also do computer models and in vitro (in test tube) experiments instead of ripping open animals by the millions.
Remember — botox = death.
On that happy note, have a great weekend.
October 9th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
As someone who owns pet rats and is a vegetarian, I am in favor of animal testing.
People seem to forget that rats are very similar to humans physiologically. One of the only differences is that toxins which have no toxic effect on rats usually have a toxic effect on humans, because they are lacking certain metabolic functions or have additional natural defenses we lack (rats produce the antioxidant Vitamin C when under stress or oxidative stress). However, this is only seen in very rare cases.
If it weren’t for animal testing, there would be many facts we don’t know. For instance, we wouldn’t know that mercury, iron, aluminum, etc may play a role in the neurodegenerative process in Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, and dozens of others. We wouldn’t know that certain heavy metals are highly synergistic with one another, and also pesticides. We wouldn’t know the recent data that shows the plasticizer BPA is an endocrine disruptor, affecting hormone regulation and having associations with diabetes, early puberty, cancer, and so on. The list goes on and on and on.
The knowledge we gain from this will save countless lives, not only of humans, but also animals who aren’t exposed to environmental intoxicants when we curb pollution or exposure because of new, startling medical research.
However, we should substitute cell studies whenever possible, and spare these poor ratties. At the same time, cell studies, epidemiological studies, and so on have many shortcomings, and can only tell us so much.
An also, I’m a little bothered you’re advocating medical experimentation on prisoners. You’d fit well at Auschwitz.
October 9th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
One more thing, computer models are VERY flawed and inaccurate. Chemical companies advocate the use of these for this very fact, because they turn up no toxic effects and then can then use this data to say, “See! Such and such is not toxic! Quit worrying!” They’ve done this with certain pesticides, and also BPA, which we now know are toxic.